Ever since I left Korea, I've had Korean food withdrawl. Really bad. I've tried to get this food at Korean restaurants in Calgary, but it's just not the same. You can see it's close, but not close enough. And it's expensive.

Yesterday Zatic said he was planning on making a dish he found a recipe for online - 순두부 찌개 (Sundubu Jjigae - Spicy tofu stew). It seemed like a good time as any to try cooking Korean food.

Here's the recipe: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/soondubu-jjigae
It's got a video showing you exactly what to do. Because of that, I'm not going to detail the recipe, just mention some things I noticed while making it and any substitutions I made.

In Calgary at least, you should get everything you can at a "real" supermarket. Get the stuff that's specifically Korean at an asian supermarket. Everything is so expensive at the Korean market that I would never buy something like peppers there.

Korean Market: 순두부/Sundubu (Tofu), 고추가루/Gochugaru (Hot pepper flakes), 김/Kim (Dried, toasted seaweed). Everything else I got at a normal supermarket. I'm pretty sure you are supposed to use 다시마/Dashima (Kelp) but kim is more versatile for me so I bought that.

I couldn't find dried anchovies that weren't in a 5 pound packet or something ridiculous. As such I substituted anchovie paste.

Here's the pics and description:

Here's all the shit you need. I've heard stupid people saying they don't need a rice cooker because they can just make rice on the stove. You are stupid. Buy a rice cooker. If I was a real Korean I would have a stone pot or something but I don't so I used a normal pot. The kimchi is just simple store-bought stuff and it's pretty decent.

Close up on the ingredients. Mushrooms are shitake, pepper is a jalapeno.

That brick of ice is a "seafood medley". This is pretty key as you don't wanna spend $20 buying all this fresh seafood. This just has random clams, squid, octopuss, etc. that will help add some base to your stew. I also got cooked (I'm lazy) shrimp and fresh pacific clams. The clams are a nice touch and I really recommend you buy just a few.

Here's the sauces you need. You should have sesame oil but I couldn't find it / it's not usefull to me so I subbed olive oil. Kimchi isn't necessary it's just a side.

Rice cooker. If you don't have one and eat rice more than twice a year you are stupid. Go get one.

I use Nori because all Japanese products are superior to their inferior Korean counterparts. Substitute Japanese products for Korean whenever possible, including women.

Okay, got the stock boiling. I was supposed to add the Nori now but I forgot. It's probably better since kelp is thick and takes time to develop flavour, while nori is thin and would probably fall apart if I left it too long.

Ok, at this point you're supposed to use a stone pot and add the broth later. Because I just wanted to use the same pot I moved the broth to a bowl and it was business as usual.

Ok, rice time. Put the rice in, wash it if you want (the more you wash it the stickier it will be). Put your hand in and put the water up to your knuckles. Done! I learned this from an Asian and you know they make good rice!

You are supposed to just put the mushrooms and pepper flakes in by themselves, but I was worried it would burn up since the heat was so high. In her recipe she had the fat from the beef to stop the flakes from burning. I didn't use beef because it has no place in sundubu jjigae (for reals!). So I ladelled in some broth to keep it from burning. The recipe calls for 2-5 tsp of pepper flakes. I used 2 tbsps (6 tsp) and it seemed genuine (which is pretty hot). Adjust for how spicey you like it, but the stew is supposed to be spicey.

Terrible picture but it's trying to show I put in the clams at this point because they need actual time to cook. Don't eat a clam that hasn't opened from the boiling heat, obviously. Kim/Nori went in now too.

When the clams opened, I dumped the rest of the seafood in.

Boil baby!

In goes the sundubu. Just dump it in and slice it up in the pot with a spoon. Doesn't need to be fancy.

At this point I realized I didn't have enough stuff in the stew so I added more seafood medley and extra shrimp. You should have ingredients bursting out of the broth. This is a stew, not a soup.

In goes the green stuff. I left the pepper seeds in to add to the spice. Adjust accordingly for what you like.

Crack an egg (or two if you have more than one serving) into the stew. There's two schools of though here: Stir and don't stir. I have always stirred the egg so I decided not to stir it. To be honest it didn't really change anything so if you don't care about presentation (you're not trying to impress a girl / TL nerds) just stir it.

Tada! The taste is actually very genuine. I always heard Koreans going "I'm so happy! ^_^" (yes the face was in the quote) when they got to taste genuine Korean food and I always thought it's fucking weird. Now I can understand.

Okay, when you get to this point where it's mostly broth left, dump your extra rice in! This soaks up the spice and tastes so good.

Like this!

The end result. If you didn't use something to blow your nose you didn't make it right.

micronesia

United States24775 Posts

January 31 2010 05:47 GMT

I'll be honest, I have no interest in making that food but I'm very impressed by the delivery here. Also, lol @ ring in food you are cooking :p

stanley_

United States816 Posts

January 31 2010 05:49 GMT

I'm gonna bookmark this for later : 0. Thanks!

iNcontroL

USA29055 Posts

January 31 2010 05:51 GMT

fuck that looks good.

nice job chill

You best go to blizzcon btw

kyzers0ze

Singapore1073 Posts

January 31 2010 05:53 GMT

On January 31 2010 14:42 Chill wrote:
Substitute Japanese products for Korean whenever possible, including women.

hahahahaha
nice step by step cooking anyway

Grobyc

Canada18410 Posts

January 31 2010 05:53 GMT

mmmm nom nom nom

I use Nori because all Japanese products are superior to their inferior Korean counterparts. Substitute Japanese products for Korean whenever possible, including women.

lol hahaha

..Slick...

United States202 Posts

January 31 2010 05:54 GMT

Interesting. I don't know shit about Korean food and I plan on learning too cook soon, because I heard girls like that. Sucks because at my age they don't tho lol. Anyways, I agree 100% that Japan pussy> Korean pussy

Deleted User 47542

1484 Posts

January 31 2010 05:58 GMT

Looks great! Soondubu is one of my korean favorites next to bibim nyeungmeun(spicy cold noodles) and ddekbookgi (spicy rice cakes).

mikeymoo

Canada7170 Posts

January 31 2010 05:58 GMT

Well this beats sliced hot dog in my hot pot ^^

HobbitGotGame

Canada178 Posts

January 31 2010 06:00 GMT

#10

Honestly, if you were interested in making any other Korean cuisine, you should invest in some proper ingredients, like dried anchovies (maelchi), dashima and sesame oil (chan girum)... Kim is nowhere near an acceptable substitute for Dashima, and for your claim that Japanese Nori is better than Kim... They have different flavours and textures and should be used for different things.

That being said, the textures and the flavours that each "seaweed" (Kim and Dashima) puts out are very different. I mean, the dashima is supposed to be a base for the broth, same with the dried anchovies. It's like the Korean equivalent to the mirepoix. Kim just kinda breaks up into a million little ugly black specks in a soup. It's good as a garnish for soups/stews but I would never, ever put them in as a base ingredient.

Olive oil? Instead of sesame oil? You must be insane; you might as well have just left out the oil. The flavour and aroma the sesame oil gives cannot be substituted for anything else. My mom used to extract her own sesame oil because it was something special.

What Korean market did you go to? Koreana or Arirang or what? I live in Calgary and I could probably show you how to make some legit Korean food.

Oh ya, and for the tofu... buy it cheaper from like, Superstore or Costco. I usually get the stuff in a blue package, I think the brand is sunrise or something.

Cambium

United States16368 Posts

January 31 2010 06:01 GMT

#11

On January 31 2010 14:42 Chill wrote:
Substitute Japanese products for Korean whenever possible, including women.

best line ever

littlechava

United States7221 Posts

January 31 2010 06:06 GMT

#12

the japanese vs korean thing is true except for ramen imo (but i dont have that much experience with it t.t)
gonna try this asap

hifriend

China7935 Posts

January 31 2010 06:09 GMT

#13

cooking with dancing man wearing a horse mask

edit: hm that looks really good actually!

Chef

10810 Posts

January 31 2010 06:09 GMT

#14

I want :O

Chill

Calgary25998 Posts

January 31 2010 06:11 GMT

#15

On January 31 2010 15:00 HobbitGotGame wrote:
That being said, the textures and the flavours that each "seaweed" (Kim and Dashima) puts out are very different. I mean, the dashima is supposed to be a base for the broth, same with the dried anchovies. It's like the Korean equivalent to the mirepoix. Kim just kinda breaks up into a million little ugly black specks in a soup. It's good as a garnish for soups/stews but I would never, ever put them in as a base ingredient.

Right, which is why I put it in at the end. I actually don't like the texture of kelp in soup so I'm happy taking it out

Olive oil? Instead of sesame oil? You must be insane; you might as well have just left out the oil. The flavour and aroma the sesame oil gives cannot be substituted for anything else. My mom used to extract her own sesame oil because it was something special.

I have no need for sesame oil as it's only really used in asian cuisine. I only used the oil to keep the mushrooms from burning when they were first put in the empty pot.

What Korean market did you go to? Koreana or Arirang or what? I live in Calgary and I could probably show you how to make some legit Korean food.

Arirang. Not sure what you mean by legit but okay.

Oh ya, and for the tofu... buy it cheaper from like, Superstore or Costco. I usually get the stuff in a blue package, I think the brand is sunrise or something.

Okay thanks I'll take a look for it next time. I don't plan on ever using it again unless I make this dish anyways though.

il0seonpurpose

Korea (South)5638 Posts

January 31 2010 06:18 GMT

#16

Looks sooo good, 5/5

infinity21

Canada6683 Posts

January 31 2010 06:21 GMT

#17

You would take some random japanese guy instead of me? :'(

btw, that looks delicious. You cook korean food better than me haha

leejas

United States440 Posts

January 31 2010 06:23 GMT

#18

I use Nori because all Japanese products are superior to their inferior Korean counterparts. Substitute Japanese products for Korean whenever possible, including women.