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.