Korean American: S Is For Stew Chapter

Each month I’m highlighting a different non-Ina cookbook – these can be old favorites, classics I need to try, or new books I’m excited about. I’ll make at least one recipe from each chapter of the book to get an overall flavor of each. For the month of May, the book is Eric Kim’s Korean American. I hope you’ll cook along with me! The book is available for purchase here.

A Very Good Kimchi Jjigae

The name says it all! The spicy, bold-red stew packed with kimchi and slices of pork belly was one of the best versions I’ve had.

Book: Korean American, page 98
Rating: 5/5 
How Easy Is That: Easy
Store-Bought Is Fine: kimchi
Pricey Ingredients: —

Recipe is not online.

Budae Jjigae

This was a dish borne of food scarcity following the Korean War. It includes many of the leftover military rations like Spam, Vienna sausages, and American cheese slices – Ina would say it’s kimchi jjigae with the volume turned up! This hearty, savory, and spicy stew is bursting with flavor – the base sauce is a mixture of garlic, gochugaru, gochujang, soup soy sauce, and sugar, and the stew is packed with Korean radish, onions, Spam, an assortment of meat (I used hot dogs and Vienna sausages), bacon, napa cabbage kimchi, jalapenos, and scallions. To that, water is added and brought to a gentle boil for 15 to 20 mins until any raw meat is cooked through. The ramyun noodles are then added and cooked before being topped with a slice of American cheese and served with rice. It’s a pot of warm, soul-satisfying deliciousness!  The only thing I would change next time is opting for meat other than Vienna sausages – it was my first time having them and didn’t love the mushy texture.

Book: Korean American, page 102
Rating: 5/5 
How Easy Is That: Easy
Store-Bought Is Fine: ramyun noodles
Pricey Ingredients: The canned meats can add up

Recipe on Saveur.com

Doenjang Jjigae

Doenjang is a fermented soybean paste and the base of this jjigae. To make, onions and scallions are cooked with doenjang, water, and sesame oil before adding silken tofu and enoki mushrooms. Zucchini is added right before serving. The flavors were on point for this, but I still can’t claim I’m a very big fan of tofu – but I’m determined to keep cooking with it!

Book: Korean American, page 104
Rating: 4/5 
How Easy Is That: Easy
Store-Bought Is Fine: silken tofu
Pricey Ingredients: —

Recipe is not online

Seolleongtang Noodles with Scallion Gremolata

This is an afternoon project for sure as the milky beef bone stock simmers away for 3 to 3.5 hours. The velvety, beefy stock is then poured over somyeon (wheat noodles), and topped with thinly sliced brisket and a salty, delicious garlic/scallion gremolata. It’ll be my new go-to when I’d feeling under the weather! You do need 5 pounds of beef bones, but luckily the bones can be used multiple times!

Book: Korean American, page 117
Rating: 5/5 
How Easy Is That: Easy
Store-Bought Is Fine: somyeon
Pricey Ingredients: —

Recipe on TasteCooking.com