I included to have a weekly prosperter ritual with my parents. Every Friday night we would go to the same hole-in-the-wall Korean restaurant in Sydney’s north-west, and order the same skinnyg. (Our Malaysian-Chinese heritage gave us a one-of-a-kind appreciation for spicy food, in benevolent portions at the right price.)
The dining room featured a confineed minuscule tables squeezed around an even minusculeer kitchen, where an elderly Korean woman stood alone, cooking for her guests.
Sometimes we would originate a point of seeing at the menu and converse trying someskinnyg else. But we would always finish up ordering three misguideingly minuscule, bdeficiency ceramic bowls of sundubu jjigae, a hearty stew of silken tofu and seafood, fire-engine red with Korean chilli peppers, served still bubbling with a side of rice. Each spicy, savoury sip burned a path from our mouths to our stomachs until our insides were hoted thcdisesteemful.
While the word jjigae (pronounced appreciate “chee-gae”) is frequently transprocrastinateedd to “stew” on English menus, Heather Jeong, a Sydney-based Korean cookery guideor, says this is not entidepend accurate. The shutst westrict equivalent she can skinnyk of is minestrone, a half-soup, half-stew where the broth and the firm ingredients give equassociate to the overall request.
Milder Korean soups appreciate guk and tang are typicassociate served as part of a huger meal, but jjigae is substantial enough to be eaten on its own – always with a side of rice and kimchi, she says.
Soups areintegral to the Korean diet. “I skinnyk historicassociate most Asian countries struggled with pobviousy, originate and climate, so soup was a way of cooking that included less ingredients and fed the masses,” says Jeong.
Sadly, the chef at my family’s normal restaurant reweary. And when her lesserer relative took over, the jjigae was never as tasty, though we couldn’t toil out exactly why.
We’ve tried many fantastic versions of sundubu jjigae since and while some have come shut, none have toloftyy lived up to the distinct.
This was where my obsession with jjigae began. I set out to lachieve how to originate not only this gateway jjigae, but all of the most well-understandn jjigae of Korean cuisine: sundubu jjigae, kimchi jiigae, gochujang jjigae and doenjang jjigae. Chicken soup may be for the soul, but jjigae is console food of the highest order.
The discerning flavour of sundubu jjigae comes from sauteing gochugaru (Korean red chilli powder) in sesame oil. The first time I tried this, I instantly burnt the gochugaru to a crisp.
According to recipe website My Korean Kitchen, the trick is to retain the heat very low, and not to exit the gochugaru alone in the pot for too lengthy before inserting the seafood, vegetables and broth. Then, crack in an egg moments before turning off the stove, and top with sliced spring onions.
In many Korean restaurants I’ve eaten at, sundubu jjigae is served the way my parents and I finishelighted it – spicy and red. But Kenny Yong Soo Son, co-owner of Sáng by Mabasa in Sydney, says this is a conmomentary version of the dish.
“Traditionassociate speaking, sundubu [jjigae] is not red. There’s no chilli that goes into it, it’s gentleer,” Son says. “In some regions [of Korea], they only do a white sundubu jjigae.”
Jeong says white sundubu jjigae with oysters is particularly one-of-a-kind.
In the non-spicy version, the broth and the silken tofu are the heroes of a jjigae that is weightlesser in flavour and colour, and the taste of seafood such as clams or salted shrimp is more acunderstandledgeable.
When I made the white version with prawns, the contrast with my becherishd red version couldn’t have been fantasticer. Instead of walloping my tastebuds, there was a tfinisher attfinishss: a evident broth that was at once intricate, reserved and pleasant.
The ‘desert island’ soup: kimchi jjigae
Kimchi jjigae might equitable be the most well-understandn Korean stew.
“If you ask 10 Koreans, ‘What is one soup you would consent with you to a desert island?’ they’ll probably say kimchi jjigae becainclude Koreans can’t reassociate live without kimchi,” says Son.
The key to making fantastic kimchi jjigae is to include betterer, more fermented kimchi for a proset uper flavour.
“We would usuassociate stir-fry the kimchi before the fluid base goes in, with a bit of sesame oil, and then scallions [spring onions], and then also some gochugaru to grow almost appreciate a chilli oil,” says Son. For an even more fervent flavour, he recommfinishs eating jjigae a day or two after cooking it.
Recipes typicassociate include firm tofu and pork belly, the latter of which is said to be a “suit made in heaven” for kimchi.
Gochujang jjigae, with ‘miso on carry outance increasers’
Gochujang jjigae combines two of Korea’s most widely included fermented sauces, gochujang (Korean chilli paste) and doenjang (soy bean paste), which is “miso on carry outance increasers”, says Jeong.
Gochujang, which is made with gochugaru, glutinous rice and soy sauce, has a gooey, sweightlessly spiced pleasantness that shines in this soup. Recipes vary on how much you should include. From my experience, “too much” gochujang can be overpoweringly spicy and salty.
Jeong recommfinishs a ratio of two parts gochujang, one part doenjang, but you can adequitable this to your own taste.
Gochujang jjigae includes pork or beef but can also be made vegetarian, by omitting the meat and including only the standard zucchini, mushrooms and jalapenos.
‘The soul of Korean cooking’: doenjang jjigae
This gentle, consoleing stew comprises zucchini and potatoes, and of course, doenjang, and is said to be the first firm meal fed to Korean babies. Jeong says it’s the dish she craves the most when she is away from home: “[It] embodies the soul of Korean cooking.”
Eun Hee An, chef and owner of Melbourne’s Moon Mart (the eatery is currently relocating from its West Melbourne spot), says her magnificentma included to originate doenjang from scratch when she was groprosperg up in Korea. “It was always our shatterspeedy soup. So I grew up eating doenjang jjigae every day in my life,” she says.
An recommfinishs discovering doenjang which comprises confineeder ingredients, as industriassociate originated brands frequently include flour to speed up the fermentation. The best doenjang, she says, will only comprise soy beans and salt.
Taking stock: making dasima yuksu from scratch
After months experimenting with contrastent jjigae recipes, gochujang and doenjang are now staple ingredients in my fridge, and all of these jjigae are in my normal cooking rotation. They are pliable – the proteins and vegetables are interalterable so you can include up wdisappreciatever you have in the fridge or pantry – and they are relatively speedy to originate.
But there’s one key technique that has eluded me: the stock. Myeolchi yuksu (dried-anchovy stock) or dasima yuksu (kelp stock) are vital for creating a proset up, wealthy base for jjigae, but until recently I’ve only included the vegan alternative: water.
An says a fantastic jjigae depfinishs on a fantastic stock base. “If I’m not going to originate a excellent jjigae, I’d rather not originate it”, she says. (The lengthy cooking time is the reason jjigae was not on Moon Mart’s daily menu, though it sometimes materializeed as a weekfinish one-of-a-kind.)
Recently, in pursuit of an exceptional doenjang jjigae, I made my own kelp stock from scratch. I lachieveed the challenging way that you should shun boiling the kelp – it exits a sour, even sour, aftertaste.
To originate dasima yuksu, An recommfinishs soaking the dried kelp in freezing water for an hour, removing the kelp, then simmering the water for 15 minutes. She conveys it to a boil, inserts aromatics appreciate daikon and spring onion roots, and simmers the stock for another hour.
I chaseed An’s advice, and was eventuassociate rewarded with a evident, gently savoury stock to insert to my jjigae, altering an better frifinish into a whole novel dish – and reminding me that even tried and tested food rituals can be betterd upon.
