Budae jjigae (by G)

I don't really have any hobbies unless you count searching the internet for Korean recipes.  I came across this one a couple of months ago and have been keen to try it but kept forgetting to get a clay pot to cook it in. Eventually I decided that I could probably just cook it in a regular pot - which is what I ended up doing.

Budae jjigae apparently translates to Army Stew in Korean - though I've seen it referred to as Army Base Stew. The story goes that after the war in Korea food was scarce so the ingenious Koreans made a stew out of whatever leftover tinned foods they could scrounge from the US military.  It's pretty wacky.

I made a broth out of chicken stock, minced garlic, rice wine, sesame oil, fish sauce and a putrid chilli and fermented soy bean mix in oil from a jar. The recipe called for gochujang (Korean chilli soy paste) but I couldn't find any so this jar of awfulness was the best I could do. The smell of this stuff is so powerful that it nearly knocked me over when I opened the jar - I could feel it stripping the lining off the inside of my nose. It is probably the most putrid smell I've come across since venturing into a disgusting covered market in Siem Reap to track down a Khamer BBQ.

Needless to say, I used this chilli/soy bean mix judiciously.  After I had simmered the stock for about 1/2 an hour I also blitzed it with the stick blender to break down the chunks of chilli and whole soy beans.  Surprisingly the broth ended up with a fabulous flavour - from that point on I suspected dinner would not be too bad.

15 minutes before dinner time all I had to do is arrange some sliced onion, cubed spam, hotdog pieces, baked beans and sliced mushrooms in the bottom of another pot, pour over the broth and simmer for 10 minutes.  I did boil some instant ramen and put that into the bottom of the serving bowls before ladling the weird goodness on top and garnishing with some spring onion.  Though the recipe didn't call for it I also added a boiled egg.

If you make only one spam/hotdog stew in your lifetime I urge you to make this one - it really is something special.