Dak Kal Guk-su (닭갈국수) Chicken Noodle Soup

Down a side alley in Busan's main shopping district, there's a row of gregarious old women squatting on short plastic stools, and serving noodles from a steaming vat of broth to hungry shoppers.  It's one of my favorite places to eat in all of Korea, and the ajumma's surprise at our skill with chopsticks, our tolerance for spicy foods, or our meager Korean skills makes me feel like I'm eating lunch with a proud aunt.  Though they also serve Jap-Chae (잡채), this is my favorite meal there.  Add the chives in at the end instead of salt.

So Good!

Ingredients: (2 servings)
1 whole chicken (~1kg or so)
1/2 Asian squash (ho-bak, 호박)
1/2 onion
1/4 carrot
3 shiitake mushrooms
1 handful (~80g) Asian Chives (부추)
Guk-su noodles for 2 people (~240g)
1/2 spoon soy sauce
pinch of salt and pepper



Chicken Broth:
1/2 onion
1 big leek
10 pieces whole garlic
1 piece ginger
3 spoons cheong-ju (청주)
1/2 small spoon peppercorns
3 liters water

Spices:
5 spoons soy sauce
1 spoon crushed chilies
1 spoon cheong-ju (청주)
1/2 spoon each: minced garlic, sesame oil, sesame salt
pinch of pepper





Steps:

1. Chill, clean the chicken.  Slice onion, squash, carrot, and mushrooms thinly.
2. In a pot, add the whole chicken and the broth ingredients.  Heat to a boil.  When it boils, turn to medium and simmer for ~1 hour.
3. When the chicken has cooked, remove, let it cool and tear into bite-sized strips.  Strain veggies from broth.
4. Mix spices with cut Asian Chives.  Let stand.
5. Heat the chicken broth from Step 3 to a light boil.  Add noodles and cook.
6. When the noodles are nearly done, add the chicken and vegetables from Step 1.  Boil a little.  Add soy sauce, salt, and pepper to taste.  Serve with chives on the side (mix it in for a little salty, a little spicy).

Notes:

- Ho-bak, the Korean squash, is a bit like a fat zucchini.  You can substitute in whatever squash-like vegetable you have, or skip it entirely.

Jae-yuk Bok-eum (제육 볶음) - Spicy Stir-fried Pork

This is one of our favorite meals that we've discovered here, and I was super excited to find a recipe.  You can make the marinade ahead, and chill the meat in the fridge for up to a day or so.  Enjoy!

Ingredients (Serves 4-5)
500g pork neck (or other pork)
1 onion, sliced thin
1 red chili (홍고추), sliced thin
2 green chilies (청양고추), sliced thin
1/2 big leek, sliced thin
1/2 spoon sesame oil
1/2 spoon sesame seeds
dash of vegetable oil for cooking

Sauce
4 spoons red pepper paste (고추장)
3 spoons apple or orange juice
2 spoons each: crushed red pepper, chopped garlic
1 spoon each: soy sauce, sugar, corn syrup, cheong ju (청주), du ban jang (두반장)
1 small spoon ginger powder
pinch of black pepper

Steps

1. Cut pork into strips 5cm wide.  Slice veggies.
2. Mix all sauce ingredients together.  Mix with meat and onions.  Chill ~2 hours.
3. Coat pan with vegetable oil.  Fry meat/sauce mixture.  When the meat is almost finished, add leeks, sesame oil, chilies and sesame seeds.  Cook a little bit longer.
4. Serve over rice

Notes:

- You can also add in whatever other veggies you want while the meat and onions are marinating.  I've made it with cabbage and mushrooms, but feel free to experiment.

- I also leave out the chilies sometimes, so don't feel bad if you can't or don't want to use them.

Dak Bokkeum Tang (닭볶음탕) - Spicy Chicken Stew

This dish is another one of our favorite dishes, and oddly enough one that's been a little difficult for us to find at restaurants.  They serve it at our school, and it's unbelievable, a little spicy, and a little sweet.  You might also see this dish written as 닭도리탕 (dak-dori tang).  ("Dori" is Japanese for chicken, so they're trying to phase it out.)

Ingredients: (4 servings)
A whole frying chicken (~750g or so)
3 big potatoes (~600g)
1 onion
1/2 carrot
1 red chili, sliced
2 green chilies, sliced
5 cups water

Cut the potatoes, carrots and onions big.  Cut the chilies small

Spices:
Mix together:
3 spoons crushed dried chilies
2 spoons each: red pepper paste (고추장), soy sauce
1 spoon each: corn syrup/honey, minced garlic
1/2 spoon each: sugar, ginger powder, sesame oil

Sugar, and spice, and everything nice

For cooking the chicken:
4 spoons cheong-ju (청주)
water to cover chicken

Steps:

1. Separate the chicken.  Cut the potatoes and carrots into big chunks.  Slice the chilies.
2. In a pot, cover the chicken with water, boil.  When the water starts to boil, add the 4 spoons cheong-ju.  Boil 3 minutes, until chicken starts to turn white.  Remove from water.
3. In a thick, flat-bottomed pot, add chicken to 5 cups water.  Boil.  When it starts to boil, add spices.
4. Once the broth has reduced by half, add potatoes and carrots.  Turn to medium heat and simmer until potatoes are mostly cooked.
5. When the potatoes are almost ready, add onions and chilies.  Boil over medium heat until onions are clear.
6. Serve with rice.

Notes:

- The recipe calls for a whole chicken, but chicken breast, or whatever parts of the chicken you prefer work just as well.  We also threw some big leeks in at the end, right before serving.

Gamja Tang (감자탕) - Hangover soup

This is probably my favorite dish in Korea.  There's a restaurant near my apartment that serves this stuff 24/7.  It's great for lunch, for dinner, for breakfast, before a night of drinking, at the end of a night of drinking, the morning after a night of drinking.  Anytime.  It's heavenly.  Granted, it takes a while to cook, but it seems easy enough.

Ingredients: (4 servings)
1kg pork spine
300-400g green cabbage
5 potatoes, peeled (~750g)
20 sesame leaves, torn big
1/2 big leek, sliced
1 red chili, sliced
1 green chili, sliced
3 spoons perilla powder or ground sesame seeds
pinch of salt

For the Broth:
1/2 big leek
1/2 onion
2 pieces ginger
1/2 cup soju (소주)
1 spoon doenjang (된장)
5 liters water

Spices:
4 spoons ground chilies
3 spoons each: minced garlic, chopped green chilies,
2 spoons each: shrimp sauce (새우젓), soy sauce, cheong ju (청주)
1/2 spoon ginger powder
pinch of pepper

Steps:

1. Soak spines in cold water 3-4 hours to remove blood.
2. Boil spines 10 mins in new water to remove fat.  Drain.
3. Add broth ingredients, spines to 5 liters water.  Cover and boil over medium heat for 3 hours.
4. Add spices to green cabbage.  Mix.
5. When spines separate, remove and discard leeks, onion and ginger.  Skim off excess fat.
6. Add potatoes and cabbage mixture.  Add sesame leaves, chilies, perilla powder.  Heat to boil.  Salt to taste.  Serve with rice.

Notes:

If you like the savory flavor of the perilla powder, add it just before serving the soup.

Jap-chae (잡채) - Stir-fried noodles

A great dish for Westerners, this noodle dish is a little sweet, a little savory.  This recipe makes a ton, so put it in some Tupperware and eat it all week.

Ingredients: (7-8 servings)
300g sweet potato noodles (당면)
250g beef butt
100-200g baby spinach
2/3 carrot
1 onion
6 shiitake mushrooms
100g wood ear mushrooms (목이버섯)
dash olive oil
pinch of salt and pepper

Beef Spices:
2 spoons soy sauce
1 spoon each sugar, cheong ju (청주)
1/2 spoon minced garlic
1 small spoon sesame oil
pinch of pepper

Spinach Spices:
1 small spoon each: salt, sesame oil
1/2 small spoon sugar

Mushroom Spices:
1 spoon soy sauce
1 small spoon each: sugar, chopped garlic, sesame oil

Noodle Spices:
5 spoons soy sauce
2 spoons sugar
1/2 spoon each: sesame oil, sesame seeds
pinch of pepper

For Tossing:
3 spoons each: soy sauce, sesame oil
2 spoons each: sugar, sesame seeds
pinch of pepper

Steps:

1. Cut thin the beef, onion, carrot, shiitake mushrooms.  Put wood ear mushrooms in a bit of warm water.
2. Mix beef, beef spices together.  Fry
3. Blanche spinach in slightly salted water.  Drain, rinse with cold water.  Mix with Spinach spices.
4. Blanche shiitake mushrooms.  Drain and mix with mushroom spices.
5. Add olive oil to a heated pan.  When hot, fry the onion, beef, carrot, and all mushrooms.  Let cool
6. Boil noodles 8-9 mins.  Rinse with cold water 2 or 3 times until cool.  In a pan, add noodles, noodle spices.  Saute until they're the color of soy sauce throughout.
7. Mix noodles with spinach, beef, mushrooms, Tossing ingredients.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Notes:

- I haven't made this dish yet, mostly because every time I think about making it, we have it for lunch at school.  Let me know how it goes!

- I imagine you can leave out the mushrooms, or substitute in others if you find shiitake and wood ear mushrooms difficult to find.

Yuk-gae Jang (육개장) - Beef soup

Now that the weather's getting colder, this spicy, savory soup is perfect for those chilly fall nights when you need something to warm you up from the inside out.

Ingredients: (4-5 servings)

300-400g of stewing beef

6 cups water

100-200g bracken fiddleheads (고사리)

100-200g mung bean sprouts (숙주)

2 big leeks

4 cloves garlic, whole

1/2 onion

2 spoons each: vegetable oil, chili oil (고추기름)

1 spoon each: soy sauce, salt, crushed red pepper, sesame oil

Marinade:

Mix together:

1 1/2 spoons crushed red pepper

1 spoon soy sauce

2 spoons minced garlic

1 spoon each: sesame oil, cheong ju (청주)

pinch of black pepper

Steps:

1. Put the beef in cold water for one hour to remove blood.  Drain.
2. Add meat, whole garlic and onion to 6 cups water.  Boil for 20 mins.
3. Remove meat from the water (keep the water!) and let it cool.  Tear the meat along the grain.  Mix with 1 spoon sesame oil, 1 spoon soy sauce and 1/3 spoon salt.
4. Cut vegetables into bite sized pieces  Briefly blanch, then rinse with cold water.  Add to meat with 1/2 of the spice mixture.  Let sit for a bit.
5. Bring broth from step 3 to a boil.  Add mixture from step 4 with the rest of the spice mixture.  Boil
6. Add hot pepper oil.  Boil.  Salt to taste.  Serve with rice.

Notes:

- This recipe is from my secondary cookbook, 국민 요리책.  My main book (오늘의 요리) also has a recipe for this soup, but I haven't translated it yet.  I'll post a link here when I do.

Bo Ssam (보쌈) - Boiled Pork

This is without a doubt one of my favorite meals in Korea.  Cooked correctly, the meat is moist, tender, and full of flavor.  It's also an excellent introduction to Korean cooking for the Western palate, since it's not spicy at all.  Delicious!

Ingredients (4 servings)
1 kg pork belly*

To boil with meat:
1 big leek
1/2 onion
8 cloves garlic (whole)
2 spoons doenjang (된장)
2 spoons sugar
7 spoons soju
1 small spoon whole black peppercorns
1 spoon coarse-grain salt

Steps:

1. Soak pork in cold water for 1 hour to remove blood.  Change water after 30 mins.
2. Put meat, boiling stuff into a big pot of cold water.  Heat on high until it starts to boil.  Turn to medium for 5 minutes.  Reduce to low, simmer for 50 minutes.
3. Meat is finished when you can poke it with a chopstick and no blood runs out.  Remove meat from the broth, let it cool, then slice it 0.4cm thick.
4. Serve by making wraps with lettuce, ssamjang, sliced garlic, and Bossam Kimchi.

Notes:
* If you want something a little less fatty, try the pork shoulder, or even the tenderloin.  Whatever you use, you want a whole slab of meat to boil.
- We also have made sandwiches with the sliced meat.  To be sure, when served this way, the dish is in no way Korean.

Ma Pa Dubu (마파두부) - Ma Pa Tofu

This is a great dish that we first ate at the local Chinese restaurant.  It's spicy, savory, and surprisingly good as leftovers.

Ingredients (4-5 servings)
200g firm tofu, cubed
150g ground pork
1/2 onion, diced

1 red chili (홍고추), sliced thin
2 green chilies (청양고추), sliced thin

2 small leeks, diced
3 spoons chili oil (고추 기름)
1 spoon minced garlic
a pinch each of salt and pepper
Thickener: mix 1 1/2 spoons of flour with 2 spoons of water

Meat Marinade
1/2 spoon soy sauce
1 spoon cheong ju (청주)
pinch of pepper

Sauce
Mix together:
2 spoons du ban jang (두반장)
2 spoons red pepper paste (고추장)
1 spoon sugar
1 spoon soy sauce
1 small spoon sesame oil
1 1/2 cups sardine broth

Steps

1. Boil salt, water.  Add tofu.  Cook slightly.  Drain and pat dry.
2. In a bowl, mix pork, meat marinade.  Let sit 30 mins.
3. Heat chili oil in a hot pan.  Fry garlic and onion.
4. When onions are transparent, add meat and chilis.  Fry.
5. When meat is cooked, add sauce, tofu, leeks.  Simmer
6. When simmering, slowly stir in the thickener, a little at a time until it has reached the desired consistency.
7. Serve over rice.

Notes:

- I use a powder packet for the sardine broth, but you can make your own by boiling a handful of dried sardines (멸치) and a 10cm square sheet of dried kelp (다시마) in 5 cups of water for 10-15 mins. Obviously, you'll remove the sardines and kelp before you use it.  I suppose one could also use a meat-based broth, though I haven't tried that yet.

- I also leave out the chilies sometimes, so don't feel bad if you can't or don't want to use them.