In Korean, the traditional name for it is Budae Jjigae which is commonly known as army stew. And there’s a history behind the naming of it.
From Wikipedia,
Budae jjigae (Korean pronunciation: [pudɛ tɕ͈iɡɛ]; literally “army stew”) is a type of jjigae (a thick Korean soup similar to a Western stew). Soon after the Korean War, food was scarce in Seoul, South Korea. Some people made use of surplus foods from U.S. military bases around the Uijeongbu area, Pyeongtaek area (also called Songtan) or Munsan area, such as hot dogs, Spam, or ham, and incorporated them into a traditional spicy soup flavored with gochujang (red chili paste) and kimchi.
With the Korean fare’s popularity spreading like wild fire and with hotpot or steamboat choice being a very common option in gatherings nowadays, there’s no reason why you should not try out this Korean spicy steamboat ! After all, it combines both types of rapidly popularity growing cuisines today and best of it all, since it’s also a steamboat-alike affair, you can literally “do it as you desire”. Other than the soup base which you probably should not miss, the rest of the ingredients can entirely be based on your personal preferences and liking. It’s a delicious piece of soup that I could enjoy day in day out and I actually had the steamboat continuously for 2 days in a row, only to replenish the soup stock and ingredients when they ran out.
Here’s how my preparation of the Budae Jjgae comes about !
Now you can get most of the hotpot ingredients from PurelyFresh, including the mini cheese sausages, mushrooms, crabsticks, and even the SPAM. But most importantly would be the pork collar, which PurelyFresh would be glad to slice them according to your requirements at no additional charge.
And because this mini hotpot actually comes with a BBQ grill plate beneath it, I had all the leftover of the sliced pork collar BBQ-ed. They taste even more superb after BBQ as compared to the soup version !
Have fun preparing your Budae Jjgae too !! Most importantly, enjoy the end product of it to the fullest !!
*All ingredients for the hotpot are totally optional. While I tried to utilize as much as what I have in the fridge and pantry, it’s purely optional and you need not follow exactly the same.*
- some pork bones (for cooking the soup broth)
- 2 litre of water
- some mini cheese sausages
- some imitation crabsticks, halved
- some carrots, sliced
- some SPAM, diced
- some shitake mushrooms, sliced
- some button mushrooms
- some kimchi
- some cabbages
- 200g pork collar
- 4-5 stalks of spring onion, sectioned
- ½ onion, sliced
- 2 slices of cheddar cheese
- 1 piece of instant noodle
- For the pork marinade:
- 2 tbsp Korean hot chili paste
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- For the soup paste:
- 2 tbsp Korean hot chili paste
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp sweet rice vinegar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- Cook the soup broth with pork bones and allow it to simmer for at least 2 hours on low heat.
- Drain away the pork bones, reserving the broth.
- Marinate 200g of thinly sliced pork loin with the pork marinade. Mix all the marinade ingredients and allow it to stand for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.
- Prepare the soup paste by combining all of the ingredients. Add the soup paste to the pork broth and stir till all the paste are well dissolved.
- Slice / Cut the hotpot ingredients as desired and arranged them neatly in the hotpot. Add the spring onion and onion on top of the hotpot ingredients.
- Add the soup broth into the hotpot and cover it with a lid. Allow it to cook till the soup boils.
- Add instant noodles and cheese slices as desired. Enjoy !!!
