The "Ssamjang" Hack Jjigae
고깃집 된장찌개·(gogitjib doenjang jjigae)
Friday Night Jjigae: End-of-Week Comfort Stews
That green tub of supermarket ssamjang sitting in your fridge door is pure survival currency when Friday at 6:30 p.m. hits and you crave the bubbling, volcanic black stone pots of jjigae served at Korean BBQ joints. Let purists spend three years turning earthenware jars on a sunny roof; by combining standard doenjang with ssamjang and frying them in rendered beef fat, you kill the raw fermentation funk. Once the broth bubbles, kill the heat and bring the pot to the table.
Before you start
Save your rice water.
When making a pot of short-grain white rice to serve with the stew, discard the water from the first rinse, then save 2 cups of the milky water from the second or third rinse. This starchy liquid is non-negotiable for emulsifying the fat and giving the broth its body.
Ingredients
- fatty beef4 oz
- cooking oil1 tsp
- doenjang2 tbsp
- ssamjang1 tbsp
- gochugaru1/2 tbsp
- rice wash water2 cup
- Yukon gold potato1 small
- yellow onion1/2 med
- Korean zucchini1/2 med
- garlic1 clove
- jalapeño or serrano pepper1 med
- enoki mushrooms1/2 cup
- medium-firm tofu7 oz
- scallion1 med
Method
- 01
Render the fat from the beef.
Place a medium heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, adding the oil if your beef is on the leaner side, and sauté the meat until browned and crispy at the edges to render out the natural fats.
- 02
Roast the pastes in the rendered fat.
Lower the heat to medium-low, push the meat aside, and fry the doenjang and ssamjang directly in the fat for a minute or two until profoundly nutty, then stir in the gochugaru for thirty seconds to release the chili oils.
- 03
Build the broth.
Pour in the rice water, turn the heat up to high, and stir vigorously so the starches emulsify with the fat into a rich, opaque liquid.
- 04
Boil the hard vegetables aggressively.
Add the potato, onion, and garlic, letting the stew boil hard on high for five minutes to force the flavors together.
- 05
Finish with the soft vegetables and tofu.
Drop in the zucchini for two minutes, then gently lay the tofu, mushrooms, chili pepper, and scallions into the pot, pressing them down into the boiling broth.
- 06
Serve boiling hot.
Turn off the heat just as the broth bubbles up over the tofu, letting the residual heat finish the job, and serve immediately alongside fresh rice.
Notes
The pragmatic protein pivot.
If you don't have access to pre-shaved hot pot meats like chadolbaegi, ground pork, diced bacon, or even the drained oil and meat from a can of high-quality tuna work brilliantly as a lipid foundation for frying your pastes.
From Cook Korean in America.