Culinary adventures
Apr. 28th, 2009 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaunthieThere's a spicy Korean tofu stew I've had a few times in restaurants that I absolutely love. It's called sun-du-bu, or maybe soon-dooboo-jjigae, as far as I can be certain given the vagaries of transliteration. I've searched around the Internet for recipes, and found quite a few, but there's a lot of variation between the ones I've found and none of them are quite what I've had. So tonight I decided the heck with it, it's time to experiment. The result was quite tasty, if not precisely what I had in mind.
1 cup kimchee, finely chopped
6 dried shiitake mushrooms
3 anchovy fillets (optional if you're going vegetarian)
2 cups water, boiling
1 bottle clam juice (or vegetable broth if you're vegetarian)
1 tsp chili-sesame oil
2 tsp dark sesame oil
1 onion, chopped
1 big red bell pepper, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced
enough fresh garlic to make 1 tablespoon when finely minced
1 pound meat (I used extremely lean ground beef, but try boca crumbles or chopped portobello mushrooms if you don't want meat)
1 package soft tofu, crumbled into pot
1/2 head napa cabbage, chopped
1 cucumber, diced
splashes of vietnamese chili sauce to taste
Chop kimchee on a flexible cutting board and place it and its juice (there will be lots) into bowl; set aside. Place dried mushrooms into heat-safe glass bowl, add chili oil, anchovies, boiling water, and half the bottle of clam juice. Set aside to rehydrate mushrooms. In your trustiest soup pot, heat the two teaspoons of sesame oil. Add the onion and peppers; sweat. Add meat and garlic and kimchee; cook through. While that's cooking, chop rehydrated mushrooms into bite-sized bits and add them and their soaking water to the pot. Add the rest of the clam juice to the pot as well. Drop in the tofu; stir in, and then add the cucumber and cabbage. Cook 5 minutes, covered, or until everything is soft but the cabbage/cucumber still has a bit of crunch. Taste; adjust with a bit of chili sauce if needed. Serve hot. If you were smart enough to have some rice on hand, so much the better; I didn't, but didn't need it. (If it had been as spicy as the stuff I've had at restaurants, I'd have wanted it!)
According to the recipes I've seen, the traditional finishing touch would be to break a raw egg into the bowl and let the heat of the stew cook it as you stir it in. I've never had it served that way, so I didn't do that tonight, but perhaps I'll try that with some of the leftovers. As it was, the result wasn't quite what I had envisioned, but it was definitely tasty, filling, and low points. Yum!
1 cup kimchee, finely chopped
6 dried shiitake mushrooms
3 anchovy fillets (optional if you're going vegetarian)
2 cups water, boiling
1 bottle clam juice (or vegetable broth if you're vegetarian)
1 tsp chili-sesame oil
2 tsp dark sesame oil
1 onion, chopped
1 big red bell pepper, diced
1 poblano pepper, diced
enough fresh garlic to make 1 tablespoon when finely minced
1 pound meat (I used extremely lean ground beef, but try boca crumbles or chopped portobello mushrooms if you don't want meat)
1 package soft tofu, crumbled into pot
1/2 head napa cabbage, chopped
1 cucumber, diced
splashes of vietnamese chili sauce to taste
Chop kimchee on a flexible cutting board and place it and its juice (there will be lots) into bowl; set aside. Place dried mushrooms into heat-safe glass bowl, add chili oil, anchovies, boiling water, and half the bottle of clam juice. Set aside to rehydrate mushrooms. In your trustiest soup pot, heat the two teaspoons of sesame oil. Add the onion and peppers; sweat. Add meat and garlic and kimchee; cook through. While that's cooking, chop rehydrated mushrooms into bite-sized bits and add them and their soaking water to the pot. Add the rest of the clam juice to the pot as well. Drop in the tofu; stir in, and then add the cucumber and cabbage. Cook 5 minutes, covered, or until everything is soft but the cabbage/cucumber still has a bit of crunch. Taste; adjust with a bit of chili sauce if needed. Serve hot. If you were smart enough to have some rice on hand, so much the better; I didn't, but didn't need it. (If it had been as spicy as the stuff I've had at restaurants, I'd have wanted it!)
According to the recipes I've seen, the traditional finishing touch would be to break a raw egg into the bowl and let the heat of the stew cook it as you stir it in. I've never had it served that way, so I didn't do that tonight, but perhaps I'll try that with some of the leftovers. As it was, the result wasn't quite what I had envisioned, but it was definitely tasty, filling, and low points. Yum!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 03:27 am (UTC)