Budae Jjigae, translated as Army Stew is a dish that has origins in the Korean war. It uses western ingredients that were historically found in U.S military bases (e.g. canned food and processed meat,…) and mixes with local Korean sourced ingredients such as kimchi, tofu, mushrooms to combine into a unique fusion dish.
This stew is super delicious and easy to make. You need some time chopping and prepping the ingredients but otherwise cooking time is less than 10 minutes! So warm and hearty, perfect cure for the grey and rainy days in London recently
Budae Jjigae – Korean Army Stew
Ingredients
Scale
Toppings:
Use the below as a suggestion, vary the quantity and ingredients as per your liking!
- 80g Tofu
- 50g Kimchi
- 50g Rice cakes
- 400g Mushrooms (Shitake, Enoki, Oyster)
- 150g Spam (Luncheon meat)
- 3 Hot dog sausages
- 1 Instant noodles
- 2 slices of processed American cheese
- 1 tbsp green onions
Broth:
- 1L stock, I used vegetable stock but you can use Chicken / Beef / Fish, etc.
Stew Paste:
- 1 tbsp Korean chilli paste (Gochujang)
- 1 tbsp Soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Korean chilli flakes (Gochugaru) – Tip: use the spicy ramyun seasoning pack from the instant noodles instead if you can’t find any
- 1 tbsp Mirin
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp Sugar
Instructions
- Make the stew paste by adding all the ingredients together and mix until well combined
- In a shallow pot, add the stew paste at the bottom then start adding all the topping ingredients into the pot, excluding some ingredients that requires much less time to cook and that you don’t want to turn soggy (e.g. instant noodles, cheese and green onions)
- Pour the stock and water for the broth into the pot and bring it to a boil for about 8 minutes until it starts bubbling
- Add the ingredients that require less time to cook (e.g. instant noodles, cheese and green onions) and cook for a further 2 minutes
- Once ready, give your pot a stir and it should be ready to serve!
