In the Soop Episode 2: Budaejjigae

Have you eaten budae jjigae?
On their first night in the soop, the members enjoyed budae jjigae made by Suga and flatfish sashimi prepared by Jin!

Budae Jjigae or Army Base Stew is a korean fushion stew that combines a variety of western ingredients such as spam, hot dogs and ham in a spicy kimchi stew.

This dish stems back to the 50’s in Uijeongbu where restaurant owners would combine processed meats (spam and hotdogs) from U.S military bases into their kimchi jjigae.

The beautiful thing about budae jjigae is that you can add anything you want as long as long as you have kimchi and the sauce ingredients to make the stew base.

I personally like making budae jjigae when I have a lot of leftover veggies and meats! Everything tastes good once covered in the delicious sauce. It’s a great “everything but the kitchen sink” kind of dish!

There are three main components of budaejjigae: the sauce, broth (or water), and the meats/veggies/carbs that you decide to put in.

Ingredients:
you can use whatever you like however, there are some ingredients that make for a great budaejjigae experience:

• Spam
• Hot dogs
• Tofu
• Onions
• Kimchi
• Green onions
• Ramen or rice cakes

Optional but equally as delicious additions:

• Cabbage
• Bacon
• Mushrooms
• American cheese
• Bok choy
• Potatoes
• Baked beans

Budaejjigae

Translation: Army Base Stew

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Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Course Dinner

Cuisine Korean

Ingredients

  

Stew base

• 1 tbsp gochujang
• 2 tbsp gochugaru
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp garlic
• 1/2 tbsp sugar

Stew ingredients

• 1/2 block tofu
• 1/2 box spam
• 1/2 cup rice cakes
• 1/2 square instant ramen
• 2 stalks green onions
• 1/2 onion
• 6 mini hotdogs
• 1/2 cup kimchi
• 2-3 cups broth chicken, beef, vegetable (can also use water)

Instructions

 

• Mix all the sauce ingredients
  
• Place everything but ramen into your pan. (ramen cooks really fast. It'll become soggy if you add it in with the other ingredients)
  
• Add in as much or as little sauce as you want. The more sauce = the spicier the stew.
  
• Cover all the ingredients with either water or broth. Fill your pot or pan to the point where all the ingredients are submerged in the broth.
• Let the stew boil for 10-15 minutes.
  
• After 10-15 minutes, uncover and add the ramen noodles.
• If the stew is looking too thick, add more broth. Over time, the ingredients will absorb a lot of the soup.

Notes

*OPTIONAL: After the ramen is cooked, add in a slice of American cheese. Other kinds of cheese works too but processed American cheese tastes really good in budae jjigae in comparison to “real” cheese.

Keyword Gochujang