BAECHU-DOENJANGGUK 배추된장국
SERVES 4
This is the soup we make most often at home: We eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have one friend who, even after more than thirty years in New York, cannot go more than a few days without it. Whenever she travels with her husband, she seeks out a Korean restaurant so that she can get some. If they go on a cruise or someplace where there are no Korean restaurants, she brings the ingredients so that she can make it.The broth has a deep, comforting flavor, and the cabbage adds texture and sweetness. It’s light, since there is no grease in it, and after eating it I feel very healthy.
8 to 10 large dried anchovies, cleaned
1 pound napa cabbage leaves, white-stemmed chard, or bok choy
3 tablespoons Korean fermented soybean paste (doenjang)
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 green chili peppers, sliced diagonally
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1.Tie the anchovies in a piece of cheesecloth or place them in a stock pouch.
2.Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the cabbage and blanch, stirring with a wooden spoon for 1 to 2 minutes, until the cabbage is just tender and a brighter shade of green. Drain and rinse in cold water to stop the cooking and remove any lingering dirt.Drain and squeeze out the excess water.
3.Chop the cabbage into small pieces and put them in the same pot. Add the soybean paste, garlic, chili peppers, flour, and fish sauce. Mix the ingredients together by hand or with a wooden spoon, then add the anchovy pouch and 6 cups water.
4.Cover and cook over medium-high heat for about 25 minutes, until the cabbage is very tender and the anchovy flavor is fully infused. Crack the lid if the soup boils over. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, covered, for another 5 minutes.
5.Remove the anchovy pouch and discard. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.
HOW TO CLEAN LARGE DRIED ANCHOVIES
Break off the head. Pull out and discard the dark entrails around the belly. Sometimes bones will come out as you clean the anchovies, but it is not necessary to pull them out.
Excerpted from MAANGCHI’S BIG BOOK OF KOREAN COOKING: From Everyday Meals to Celebration Cuisine © 2019 by Maangchi. Photographs © 2019 by Maangchi. Reproduced by permission of Rux Martin Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
