Hello everybody! Today I’m showing you the recipe for a much-requested dish: Budae-jjigae a.k.a “Army Base Stew.” It’s a spicy, savory, Korean-American fusion dish made from an umami-rich broth, Korean hot pepper paste, flakes, kimchi, and American Spam, beans, and sausage.
This dish was invented after the Korean war (1950-1953) when the American army was stationed in the city of Uijeongbu, near Seoul. They had their own food on the base, things like canned beans, meat, Spam, ham, and sausages. This food was totally new to Koreans. Eventually these ingredients made their way into surrounding area of the base and some creative Koreans made stew from them. They boiled spam, ham, sausages, and baked beans with kimchi, garlic, and hot pepper paste and flakes, creating a Korean-style stew with American ingredients.
Korean Army Stew (Budae-jjigae: 부대찌개)
Ingredients
- 4 Cups chicken stock (1 litre)
- 200 grams Spam
- 4 Cocktail Frankfurt sausages
- 250 grams Tofu sliced about 1.5cm, 1/2 inch thickness
- 200 grams Enoki mushrooms base stem removed & stems separated
- 200 grams King oyster mushrooms thinly sliced length ways
- 100 grams Shiitake mushrooms
- ½ Cup Kimchi ripened bite sized
- 100 grams Instant ramen of choice
- 50 grams Korean rice cakes Soaked in water for 15 mins if it was frozen
- 30 grams Green onion thinly & diagonally sliced
- 2 slices Cheddar cheese
- 1 Egg
Sauce (Mix these in a small bowl)
- 2 Tbsp Korean chili flakes (Gochugaru)
- 2 Tbsp Rice wine (Mirin) Can leave this out, its still good.
- 1 Tbsp Soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp Garlic minced
- ½ Tbsp Sugar
- ½ Tbsp Korean chili paste (Gochujang)
- Few sprinkles ground black pepper
Instructions
Make seasoning paste
- Combine the seasoning paste ingredients – garlic, hot pepper paste, hot pepper flakes, soy sauce, sugar, and water in a bowl. Mix well.
Arrange the ingredients in a shallow pot (10 to 12 inch):
- Put the cabbage, onion, green onion, pork, and the mushrooms, on the bottom of the pot.
- Add the kimchi, and the seasoning paste over top.
- Add the spam, sausage, rice cake, tofu, baked beans, and cheese.
- Add the ramyeon and the sweet potato starch noodles.
- Add 3 cups of stock.
Cook and serve
- Cook over medium high heat. Korean style is to cook at the table with a portable burner. Friends and family will be sitting around the pot, talking and laughing, and maybe drinking. You can take a bit of cooked sausage or the meat with your chopsticks as you wait for the broth to boil and the noodles to soften. If you don’t have a tabletop burner, you can cook it on the stove away from the table.
- When it starts boiling about 10 minutes later, stir and turn the ingredients over with tongs to cook evenly.
- Serve right after the noodles and ramyeon have softened. Transfer some cooked stew to individual bowls and serve. Add more stock as the broth boils down.
Leave a Reply