LA Version of Budae Chigae/Army Base soybean stew

Aside from kimchi/kimchee/김치, I would say that dwenjang/fermented soybean paste/된장 is the food item that Koreans treasure and adore the most.  It's literally a concentrated soybean paste that used to be made at home, but now can be readily bought in any Korean market.  The literal translation of the Korean word "dwen" is thick and "jang" is sauce.  Thick sauce.  Awesome sauce, I say!!!  Growing up, I have fond memories of my grandmother making it in our backyard and laying out the bricks to dry in all their stinky glory despite my mortified embarassement as my white neighbor friends peeked over the wall wondering what the hell we were doing.

Some of you familiar with Korean cuisine may be getting ready to argue that Korean gojuchang/ red pepper paste/고추장 may be next in line for the honor of Korean adoration, and while I don't disagree, I would argue that dwenjang is the basis for countless dishes in Korean food.  You can stew it, mix it into sauted veggies to make banchan, add into soups, the list goes on and on.  I even remember my grandmother slathering a spoonful of the stuff on a huge cut I'd gotten one day.  I thought she was out of her mind.  Turns out the paste has antibacterial properties in addition to tasting wonderful.  Need I say more?  

I should preface this post by explaining why this is completely my own take on the Korean beanpaste stew recipe.  My mom never actually made this for me growing up.  In fact, she often asks me where I developed my complete love affair for dwenjang chigae came from.  Most definately I got this love of it from my grandmother.  I remember coming home from school and she would have this waiting for me.  She would make sure to put lots of potatoes in it because, if you haven't figured it out by seeing my other posts that have potaotes in it, potatoes and bacon complete me.  Don't tell my mom this....but while her version is good, I like mine better.  That's probably because I leave out the stuff I don't like and put in non-traditional stuff I do like such as spam. Since my grandmother never showed me how to make this, I just kept trying to make it until I landed on a version that really worked for me.

A few years ago, at a Korean foodcourt, I had my first Budae Chiage.  What's that?  Well let me tell ya!  Budae Chigae is a version of kimchi and pepper paste stew that emerged during the Korean War.  When food was scarce, Koreans started using the surplus food that came from American Army Bases like spam, hot dogs and ham. "Budae" in Korean means army base.  So army base stew.   When I ate it, I thought it was dwenjang based chiage and this version emerged.

Recently I made this for some of my friends who grew up in Korea.  They started asking me questions about how I made it and I quickly realized that because I grew up here, I didn't really follow the "rules" for making chigae and I don't use some of the ingedients that is traditionally used.

I never thought I'd post this recipe. I figured there's tons of Koreans who make this on a daily basis and I was always a little embarassed that my version was so different from the traditional versions.  But my friends liked it and encouraged me to post this recipe so Ji and Lora, this is for you.

You will need:
dwenjang
fresh crushed garlic
kimchi
potato
onion
korean squash
spam and hot dogs (or even kielbasa or ham)
tofu
sambal olek chili sauce or jalepenos
water

Traditaonlly, dwenjang chigae is made in stone pots like this:

This one is an individual size stone pot.  I never use it. Why?  Becase it's too small.  No matter how hard I try, I can't keep it contained to this tiny pot.  I can't cook that way.  It's my fat gurl superpower.  I make too much food...all the time.  Just to make it easier, I use a quart sized pot.  It's so not Korean, but it saves me having it spill out and all over the place.  

Here's a larger stone pot that my mom gave me.  It's medium sized and even comes with a lid,  I never use the lid.  Why?  Because I stuff so much stuff into my chigae, I can't fit the lid on.  See where we're going with this?  But for this recipe, I thought it might be nice to try and use a stone pot.  You know...to keep up appearances.  Just kidding.

These are the veggies I like to use.  Sometimes, if I have room in my pot I also use mushrooms, but as you'll see in a hot minute, I tend to over stuff and can't fit it all in.  I think Koreans make this chigae as a small salty soup to eat with rice and the more traditional version is to make it with more broth and some veggies and tofu.  I on the other hand, take the opposite approach and go with more veggies and tofu and not as much broth.

I used potato, onion and Korean squash.  

 I used the entire medium sized potato, about half the squash and a quarter of this onion.

I layered the bottom of the stone pot the potato that I had sliced into thin slices.  Make sure you cut all your pieces into even slices to ensure even cooking times.  I layer the potatoes on the bottom since they take the longest to cook.

Then I added the chopped onion.

Then the squash.

Now comes the fun part.  I chopped up spam and half a hotdog.  

You can use as much or little of any of these ingredients as you want.  

And then added the spam and hot dog into the stone pot.

Then I added about half a cup of ripe kimchi, a spoonfull of crushed garlic and some kimchi juice.

Then I grabbed my handy dandy container of soybean paste.  Please note that this 6.6 pound container will probably last me for a loooooong time.  I inherited this from my friend Brooke when she moved to Chicago.  HI BROOKE!

I added about half a tablespoon.

Instead of using pepper flakes or gojuchang/pepper paste, I use sambal olek chili paste.  If you don't have it, slice up a jalapeno and throw it in.  I like to use seeds and all.  You don't have to.

So now you have this...

Don't worry.  I discovered that little piece of sambal olek wrapper in there and removed it.

I also love to add one or two of these, cut in half.  Why?  Because....well, why not? The point is, you can put in what you want.  There's no messing this up.  Some versions of Budae Chigae even use cheese!!!  You can add ramen noodles or rice cakes.  I am not adding noodles or rice cake for this post, but I have and it's wonderful.

I added 1 cup of water 

Then I added tofu on top.  See?  My cup runneth over.  

Cook over medium to medium low heat for about 20 minutes or until your potatoes are cooked.

Make sure your bean paste is completely dissolved or else you'll bite into a big chunk of uber salty.

And just to show you how packed my chiage is, here's a pic with a spoon standing straight up in it!

Eat this with rice while standing up over the stove

Salty. Spicy. Spectacular!

Me?  I like to eat this in my double-sided bowl.  Why?  Because then I can eat this in bed while watching tv.  Or I like making a huge batch and sharing with my friends Janet, JiHyun and Lora.  :)