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.  :)

Sour Cream Scrambled Eggs/Super Easy and Super Fast!!

I got this recipe from Anthony Bourdain's show Layover when he stopped in LA.  He made himself these eggs for breakfast and needless to say, he had me at sour cream.

A few days ago, I went out with some friends and overindulged on AYCE Korean BBQ.  I've been feeling kind of full and sluggish since then so I opted for this breakfast instead of the usual baconfest that usually happens on weekends at my house.

All you need:
eggs
sour cream
green onion/chives (optional)

This literally takes 2 minutes.

Crack two eggs into a bowl.

Season with salt and pepper.

 Whip up your eggs.  

 

Pour your eggs into a non-stick pan over medium with a little olive oil.  Or bacon fat....Yeah. I know. 

 

I let the eggs cook just a bit before stirring them.

 

Now grab this creamy goodness.

Plop in about 2 tablespoons.  Boom.  Blop.

 

Turn OFF the heat and continue scrambling with the sour cream.  If you have chopped green onion or chives, sprinkle them in now.  I didn't have any, but if I had, they would have ended up in here.

 

Why do I turn off the heat?  Because there's nothing worse than dry over cooked eggs.  There's enough heat in the pan to finish cooking your eggs, trust me.

That's it! Done.  I can make these faster than it takes the toast to toast.

I served with sliced avocado and sourdough toast.

 

Louisiana Pan Roast with Shrimp and Crab

This obsession started a few years back when I happened to stumble upon the Oyster Bar in the Palace Station in Las Vegas.  Truth be told, I now go to Vegas to hit up the Oyster Bar.  It's not a successful Vegas trip without a stop (or two) at this place.  Here's a link to the Oyster Bar on Yelp. Click here.

So if you clicked on the link and poked around, you'll know that everyone is talking about their Pan Roasts.  What is pan roast you ask???  It has nothing to do with beef at all.  It's more like a super, rich and decadent seafood chowder-zilla.  It's tomato based with cream and wine.  And brandy if you have it!  It's served with pasta or rice.  rice. rice.  Rice is the way to go, if you ask me, but pasta is good too.

There are versions that use lobster, oysters and even andouille sausage.  I chose to use shrimp and crab.  Here it is in all it's crab and shrimp glory.....

You're gonna need to grab:
fresh or frozen raw shrimp
fresh or canned crab (or both!)
fish/seafood stock
onion
bellpepper
garlic
celery
tomato paste
heavy cream
cooking sherry or white wine or brandy
butter
flour
cajun seasoning
black pepper
Old Bay Seasoning
hot sauce
crushed red pepper

***since this post, I have replaced the wine with brandy and it is divine!  I also put it in before the stock and let it cook off a bit.  Both is good.  Brandy adds a little more complex layer of flavor.

So I happened to have left over crab from a family meal.  These were rock crab.  But you can use dungeness crab if you have it.  Or you can just use canned crab too.  I used BOTH for this recipe because that's how I roll.

 I carefully picked all the meat I could from the left over crab.  I ended up with about this much:

This was about 1 cup of crab meat.

I used all the shell from the crab and boiled it in a 1 quart saucepan with about 5 cups of water to make my own seafood stock.  For those of you who are familiar with fresh crab, you know there is like a bunch of yellowish, greenish stuff inside the carapace (the part that all the legs are connected to).  Don't throw it away.  You don't need to scrape it out.  It's perfectly good for eating.  In fact, trust me when I say it makes your seafood broth reallllllly rich and yummy.  Trust me.  While that's boiling, cook your rice.  I use long grain rice for this.  Short grain will just get mushy.

I also used this can of crab meat.  You can never have too much crab.  Really.

So while the shells are boiling on medium to medium high heat, I chop up my veggies.

I cut up one medium onion, one green bell pepper and three stalks of celery.

I also put aside a pound of frozen but raw shrimp in a bowl to defrost.

These are your seasonings.  Get them ready to go.

So after about 45 minutes, I strained the shells from my stock and ended up with over 2 cups of this rich seafood broth.  

Now it's time to start!!

In a heavy pot or dutch oven, melt one entire stick of butter over medium heat.

To my melted butter, I added my diced onion, bell pepper, celery and a HEAPING spoonful of fresh crushed garlic.

I'm a huge believer in seasoning as you cook so I do that now.  I add black pepper and  cajun seasoning.  Use as much or as little as you want.

I also like this dish to be nice and spicy so I also add a handful of crushed red pepper.

I added a good amount of Old Bay seasoning.  It's a perfect blend of herbs and is the standard for cooking seafood.

Once your veggies are translucent, I added two heaping spoonfuls of flour.

Saute your flour for about a minute and until it starts to stick to the pan.

Remember your shrimp?  Add that now.

Add your seafood stock.  If you're using canned, that's okay.  Canned is good too.  I just happened to have crab to make homemade seafood stock, but you don't have to.

Now I add my white wine.  You don't have to spend a lot on wine.  

I just try to use a more drier white wine.

Look, I got this one on sale for $2.99 at Target.

I added about a cup of wine to my pot and about a cup into my mouth.  Just kidding! I also like to put in a good shot of brandy if you have it on hand...in the pot not your mouth.  Just saying.

At this point you will be tempted to eat it as is, but refrain!  It gets better.  Keep going.

Bring to a boil and then add your tomato paste.  I used a 6 ounce jar.  The entire thing.

Once your paste is dissolved, add your crab meat (both fresh and canned).

Allow your pan roast to do a gentle, rolling boil for about 5-7 minutes.  

The wine needs time to cook off a little bit. (You could drink some wine while you wait!!!! Brilliant)

Then you hit it with some heavy whipping cream.  I used about a quarter of a cup.  You can use more.  I know for a fact that the Oyster Bar in Vegas uses a LOT more....but not getting heart disease is kind of nice too.  "Live to eat another day!" I always say.

And that's it.  Serve with rice or over pasta.  Now the mouth party begins.

Not as good as the Oyster Bar in Vegas.  But pretty close.  

Try dipping some crusty bread in it.  Try not to burn your tongue as you hoover it into you mouth.