Today, me and my friend Sky's mom, Helen made Doenjang Jjigae, a popular Korean stew featuring doenjang, a fermented soy bean paste, vegetables, and tofu (jjigae means stew). Traditionally this dish is contains anchovies and beef, but Helen leaves them out for Sky who is vegan. She tells me that this is a family meal made almost every other night in many Korean homes since it's such a complete and nourishing meal. Helen grew up learning to make Doenjang Jjigae from her mother and now cooks it for her own family. Helen's immigration journey is quite a story, having lived in Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and then moving to Pennsylvania before coming to live in Arizona. Her initial experience impression of the food in the United States was based off of living in the small town of Lebanon, PA. "I couldn't find any Korean restaurants but I was able to find things like potatoes and bean sprouts at most supermarkets. So I was able to cook my own Korean style food. But my church friends and I would go down to Philadelphia once in a while to stock up on Korean groceries since there are is a big Korean market and a lot of restaurants"
This is doenjang (which translates to "thick paste") which can be purchased at most Asian supermarkets. I'm told that many Korean families make a big vat of doenjang once a year at home to be used throughout the year. Doenjang is rich in cancer-fighting micronutrients and flavanoids and contains lysine, an essential amino acid lacking in rice. I ask Helen how easy it is to find the same ingredients used in Korea here. "In Phoenix I can pretty much get everything at Lee Lee's or Asiana market. But what I miss from Korea is my mom's and grandma's food. The Korean restaurants here are not that good either but it's what we have. Although I like Hidori on Dobson and Southern and Chodang in Chandler."
Helen chops a small zucchini, a yukon gold potato, shitake mushrooms, jalapeno, tofu and a baby cabbage similar to bok choy. In Korea other chili peppers are used but in the US, Korean immigrants prefer the flavor of jalapenos. She also includes daikon, a white radish commonly used in East Asian cooking. It's not an integral part of Doenjang Jiggae but adds a nice bite. "It's hard to find a lot of the same vegetables we use in Korean, so we just use similar ones. In the Spring when I was a little girl, my neighborhood friends and I would go up a small mountain and pick many vegetables which would be made into a stews and soups. And you can only get them during March and and the first two weeks in April. I asked my mom to steam and freeze the vegetables when they were in season so I can take them back when I visit."
In Korea, ceramic and stone earthenware like ddukbaegi and dolsot are the cooking pots of choice for stews and rice dishes since they retain heat so well. Helen mixes the vegetables with the doenjang in a ddukbaegi, leaving out the tofu, zucchini, and jalapeno to add later on. Usually one adds a broth of anchovies and dashima, a dried sheet of seaweed but she just adds three cups of water and turns the heat on high. Sky likes her jjigae spicy, so Helen adds a glob of gochujang, a fermented pepper paste. After 5 minutes of boiling, she adds the tofu, zucchini, and jalapeno, boiling for another 5 minutes.While it's cooking, I asked her if she ate any American food upon moving here and what she thought of it. "Well I married an American man so I just learned American cooking everyday by watching the Cooking Channel, Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray, and Ina Garten. Then I would print out the recipes to have on file. My husband likes my lasagna, meatloaf, eggplant and chicken parmesan. When we go to the Olive Garden he tells me that my food is better. Learning how to cook American food everyday, I thought about becoming a chef. But then I had Sky's sister and we moved to Washington state for my husband's new job."
Instead of eating the stew with white rice, Sky's family and many other Koreans eat it with forbidden rice because it's so much more nutritious and has a nice nutty flavor. Of course it can be eaten with white rice as well.
Korean cuisine is known for serving small side dishes called banchan alongside its meals. There's a huge variety of possible banchan but Americans know kimchi, fermented cabbage the best. Helen brought spinach and bean sprout banchan, which fall under the category of namul, vegetables marinated in various seasonings. Both of these contain sesame oil, sesame seed, garlic, and green onion with a little soy sauce added to the spinach.
Doenjang Jjigae
3 cups water or traditional seaweed broth
1 1/2 tbsp doenjang (soybean paste)- more or less according
to taste
1 small potato, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 zucchini Squash, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
4-5 shitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup daikon
1/2 cup baby bok choy
1 jalapeno pepper, cut into small pieces
1 tsp gojuchang (chile paste)- optional
1/2 package(7 oz) tofu, cut into 1 inch slices
1 tbsp green onion, chopped
1. In a clay pot, mix all potato, mushrooms, daikon, and bok
choy with soybean paste. Add 3 cups of water and boil for 5 minutes. If
desired, add gochujang to taste.
2. Add zucchini, jalapeno, and tofu, and boil for another 5
minutes, skimming excess foam off.
3. Lastly, turn the stove off and add the green onion. Serve
with a side of wild rice and banchan.
Spinach Banchan
1 lb spinach
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp Sesame seeds
2 tsp minced garlic
1 chopped green onion
1/2 tsp salt
1. Rinse spinach thoroughly. Blanch spinach for 30 seconds
in a large boiling pot of water with salt and immediately place in an ice bath
to stop the cooking. Drain and squeeze to remove as much water as possible.
2. Toss spinach with soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds,
garlic, and green onion by hand.
3. Serve as a side dish
Bean sprout Banchan
1 lb bean sprouts
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
2 tsp minced garlic
1 chopped green onion
1/2 tsp salt
1. Boil bean sprouts in 1/2 cup of water and salt for 10
minutes.
2. Drain and toss with sesame oil, seeds, garlic and green
onion by hand.
3. Serve as a side dish
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