Soondubu Jjigae for a chilly night

Have I ever mentioned how much I love soup? Because I love soup. I love it so much that I could eat it every day. And, since it's been so cold here recently, it's been on the menu nearly every night.

Especially since I got my new kitchen obsession, my clay pot. It's fantastic for making long simmered stews for two. Soondubu jjigae, for example, which just so happens to be one of my all time favorite soup/stews.

Here's my recipe, which I adapted from the blog, Maangchi. If you've never checked it out, I highly recommend it. It's an excellent resource for learning how to cook Korean food.

Soondubu jjigae

Broth:
1 square of kelp (it's about a third of the long dried sheets that come in the pack.)
5 garlic cloves
3 dried shiitake mushrooms
12 dried anchovies, heads and guts removed
5 cups water--or a little more if you need it


Instructions:
In a large pot, bring five cups water to a boil. Add the anchovies, garlic, mushrooms, and kelp and simmer lively over medium-high heat for ten minutes. Reduce heat to low and simmer for another ten minutes. Strain your broth, reserving the mushrooms, and set aside.

Jjigae
1/3 lb rib eye steak, trimmed of fat and chopped
1 cup of mixed seafood (you get this in the freezer section at the korean grocery. it contains squid, mussels, and other stuff)
Shiitake mushrooms, reserved from your broth, chopped
2 green onions cut into one inch pieces
1 korean hot pepper (they look like this: http://www.theproduceguide.com/pimage/koreanpep.jpg) or jalapeño pepper, sliced
4 tbs gochugaru (coarse red pepper powder)
2 tbs fish sauce
Two tubes of soondubu, extra soft tofu (I have only ever seen this at asian markets, but you could try silken tofu if there is absolutely nothing near you)
1 egg

Heat your clay pot over medium high heat and add a little canola oil to the pot. Add your beef and saute until lightly browned. Mix in the mushrooms and saute. Sprinkle over the gochugaru. (Tbs is spicy! Use less if you don't like it too hot.) Stir for about a minute or two. Then, pour two cups of the broth you made earlier. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer for a while.

Add in the mixed seafood and fish sauce and simmer some more.

When it's thickened up a bit, add the green onions and pepper slices, along with the soondubu from the tube in big chunks with a spoon and continue to simmer on low heat. If you cook it too high, the tofu will break apart.

Once it's ready to serve, gently crack in the egg and bring to the table. When you are ready to eat, you can stir up the egg and mix the tofu into smaller pieces.

Eat with lots of rice!