Korean Army Stew (부대찌개/Budae Jjigae)

Was contemplating to cook this for the longest time, having tried it during our 09 trip to Korea albeit the non spicy version. Was a bit worry about Mr Love's reaction as he has little liking for other cuisine except western.

Anyways, I showed him the picture I found off the cooking website and he gave me the green light to make this for dinner this weekend.

I didn't follow strictly on the recipe and adjust it according to our liking.

Ingredients

1 can of small hotdogs (6 pcs) - cut into half with slits in between
3 pcs of luncheon meat (can add more but this is all I left in the fridge from last week) cut into big pcs
I brought 1 packet of sliced beef from NTUC which is about 200g. Love more meat hehe
Half stalk of leek (This is for hubs only as I don't like it) cut into pcs
Half a carrot, thinly sliced
100g of flat over rice cake
2 slices of cheese (We prefer a more cheesy taste)
1 packet of ramyeon (Instant noodles)
Kimchi (Didn't put much either)

Beef (200g) was marinated with 2 tbsp of gochujang, 2 tbsp of sesame oil and pepper

Marinated beef slices

Soup paste

2 tbsp of gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
1/2 tbsp gochugaru (hot chilli pepper powder)
1 tbsp of sesame oil
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1 1/2 piece of chicken stock cubes
1000ml of water
Suppose to add in salt but I gave it a miss as I don't like to add salt to my cooking

Gochujan (Korean Chilli paste)

Couldn't find the Korean ver and brought the Jap ver.Hehe

Preparation

Bring the chicken stock to boil and add in the soup paste. I leave it to boil for 10min before turning it off.

The correct way is to arrange the ingredients in a shallow casserole and add in the soup base when you are ready to serve.

But since there are 2 of us only, and I wanna minimized washing, I threw everything into the pot of soup. Let it cook for 10min with all the ingredients and finally adding the 2 slices of cheese and ramyeon. Viola, it is ready to be served.

All cut up and ready

 Verdict

Mr Love was surprisingly impressed with the thick broth created. I think it's the doing of the extra piece of cheese I threw in. The ingredients used were just nice for 2 pax and we polished off everything. My version is a bit different from the authentic Korean version but we find it as nice. After all the whole idea of home cooking is to cook to your preference isn't it?

End product-Budae Jjjigae