During the pandemic, at the time when we were all confined to our homes, I took part in some online cooking classes, with the Sozai Cooking School in London.
One of these involved learning about two classic Korean dishes; kimchi, which is a mainstay of pretty much every Korean meal, and Sundubu Jigae, a hearty tofu-based stew. This takes about 20 minutes to cook, plus 30 minutes prep time, mostly waiting for the stock to infuse.
Typically, whilst being based on tofu, this can also include seafood, or other meat, and is usually served with an egg broken into each serving. This can, of course, be made completely vegan. This doesn't contain any particularly exotic ingredients, and you should be able to find everything pretty easily in any Asian supermarket, or online.
Ingredients (serves 2):
1 packet silken tofu - around 300g, normally sold in small cartons.
10g kombu (dried kelp)
2 dried shiitake mushrooms
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 courgette, cut into 1cm slices, or other similar vegetables
2 cloves garlic
1 spring onion
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp fish sauce / vegan fish sauce
1-2 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes) or gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
1 cup frozen mixed seafood or thinly sliced chicken, pork, or mushrooms (optional)
1-2 tbsp sliced kimchi (optional)
2 eggs (optional)
Method:
The first step is to make a kombu stock. This is done by combining the kelp and dried mushrooms in a bowl and covering with 800ml boiling water. The shiitake mushrooms will float to the surface, to make sure they get well soaked, you can place a saucer on top to weigh them down. You then want to leave this for at least half an hour to extract the flavour.
While this is cooling, you can slice the vegetables ready for cooking, and prepare the spring onion, which we will use as a garnish, by thinly slicing it at an angle, and placing it into a small bowl of iced water. This should make the sliced onion curl up, and remove a little of the astringency.
Whilst this recipe calls for courgette, you can also use other vegetables, such as sliced peppers, or aubergine, or even sliced mushrooms.
When the stock has cooled, carefully removed the kombu and shiitake, squeezing any excess liquid back into the bowl. Slice the mushrooms and a couple of pieces of the kelp (optional) as thinly as you can, and put these to one side.
In a large pan, sauté the vegetables and garlic over a low heat until they sweat, but stop before they brown. Pour in the stock, and bring it to the boil, then simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes.
Add the sliced shiitake and kelp, if you want to include it. Also add the chilli. Gochugaru (dried Korean chilli flakes) is best if you can get it, but you can also use gochujang (Korean chilli paste that comes in a plastic tub). Gochugaru doesn't tend to be as spicy as some dried chillis, so the amount you add is a matter of taste. Stir this in until it is well mixed, and then add the tofu. Silken tofu naturally falls apart quite easily, and you'd typically add it in one or two big pieces and break it up with a spoon into large chunks.
At this point, you can also add your seafood or thinly-sliced meat, if you are using this. If you want a vegan option, you can use Asian mushrooms such as enoki, or straw mushrooms, or sliced tempeh or seitan. For extra flavour, you can also add a little kimchi, and stir it in.
Bring this back to the boil, which should be enough to cook these additional ingredients, then add the fish sauce / vegan fish sauce.
Before serving, you can crack in the fresh eggs. Traditionally, these would be left to cook in the bowl, but you may prefer to let them poach in the stew for a few minutes before serving, or leave them out altogether. Season to taste, then drizzle sesame oil over the top, and garnish with the spring onion.
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