Doenjang jjigae (Soybean Paste Stew with Pork and Vegetables). Deliciously warming and comforting!

All right guys, let me try it. Mm, mm, mm. Oh my goodness, so delicious. Hello guys, welcome to Korean Bapsang. Let's make Doenjang-jjigae today. A stew that's flavored with Doenjang, Korean fermented soybean paste. This deeply savory hearty stew is one of the most beloved comfort foods in Korean homes and definitely one of my go-to dishes. There are so many ways to make doenjang jjigae and you can easily modify it with the ingredients you have or you like or to make it meatless or a vegetarian dish. I'll show you some of those options as I go along. Let's get started. Let's first talk about doenjang. Of course, good doenjang makes good jjigae. So the quality matters. Traditionally, doenjang is only made with soybeans and salt and water. And fermented outdoors for several months or longer. I recently wrote about Korean pantry staples on my website. Hope you check it out. These are classic vegetables for doenjang jjigae. And let me start with the Korean radish. Korean radish actually adds depth to the broth. We just need a little bit actually. I'm just gonna use half of this. Thinly slice. And not exactly a substitute, but potato is also very common in doenjang jjigae. Potato will thicken the stew a little bit. And for potato, you need to cut it a little thicker than that. You just need one small potato. Okay, here we go. Next is zucchini. You can use any zucchini you can find. This is a gray. Green zucchini is fine. In summer time, I like to use Korean ae-hobak. And I don't think I need all this. I just need about four ounces. Cut lengthwise once and one more time. I'm cutting this into about a half inch thick. Next we have onion. I'm just gonna need like quarter of this. Notice I'm cutting everything Into similar sizes, scallions. Cherry peppers, you can leave it out if you don't have, and you can use either one, green or red. And I'll use red one. It has some oyster mushrooms, and the in Korean. Just split the big ones. These are pretty small, so. Okay, the last thing is our meat. All right, I have Pork here. This is pork belly. You can use pork shoulder or beef or even seafood if you want. So I just cut this into thin slices. Okay guys, you can really adjust the amount of ingredients. If you're not using meat, use more mushrooms for example. If you don't want a lot of zucchinis, then use more onion or potatoes. You got the idea, right? Okay, we're done cutting everything. Now time to cook. Oh no I forgot tofu. I'm just gonna open this. Okay we're just gonna use half of this block and how do you store the other half? Let me show you how. Put it in an airtight container and just fill with water and add a teaspoon of salt. Make sure to cover it. This will keep well three four days longer actually if you change the water in between. I'm gonna do the same thing with the tofu, just dice it. So this is how it looks. Okay, now we are ready to cook. I'm using baegi, an earthenware pot. The baegi really distributes and retains the heat very well, and plus you can take this to the table to serve, and it's really nice way to serve jjigae. So we're gonna start with adding pork to the pot. I'm just going to stir fry this over medium heat. You can add a little bit of cooking oil or sesame oil if you're not using fatty pork, but this has enough fat so I'm just going to stir fry until it renders some fat. All right I'm gonna now add doenjang. This is about two tablespoons. You might need a little more depending on your doenjang. And I'm also gonna add some gochugaru. This is a teaspoon. Saute this for two three minutes. I love this doenjang smell. You can simply use a water or broth but I'm using saltemul. Saltemul is the water used to rinse rice. Korean home cooks save this and use as a soup or stew base. Okay, this is about two cups. Just stir this a little bit to dissolve the doenjang. And then add the radish. And we're gonna bring this to a boil and then boil it for a while so the broth gets really nicely flavorful. Okay, now we're ready to add vegetables. Add everything except pepper and scallion. And here's our garlic. Now we're gonna bring this to a boil again. Okay this has come to a boil. It needs to boil for about five minutes for everything to cook through. It's boiling nicely. Now the secret ingredient. I'm gonna add a little bit of vinegar. This is a teaspoon. A little bit of vinegar at the end really brightens the taste of doenjang and rounds everything up really nicely. Smells so good. Every time I make doenjang jjigae, my mouth waters. Oh, by the way, Korean stews still have this thin broth, like similar to some hearty Western soups, but we don't call them soups. Soups usually have a lot more liquid and lighter in taste. And also, in Korean homes, stew is a communal dish to be shared at the table, but soups are almost always served individually. Just the pepper and scallion. Just needs another minute or two. Okay, it's done. I'm gonna turn the heat off. All right, mmm. So all you need is a bowl of rice and good kimchi to go with. All right, guys, let me try it. So hot, mmm, mmm, so delicious. It goes very well with my kkakdugi, mmm. So we like to like put a spoonful, put in rice, mmm, mmm. Mm, mm, mm. It takes some cutting work but jjigae comes together very quickly for a homey satisfying meal. I hope you make doenjang jjigae your go-to dish. Thanks for watching guys. See you next time.