Adapted from Budae-jjigae

Budae-jjigae: Korean army stew

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 12 months, set by Vegetable stock cubes, though 3 of 12 ingredients have no sourced figure, so the real limit may be shorter.

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves
3
Burners
1
Pans
1
Water
1 L
Active
10 min
Total
20 min

Ingredients

Budae-jjigae means “army base stew”, and it is exactly that. In the hungry years after the Korean War, ham, Spam and sausages from US military bases, surplus or taken from, or snuck out of the bases, went into the pot with the things a Korean kitchen already had: kimchi and chilli paste. The town of Uijeongbu, north of Seoul and ringed by US bases, has the strongest claim to it, and has had a street named after the dish since 1999.

For a long time the name was seen as a disgrace, a reminder of poverty and dependence. Now it is a beloved comfort food sold by national chains, and almost everything in it comes out of a tin or a packet.

The noodles everyone now thinks of as essential could not have been in the first versions: South Korea’s first instant noodle went on sale in September 1963.

  1. Slice the luncheon meat into thick pieces and the frankfurters on the diagonal. Arrange them in the pan with the kimchi and all its juice.
  2. Mix the gochujang, chilli flakes, soy sauce, garlic, sugar and dried onion into a paste and put it in the middle.
  3. Crumble in the stock cube and pour in about a litre of water. Bring to the boil and simmer five minutes, stirring the paste through.
  4. Add the noodle blocks. Use one of the seasoning sachets if you want it saltier and richer, and keep the other for another day. Three or four minutes, until the noodles are just soft.
  5. Splash of vinegar, taste, and eat it from the pan at the table, which is how it is served in Korea.

Taste before adding salt, or the second sachet. Between the luncheon meat, the kimchi and the soy, it is already salty.

If you have a tin of baked beans open, a few spoonfuls is the style of Songtan, another base town, and it is genuinely good.

Serves 3.

What this was adapted from

Budae-jjigae: the Korean stew of base-camp ham, sausage, kimchi and instant noodles that grew out of the years after the Korean War

  • chilled fermented kimchi → shelf-stable jarred kimchi

    Most kimchi in the UK is sold chilled. The ambient jar keeps in the cupboard until opened, and in a stew this hot and savoury the difference is small: it is a little less sour, so a splash of vinegar at the end makes up for it.

  • gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes) → ordinary chilli flakes, used sparingly

    Gochugaru is milder and sweeter than most chilli flakes. Half the quantity gives the heat without the harshness; the gochujang supplies the sweetness.

  • spring onions → dried onion flakes

    Spring onions wilt in days without a fridge. Dried flakes give the onion note, if not the fresh green bite.

  • a slice of processed cheese on top → left out

    The cheese is a later, optional addition, and a slice needs a fridge. The stew is complete without it.