Friday, June 27, 2008

Yook Gae Jang - 육개장

Note: You can add the egg directly into the soup. I live with a man who absolutely detests eggs, so I tend to always make any eggs "on the side".

I made Yook Gae Jang today. I bought all the ingredients earlier in the week, but didn't have time until today to make it. Here's a grocery list of what you need:

  • Beef flank steak (anywhere from 1.25-2 lbs. of it)
  • Bean sprouts
  • 2 bunches of green onions
  • Oyster mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms or Korean portobello mushrooms (whatever you can find)
  • 4 tb of red pepper powder
  • 4 tb of red pepper paste
  • 2 tb of sesame oil
  • 3 tb of sesame seeds
  • 4 tb of gook ganjang
  • 4 tb of minced garlic
  • 1 tsp of black pepper
  • 10 cups beef broth
  • 8 cups water
Optional
  • 2 eggs / fried and sliced thinly
  • dak myun


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I've seen this meat sold at Ralphs also, so you can go there and buy it too. I'm sure you're sick of me writing this......but drain the blood by letting it sit in water.


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Throw the meat into a pot with just enough water to cover it and let it boil. After a couple of minutes, turn off the heat, throw the water away, and wash the beef off. Give the pot a cleaning at this point also and refill with clean water. Once the water is boiling, throw in the beef again and cook it for ONE hour.


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While the beef is boiling you can get your other ingredients ready.


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I cut my green onions into thirds. I use the the green part whole, but I like to cut half the white part because it's kind of thick.


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I then took 3/4 of the bean sprouts (you can use the whole bag, but I'm saving the bean sprouts for Saturday's beh-choo gook) and soaked it in water.


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After the meat has cooked for an hour, turn off the heat and pick out the meat pieces. Reserve this broth!


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Normally, I don't measure and just transfer the whole pot, but I know some people are Type A and need exact measurements. This is 10 cups of beef broth. If you have less, don't worry about it and just substitute with water. It's not a big deal.


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Once the beef has cooled down (or you can run it under cold water to speed the process up) shred all the pieces by hand into edible sizes. If you have cooked it long enough, this is an easy process because the meat has softened up.


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Then season the meat with the following:

  • 4 tb of red pepper powder
  • 4 tb of red pepper paste
  • 2 tb of sesame oil
  • 3 tb of sesame seeds
  • 4 tb of gook ganjang
  • 4 tb of minced garlic
  • 1 tsp of black pepper


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Toss it around a little.


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And add it to the boiling beef broth. Just by looking at it, I knew I would need more water....


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So I added 8 cups of water to the same bowl (to get all the seasonings) and added it to the soup. Total liquid is 18 cups so make sure to use a pot big enough.


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While waiting for the meat to boil, you can ready your fern bracken and mushrooms. I always try and buy fresh fern bracken, but sometimes it's hard to find. You have to cut off about 2 inches off the bottom of it because it's really tough. In the end you only end up using about half of what you bought.


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Once the beef starts boiling, add the green onions and bean sprouts and CLOSE THE LID. Let it come to a boil and leave it for about 10 minutes.


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Then add the fern bracken and mushrooms and let all of it boil for up to ONE hour. You have to cook it for a long time in order to get the thick Yook Gae Jang broth...if you're in a hurry (like we were today) you can eat it after 30 minutes, but it doesn't taste as great. =)


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While you're waiting for the soup to be done, you can soak your dak myun in water. I then boil it in a separate pot and just add as much as I want when I eat it. You can add it directly to the Yook Gae Jang, but then by day 2 it gets all yucky.


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I fry my eggs and slice it thinly. Again, you can add raw egg directly to the soup and let it cook in there. But the MR doesn't really like eggs, so I always leave it on the side.


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When the soup is done boiling, garnish with the egg and some green onions and you're ready to eat!


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I always add my rice directly to it. Yook Gae Jang is a little time consuming, but I always make a HUGE batch and we just eat it for the next 3 days (making sure to boil it 2-3 times a day). The MR eats A LOT, so somehow we end up finishing it all. Enjoy~~~

Over the weekend I will add a Beh-choo Gook recipe! I'm not exactly sure who's visiting this site, but in the 7 days I have been up and running there have been 139 unique visitors! Who knew Korean food was this popular? Thanks, people! =)

26 comments:

  1. It looks delicious!!!

    ~Anita ("miss_snow_pea")

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  2. sent your website around at work :)
    they r trying some recipes!

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  3. Thanks for sharing your recipes, I think you should totally make a cookbook and make money off it !!! YOu cannot find any REALLY Tasty Korean recipes that are written in proper english with such awesome looking pictures! Great job as always!!

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  4. i was actually putting together an idea for a xanga recipe website...with all the ladies who cook and post their blogs up....would you be interested? let me know :) It's Mad_Bride from xanga btw.

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  5. did u use canned beef broth or the broth from boiling the beef? just making sure~ and if i cant find fresh fern bracken, is there a canned one? or frozen? im a newbie at yuk gae jang~ but its one of my hubs fav so im gonna try it~!

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  6. @sooshi- I used the beef from boiling the beef, but you can use canned beef broth too. doesn't matter. I've made it without gosari before and it tastes fine. I'm actually not a huge fan of gosari so I don't mind it without...

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  7. Thank you SO much for the wonderful recipe and site.

    I'm making it right now, with dried fern. i wish i had had your site in my sights when I tried it earlier in the year, because I had a bunch of fiddleheads. the broth didn't turn out as well as this time. I will be checking trader joe's in the spring, since that is where I got the fiddleheads.

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  8. I was stationed in Pusan for a year. I came across this dish while convoying to pyeong tek. I was so lucky to find a authentic korean resteraunt and market where im from...but id love to try and make this on my own.

    If it wasnt for my family..i would have stayed in korea ;]

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  9. Aloha, I just started eating Korean food and I love it. My favorite dish is Yook Gae Jang, but I saw on line that consuming too much Fern Bracken causes CANCER and other diseases. I don't know if this is true so now I am scared eating my favorite dish.

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  10. I followed your recipe and it turned out great. It was just the right amount of spiciness. THANKS!

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  11. I had this dish in a Korean restaurant and I loved it! Just by eating it I kind of figured out the ingredients but I didn't know it was such a time consuming dish.

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  12. I think this is the best Yuk Gae Jang recipe online. I can tell because I am a pretty good cook and though I am not Korean, I do LOVE this soup and have tasted several versions at different Korean restaurants in US.

    Thank you for putting a lot of work into sharing this recipe. Only thing I would do differently is to add the beaten eggs directly into the boiling soup to enhance the flavor. Also Toran (taro's stocks) is more authentic than oyster mushrooms.

    zepres

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  13. @ zepres - i like the eggs inside as well, but my husband HATES eggs which is why i put it on the side.

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  14. I have made your recipe twice and love it. the people i eat with can't handle too much spice though so i lowered the red pepper powder. I love the heat though:) Thanks for posting this and taking photos!

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  15. I had this delicious soup at a Korean restaurant last night and thought I had to find a recipe for it. So I ended up here, I'll try to make it some times very soon. Thank you for the detailed recipe. Keep them coming, please!

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  16. this is great. thanks!

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  17. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I love Yuk Gae Jang. I have tried many times( not with your recipe) before but never able to create the right taste as you would get from Korean restaurant. The secret is in the broth(yuksu). Just boiling or simmering flanks stake itself with water doesn't seem to bring out right yuksu taste. I wonder how restaurants make yuksu. I would love to hear from you or many others.

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  18. @Anonymous - it's hard to get the same exact flavor as the restaurants because they usually use MSG.

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  19. this looks soooo good. i'm comparing 육개장 recipes online and by far, yours looks most delicious. i'll try this soon!

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  20. Thanks for this recipe! I think it is even better than the yukgaejang in the restaurants!

    -cnoh

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  21. have you tried making this recipe with chicken? I want to try to make dakgaejang and your recipe sounds delicious! but I'm curious if there are any other modifications that need to be made besides just substituting beef for chicken.

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  22. I just want to say THANK YOU!!! This is my first attempt after 4 years of marriage and it tastes wonderful! (I'm using your mom's "secret" broth for it too :P)

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  23. it looks delicious..it must be delicious too if you subtitute beef with chiken and add red bean

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  24. I ate Yook Gae Jang frequently when I lived in Daegu. I wasn't accustomed to the heat, so often I was listless and lethargic. There was a restaurant near my institute that did this soup, and after I tried it once, I was never listless again. It was energizing and delicious. They also did it with chicken, which was equally good. Thank you for the recipe. I will try to make it soon. . .Beverlee

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  25. YUM YUM! Thanks for the recipe!!!!

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