Korean army noodles
If you’ve been itching to break out the frankfurters, Spam, processed cheese slices and generally All The Good Things, then – yay. Here’s your golden opportunity. Called budae jjigae in Korea, this unlikely dish first surfaced after the Korean War when many foods were scarce and people made do with what they could find. Which included surplus processed-food rations from US army bases., hence the SPAM, plastic cheese et al. Essentially a hot pot, you’ll be amazed how easy and quick this is to pull together and how much fun it is to eat. We can’t think of another dish like it, where you sit around and fish out random bits of wombok, rice cake or hot dog from a bowl swimming in sweet-spicy-salty goodness. If you’re dubious about how this unlikely mix of ingredients might taste, fear not; it’s 110% scrumptious. (God bless America! And Korea!) And look, we’re not pretending this is in any way healthy, although your gut might be happy about the kimchi? And… mushrooms? But as an occasional meal it’s a bit of a treat and honestly, can there be a better way to get your kids into tofu? They won’t even know it’s there! But maybe ease off the gochugaru and gochujang if you’ve got younger eaters at the table. From bitter experience, if you are using a purchased chicken stock, go for a low sodium one as – unsurprisingly – there’s plenty of salt in everything else.
SERVES 6
1 litre (4 cups) chicken stock
200g Chinese cabbage (wombok) (about ¼ small), cut into 1.5cm slices
250g (1 packed cup) drained kimchi, cut into 1.5cm pieces
170g Spam (about half a can), cut into 5mm slices
200g frankfurter sausages (about 3), cut into 4cm pieces
250g firm tofu, cut into 1cm slices
200g enoki mushrooms, trimmed
200g fresh shiitake mushrooms, or king brown mushrooms, cut into 6mm thick slices
2 x 140g dried instant ramen noodles
185g (1½ cups) Korean rice cakes (tteok-bokki), thawed if frozen
2 spring onions, trimmed and sliced on the diagonal
3 slices processed cheese
steamed Japanese rice, to serve (optional)
extra ramen noodles or steamed Japanese rice, to serve (optional)
extra kimchi, to serve (optional)
Seasoning mixture
6 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped
2 tbsp Korean chilli flakes (gochugaru)
2½ tbsp Korean chilli paste (gochujang), or to taste
1½ tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp caster sugar
For the seasoning, mixture, combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine well.
Bring the chicken stock to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, then cover and keep hot.
Spread the cabbage and kimchi in an even layer over the base of a shallow, 2.5 litre (12 cup)- capacity casserole or similar. Pour the seasoning mixture over the top. Arrange the Spam, sausage, tofu and mushroom over, leaving room for the remaining ingredients. Pour in the hot chicken stock, cover the pan, then bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 6 minutes or until the mushrooms are cooked through and everything is heated, then add the noodles, rice cakes and white part of the spring onion. Cook, uncovered, for about 3 minutes or until the noodles and rice cakes are tender; you may need to use tongs to gently push the ramen into the simmering stock. Add the cheese and scatter over the spring onion greens. Transfer the pan to the table, then serve with rice or extra noodles and kimchi passed separately, if using.
