Korean Army Stew Hotpot

A few of my friends came over to my place for our gathering yesterday afternoon. For gatherings, I try to make hassle free dishes such as hotpot because it's easier to prepare as compared to make a few individual dishes. Moreover, eating hotpot is a good way to bond as it allows us to eat slowly and catch up at the same time. Other than our usual Chinese steamboat, which we ate umpteen times during CNY, I've decided to make Korean Army base Stew (budae jjigae; 부대찌개).

 

The Korean Army base stew came about during the Korean War, when food was scare in Seoul, South  Korea. People started making use of surplus food supplies from US Force Korea bases. Food supplies such as hot dogs, spams, or ham, and incorporated them into their Korean traditional spicy soup base (made of red chilli paste, chilli powder and Kimchi. 

This dish is still very popular in South Korea and has evolved to incorporate more modern ingredients such as instant noodles, American Cheese, ground meat, baked beans, etc. Basically you can just add almost anything in there. 

A throwback to my Korea trip in 2011, when I first tried Army Based Stew. My then boyfriend (now hubby) and I were randomly shopping at Coex Mall and we came across this restaurant with a long queue outside the shop. As "Kiasu Singaporean", we went to see what's going on. When it was our turn, we just went in and give it a try without knowing what it was. I only got to know the name of this dish when I met up with my korean friend. 

Thereafter, I tried to find this dish in Singapore. Unfortunately, I felt that Korean food is too overpriced here. Hence, this motivates me to make this on my own. Here's the recipe:

 Korean Army base stew

Main Ingredient

1 Cup Oval Rice Cakes

½ Cup Kimchi

1 Onion

1 Pkt Enoki mushrooms

1 Pkt  Korean Plain Instant (I use ottogi ramensari. My friends likes the texture. Can be found at Shine Korean Supermarket)

1 Small Canned Baked Beans

¼ Cup Ground Pork

1 Can Luncheon Meat

4  Hotdogs

2 Green Onions

1 Red chilli

Broth Ingredients

6 Cups Water

1 Tbsp Maggie Concentrate Chicken Stock 

Sauce Ingredients

2 Tbsp Red Pepper Powder

1 Tbsp Red Pepper Paste

1 Tbsp Soya Sauce

1 Tbsp Minced Garlic

1 Tbsp Cooking Wine/Mirin/ Water

⅛ tsp Black Pepper

1. Combine all of the ingredients for the sauce: red pepper powder, red pepper paste, soya sauce, minced garlic, cooking wine (or water), and black pepper to create a paste.

2. Pour water into the steamboat pot together with the concentrate chicken stock to make the broth. 

3. Prepare the rest of the ingredients:  Slice luncheon meat into ¼ inch pieces, and slice hotdogs diagonally. Soak oval rice cakes in water and chop kimchi into bite-sized pieces. Cut vegetables, mushroom, onion, green onion, red chilli. 

4. Place all ingredients into the broth in clumps. Place the ground pork in the center of the pot.

5. Spread the rice cakes over everything and pour the sauce paste on top of the ground pork.

6. Start boiling the stew. Once the stew boils, placed the ramen in and allow it to cook for 5 min until the noodles are cooked. 

I hope you like the Korean Army Base Stew. Do let me know if you are interested with the other Korean recipes.