Did you ever want to try the Korean silken tofu stew called SunDuBu JjiGae (순두부 찌개), but you were afraid it would be too spicy? If so, then this is for you. I’m back with a non-spicy SunDuBu JjiGae version. Even though it doesn’t look as appetizing without the red- colored broth, it is still full of flavor and just as delicious as the other versions. You can also learn how to use rice water in your kitchen and see a short clip of me enjoying this. So, let’s get started.
Yield: 2 Servings
Short Korean Lesson
- HuiMang (희망) = Hope
- JeolMang (절망) = Despair
Video Instructions
Main Ingredients:
- 1 Pack Silken Tofu
- 1 Cup Rice Water
- 1 Cup Zucchini
- ½ Cup Onion
- ¼ Cup Green Onions
- ¼ Cup Hot Pepper (Optional)
- 8 Medium-sized Raw Shrimp (Peeled)
- ¼ Cup Clams (Without Sells)
- 1 Egg
- ½ Tbsp Sesame Oil
- 1 tsp Salted Shirimp
- 1 tsp Fish Sauce
- 1 tsp Minced Garlic
- Some Black Pepper
Directions
We need 1 cup worth of zucchini, ½ cup worth of an onion, and ¼ cup worth of green onions. These are all the vegetable ingredients that you need, but if you want to give it some spiciness, you can add about ¼ cup of fresh hot peppers.
Chop the zucchini into thin fan shape pieces. Then cut the onion into ¼-inch slices, the green onion into 1-inch pieces, and the hot peppers into ¼-inch pieces.
Prepare 8 medium-sized raw shrimp (peeled) and ¼ cup of clams without shells.
Use a clay pot for this stew if you have one. Of course, you can use a normal pot too. Preheat your pot and add ½ Tbsp of sesame oil in it.
Put the zucchini and onion into the heated pot. Then fry them for about 3 minutes on high.
Here, we need to have an important ingredient for today’s recipe. It is 1 cup of rice water. (You can see more details about it in the video.)
Pour the rice water in the pot and continously cook it on high. It will take some time to bring it back to boil, so meanwhile you can prepare the other ingredients.
Get 1 pack of Korean silken. You can also use the normal silken tofu that you can find in a grocery store.
You can just add the tofu straight into the broth, but I like to break it up before I add it into the stew to get smaller chunks. It is up to you.
Once the broth starts to boil again, add the tofu into the broth along with the shrimp and the clams.
Now we will season the broth with the rest of the ingredients. First, a key flavoring ingredient for the broth is salted shrimp. It is a useful ingredient to have for making Korean food, so I recommend that you get some if you cook Korean food often. Once you open it, store it in the freezer.
Add 1 tsp of salted shrimp, 1 tsp of fish sauce, and 1 tsp of minced garlic. Cook it for about 5 minutes on high. If you don’t have the salted shrimp, you can replace it with fish sauce.
Break 1 egg and whisk it gently. After 5 minutes, slowly add 1 beaten egg into the soup. You don’t have to stir it – just let it cook for about 1 minute.
After 1 minute, add the green onions and then cook 1 more minute. Here, if you want, add the spicy hot pepper with your green onions. I will add them for mine today.
For the final touch, sprinkle some black pepper on top before serving. The soft tofu gets nice savory flavor from the seafood ingredients and this makes for a hearty stew for cold days. Try it someday.
Aeriskitchen’s tips
When you wash rice before cooking it, what do you normally do with the milky rice water? Most of the time, it just gets thrown away. But I want to share some useful tips on how Koreans use that rice water. I do not use the water from the first washing, but from the second batch, you can save some of the rice water and use it.
First, the rice water can be used as a great broth for Korean soups such as sundubu jjigae like today, or , , etc. It helps to enhance the flavor of the soup.
Second, you can soak some fish in the rice water for about 30 minutes before cooking it. It helps to get rid of any strong fishy smells or flavors.
Third, you can use it for watering your plants. You do not have to do it every day, but you can do this every now and then to give your plants some nutrition.
Lastly, since Korean food uses a lot of garlic, the food can have a strong smell (like kimchi). The best way to store your kimchi is by using glass containers. However, if your plastic containers get the unpleasant smell of the garlic or something else from your Korean food, you can use rice water to help get rid of any bad smell. Pour the rice water in your cleaned container and let it sit overnight. You will smell the improvement.
Did you enjoy my non-spicy sundubu jjigae and special tips? Please don’t forget to subscribe to my channel and give me a big thumbs up.
Thank you for watching and see you next time.
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