Aeri's Kitchen

Korean Food and Recipes

Clam KalGukSu

바지락 칼국수, BaJiRak KalGukSu

by 14 Comments

Today, I will show you how to make a delicious Korean noodle dish called “kalguksu” in Korean. There are different version of kalguksu depending on the main ingredients such has chicken, seafood, red beans, clams, mushrooms, kimchi, zucchini, potatoes, etc. I will make it with clams today. The great flavor of homemade broth with the chewy noodles tastes very good with the clams. Try it someday.

Yield: 2 Servings

Short Korean Lesson

  • BaJiRak (바지락) = Clams
  • BaJi (바지) = Pants

Video Instructions


Main Ingredients

  • ½ lb Noodles for Kalguksu
  • ½ Cup Zucchini
  • ½ Cup Onion
  • ¼ Cup Carrot
  • ¼ Cup Green Onion
  • ½ Tbsp Garlic, Minced
  • ¾ tsp Salt

Broth Ingredients

Directions

 

Obtain about 1 lb of clams. Wash them good and soak them in salt water while you are preparing the other ingredients. When the clams open, any dirt inside with wash away in the water.

 

Pour 5 cups of water into a pot and then add 1 dried anchovy pack and 4 pieces of kelp into the pot. Cook it, covered, on medium-high.

 

Once the broth starts to boil, cook for 5 minutes and then discard the kelp.

 

Continuously cook the broth for 5 more minutes, and then discard the anchovy pack. Keep the pot covered.

 

Add the drained clams to the broth and cook covered for about 8 minutes on medium.

 

Add about ½ lb of noodles for kalguksu into boiling water. Cook for about 4-5 minutes, or until the noodles are almost cooked on medium-high. Follow the instruction for the noodle package you have. I used frozen noodles for this recipe, however you can use fresh or dried ones too.

 

Meanwhile, chop the vegetable ingredients. Cut ½ cup worth of a zucchini, ½ cup worth of an onion, and ¼ cup worth of a carrot into pieces 1-inch in length and ¼-inch in thickness. Cut ¼ cup worth of green onions in to ½-inch pieces.

 

4-5 minutes later, turn off the heat for the noodles. Then rinse the noodles several times in cold water, and drain. This helps to remove the extra starch from the noodles and helps make the broth stay clear later. If you like thick starchy soup, you don’t have to boil the noodles separately.

 

8 minutes later, remove the clams from the broth. You will get about 3½ cups of a yellowish to greenish broth. Keep the cooked calms for later.

 

Bring the broth to a boil, and then add the zucchini, carrot, and onion to the broth.

 

Season the broth with ½ Tbsp of minced garlic and ¾ tsp of salt. Depending on your tastes, you can adjust the amount of salt.

 

Add the cooked noodles into the broth. When it starts to boil again, cook for 1 minute on medium-high.

 

Add the cooked clams and the green onions into the pot. Cook for another minute and then turn off the heat. Since the clams are already cooked, you do not have to cook for very long in this step.

 

Now you have a very delicious clam noodle soup. 🙂 Depending on your tastes, you can add little bit of black pepper and sesame oil before serving. 🙂

 

Winter is almost gone, but every now and then, we still get cold days. This warm and delicious noodle soup is perfect for those cold days. With the same method, try other kinds of meat or vegetable ingredients to make other versions of kalguksu. Enjoy.

Related Posts

Kimchi KalGukSu Jang KalGukSuK Clam Sea Mustard Guk Homemade Knife Noodles

Comments

  1. My husband asked for this very dish for his birthday dinner tonight! Looking forward to trying this recipe. God bless!

    Reply

  2. Hi! I just wanted to point out that you made a small mistake in your ingredients list. You wrote zucchini again instead of carrots. Sorry to be annoying.
    Anyways. I love your websites! The recipes here are easy to follow and the food pictures are gorgeous & drool worthy. Keep up the awsome work! Kamsamida! (^_^)

    Reply

    • hi parny,
      Thank you so much. Thanks to you.. I could correct my mistake quickly. 🙂 Please let me know again if I make another mistakes..it really helps. 🙂

      Reply

  3. 와….! 대단하세요. 외국에서 저렇게 먹고 사시다니 존경스럽습니다. (_ _) 역시 외국에 나와 살다보니 한국 음식이 정말 그리운데, 정작 만들 수 있는 경험과 실력이 안될때… 안타까워요. 허나, 좋은 일 하시네요. 저처럼 엄마한테 음식 배워보지도 …해보지도 않은 사람에겐, 특히 처음해야 할 음식이 외국에서… 요리법도 모르는 사람에겐 정말 도움이 되네요. 엄마한테 물어보면 하는말은…알아서 넣어라 …쫌만 넣어라 ㅎㅎ 인데.

    앞으로 자주자주 들를게요. 즐거운 일 하시는 것 같아 좋아보입니다.~

    Reply

    • hi ssong,
      아.. 저처럼 외국에서 사시는군요. 어디에서 사시는지 궁금하네요. 히 ~~ 한국분들의 덧글은 더욱 반가운것 같아요. 맞아요.. 저희 엄마도 대충 대충 이렇게 요만큼..조만큼.. ㅎㅎㅎ 한국 어머님들 요리 스타일이시죠..눈대중.. 그리고 손맛.. ^^ 네 자주 들러주세요. 함께 수다 떨어요 우리 ^^ 감사합니다.

      Reply

  4. Hi! I have one question: if I don’t want to cook the cut noodles but to save some to cook them later how do I keep them? Do I have to frozen them or just refrigerated? Or do I have to used them immediatly? Thank you. This will be my first time trying korean food. Greeting from Venezuela

    Reply

    • hi lucy,
      There are different types of the cut noodles.. can be homemade (will be fresh).. dried noodles..and frozen or refrigerated noodles..
      if you have frozen or refrigerated ones.. and if you will not use them for some time.. keep them in the freezer.. Greeting from USA. 🙂 Thanks

      Reply

  6. If I go to the korean market, what is the noodle package name? Or can you send me a picture of it? You can type the name in korean because I can read korean (if you don’t have a picture).

    Reply

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