Haejang-guk

A clear beansprout soup where the lid stays off from the moment the sprouts go in.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish, fish sauce.

Ingredients

• 400 g soybean sprouts
• 200 g napa cabbage outer leaves, blanched
• 1.2 litres anchovy and kelp stock, as on its own page
• 2 tablespoons doenjang
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon gochugaru, optional
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 4 spring onions, in 5 cm lengths
• 1 egg, optional
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. THE LID STAYS OFF ONCE THE BEANSPROUTS GO IN. This is the one rule of beansprout cookery and it is not superstition: covered, they develop a strong sulphurous smell that gets into the whole pot and does not cook out. Either the lid is on for the entire time from cold -- which is the other way of doing it -- or it never goes on at all. Half and half is what produces the problem, so this page says simply: leave it off.
2. SOYBEAN SPROUTS, NOT MUNG BEAN SPROUTS. The big ones with the yellow heads. They stay crunchy in a hot broth and taste nutty; mung sprouts collapse to nothing in five minutes and this soup is mostly sprouts.
3. THEY GO IN FOR SEVEN OR EIGHT MINUTES AND NO LONGER. They should still snap. Boiled for twenty they are limp threads, and the texture is the whole appeal of the dish.
4. THE DOENJANG IS DISSOLVED THROUGH A SIEVE OR IN A LADLE, not dropped in as a lump. It is a coarse paste and will not disperse on its own: a lump sits on the bottom and burns while the broth tastes of nothing.
5. AND IT IS A CLEAR SOUP, so it is not boiled hard and the foam is skimmed. Thin, savoury and clean is the point -- it is eaten in the morning.
6. Beansprouts rinsed and any loose husks picked off and discarded.
7. Cabbage leaves blanched 2 minutes, refreshed, squeezed and cut into 5 cm pieces.
8. The stock brought to a simmer. The doenjang pressed through a small sieve into it, or dissolved in a ladleful and returned.
9. The garlic, fish sauce and gochugaru stirred in.
10. The cabbage added and simmered 5 minutes.
11. THE BEANSPROUTS ADDED AND THE LID LEFT OFF. Cooked 7 to 8 MINUTES at a gentle simmer, skimmed if foam rises.
12. Tasted: they should still snap when bitten.
13. Seasoned with salt and plenty of black pepper.
14. The egg beaten and poured in a thin stream round the edge if using, left 10 seconds, stirred once.
15. The spring onions thrown in and the pot taken off the heat. Served at once with steamed rice as on its own page and kimchi as on its own page.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes