Jjamppong

Jjamppong

Today I’m introducing you to jjampong, a dish that’s usually sold at Chinese restaurants in Korea. Jjamppong (hangul), is a spicy noodle soup flavoured with onions and chili oil. A form of jjamppong is also the local Chinese speciality in the Japanese port city of Nagasaki (see Chanpon). Due to geographical proximity, most Korean-Chinese dishes are derived from Northern styles of Chinese cuisine such as Beijing and Shandong cuisine. The cuisine developed in the port city of Incheon, where the majority of Korea's ethnic Chinese population historically lived

Ingredients:

Noodles for jjamppong

For stock:

10 dried anchovies with the heads and guts removed.

3 dried shiitake mushrooms.

4 inch x 4 inch sheet of dried kelp.

½ cup of onion, sliced.

Meat and seafood:

4 ounces of lean pork, cut into thin strips, mixed with a pinch of salt and ground black pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.

6 large shrimp, shelled and deveined.

10 mussels, cleaned and debearded.

4 ounces of  squid,  cut into ½ inch x 2 inch pieces.

Vegetables and seasoning:

1 tbs of minced garlic

2 ts of minced or sliced ginger

¼ cup of vegetable oil

1 ts of fish sauce

2 ts of salt

3 tbs of hot pepper flakes

½ ts of ground black pepper

¼ cup of carrot, sliced into ½ inch x 2 inch strips.

4 stalks of green onions, cut into 2 inch long pieces.

1 pound of cabbage (or napa cabbage), sliced.

4 ounces of leek, cut into ½ inch x 2 inch pieces.

4 white mushrooms, sliced.

1 teaspoon of sesame oil.

water

Method:

First step: make stock

1.      Pour 10 cups of water into a pot. Add the dried anchovies, dried kelp, onion, and the dried shiitake mushrooms.

2.      Boil for 20 minutes over high heat. Then turn it down to low heat and cook for 10 more minutes. Strain and keep the clear stock. Set it aside.

Second step: make mixture of hot pepper flakes and vegetable oil

3.      In a small bowl, combine 3 tbs of hot pepper flakes and 2 tbs of vegetable oil with a spoon. Set aside. You can add more or less hot pepper flakes according to your taste.

Third step: start frying

4.      Heat up a large wok or a heavy bottomed pot with 2 tbs of vegetable oil, and then add garlic and ginger and stir them until light brown.

5.      Add pork strips and stir fry them for 2 minutes.

6.      Add vegetables: cabbage, carrot, green onion, leek, and white mushroom and stir for 5 minutes until all are cooked nicely and light browned.

7.      Add the mixture of hot pepper flakes and vegetable oil and mix them well.

8.      Add squid, shrimp, and mussels and keep stirring over high heat for about 5 minutes.

9.      Add 7 cups of the stock and boil it for about 7-10 minutes.

10.  Add 2 ts of salt, 1 ts of fish sauce, and ½ ts of ground black pepper.

11.  Take out 2 portions of the noodles from the package  and add them to the boiling soup and cook until the noodles are done. Take a sample to see if the noodles are cooked fully or not. The noodles should be soft and chewy.