Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup (Jjampong)

The soup, a staple at Chinese restaurants and snack bars in Korea, has a spicy, smoky broth full of seafood, meat, and vegetables. Koreans often have long discussions about its merits relative to noodles with black bean sauce when ordering takeout. Often we’ll order both to avoid an argument. When I lived in Columbia, Missouri, I stopped by a local Korean grocery store one day where the shopkeeper’s wife was my good friend, and she urged me to go to the back of the store because her husband was making jjampong. I had never heard of anyone making this soup at home: Everyone orders it from Chinese restaurants. But his was better than any restaurant’s. The key is to start with a high-quality broth, which gives the dish real sea flavor. The shopkeeper made his MSG-free broth with dried anchovies and kelp. I have used his method ever since.

SERVES: 2 to 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 10 cups water
• 10 large dried anchovies (mareun-myeolchi), heads and guts removed
• 3 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 (4-x-4-inch) piece dried kelp (dasima)
• ½ cup thinly sliced onion
• 4 ounces lean pork loin, cut into matchsticks
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons Korean hot pepper flakes (gochu-garu)
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons minced peeled ginger
• 1 pound green cabbage or Napa cabbage, cored and cut into bite-size pieces
• ½ small carrot, peeled and cut into thin 2-inch strips
• 4 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths
• 1 leek (about 5 ounces), white and light green parts, washed and cut into ½-x-2-inch strips
• 4 white button mushrooms, sliced
• 4 ounces fresh or frozen cleaned squid bodies, thawed if frozen, cut into ½-x-2-inch strips
• 8 large shrimp, shelled and deveined
• 10 mussels, scrubbed and debearded
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 pound fresh or frozen jjajangmyeon noodles, thawed if frozen, uncoiled
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Combine the water, anchovies, shiitake mushrooms, kelp, and onion in a large saucepan, cover, and cook over medium-high heat for 20 minutes. Turn the heat down to low and cook for 20 minutes longer. Strain the stock; discard the solids. You will have 7 to 8 cups stock.
2. Toss the pork with a pinch each of salt and pepper in a small bowl. Combine the hot pepper flakes and 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in another small bowl.
3. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large wok or a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and ginger and stir-fry until golden, about 1 minute. Add the pork and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the cabbage, carrot, scallions, leek, and white mushrooms and cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the hot pepper flake mixture and mix well. Add the squid, shrimp, and mussels and cook, stirring, over high heat until the shrimp are pink and the mussels have opened, about 5 minutes.
4. Add 7 cups of the stock, cover, and bring to a boil. Uncover and continue to boil until the flavors meld, 7 to 10 minutes. Stir in the fish sauce, 2 teaspoons salt, and a bit of pepper.
5. Add the noodles to the soup and boil until tender but still chewy, 5 to 7 minutes.
6. Stir in the sesame oil. Transfer to individual serving bowls and serve immediately.