Soup Name: Kimchi, Tofu and Beef Soup

Traditional Chinese Name: 泡菜豆腐牛肉湯 (pàocài dòu fu niú ròu tāng)

Introduction:

This is a Korean dish that I love eating.  I say eat because of the volume of ingredients, it turns into a stew that packs a bunch (in terms of spiciness) and nutrients.  The ingredients are readily available and it’s not your traditional old fire soups because you can make this in about half an hour.  And of course, it’s flexible in that you can add your favorite ingredients to make it more wholesome.  My husband and I literally had this for dinner (only), the kids of course, couldn’t take the spiciness, so they didn’t have any.  You can serve this with rice, rice noodles, noodles or add any other starches to really make it filling.

What Ingredients are required?

Soup Ingredients

20 fresh clams
1 whole fresh radish, cubed
1 tablespoon of hot chili oil
1 pound of fresh beef slices
3 cloves of fresh garlic, diced
1 fresh onion, sliced
380g of kimchi
1/2 head of fresh cabbage, sliced
1 L of chicken broth
2-3 L of water
1 pack of fresh tofu, chunked
1 cup of fresh green onions, diced
1 fresh egg, per serving (optional)

Beef Marinade

1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
1 tablespoon of hot chili oil
1 teaspoon of chili powder (optional)

How do I prepare it?

1. Pre-marinade the beef with the soy sauce, cornstarch, chili oil and chili powder at least 1 hour before cooking.  Cover and set aside in the fridge.
2. In a pot of boiling water, add the fresh clams (already soaking in fresh water).  Once the clams open, remove immediately from the water and set aside.
3. Wash, peel and cube the radish.  You can re-use the clam water to boil the radish until they are soft (use a chopstick to see if you can smoothly poke through a radish, if so, it’s sufficiently soft).
4. In a large pot on medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of hot chili oil, garlic and fry beef until half-cooked.  Remove from pot.
5. In the same large pot, fry onions until cooked.  Add half-cooked beef  and kimchi.  Continue to cook on medium heat for 5 minutes.
6. Add cabbage to the beef and cook for another 5 minutes on medium heat, while continuously stirring.
7. Pour in chicken broth and water to the mixture and turn on high heat.  Boil on high for 10 minutes.
8. When ready to serve, add in tofu, cooked clams and green onions.  Boil together for another 2-3 minutes.
9. As optional, you can add 1 fresh egg (whole) into the soup and scoop out along with soup per serving.  Be careful not to pop the egg and for plating, place on top, in the middle of the soup.
10. Enjoy!

Any benefits?

Any precautions?

• The soup spiciness may be harm or upset sensitive stomachs (you can vary the kimchi, hot chili oil or chili powder amounts as desired)
• If spiciness is a concern, you can also rinse the kimchi in cold water before using in soups

Step 4: Fresh beef slices fried with garlic

Step 5:  Fried onions with kimchi

Step 8:  Add tofu to soup (with cooked clams) before serving