A blistering hot stone pot of barely-set silken tofu in red gochugaru broth with clams, mushrooms or pork, finished with a raw egg cracked into the centre at the table. Seoul lunch counters serve nothing else.
The story of Soondubu jjigae
Soondubu jjigae (순두부찌개) is one of Korea's three canonical stews alongside kimchi jjigae and doenjang jjigae. The silken-soft tofu (sundubu) tradition traces to the village of Chodang in Gangneung, where the 16th-century Joseon civil official Heo Yeop made tofu using seawater instead of brine, giving the silkier set. Seoul absorbed soondubu through Gangneung migrant cooks in the 1960s. The stone-bowl ddukbaegi serving format keeps the stew at a rolling boil for the full meal; the table-cracked raw egg poaches in the residual heat.
How to make Soondubu jjigae
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 1 tube (350g) sundubu (silken Korean tofu, sold in clear plastic tubes)
- 150g pork belly, sliced thin (or 200g clams, scrubbed; or 100g shrimp peeled)
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 1 small leek, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 tbsp gochugaru (Korean coarse red chilli flakes)
- 1 tbsp gochujang
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp neutral oil
- 500ml anchovy stock (or chicken stock plus 1 tbsp myeolchi-aekjeot anchovy sauce)
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 2 spring onions sliced
- Salt to taste
- To serve: cooked short-grain rice, kimchi, banchan
Method
- Heat the neutral oil in a ddukbaegi (Korean stone pot) or small heavy saucepan over medium.
- Add pork belly, fry 2 minutes until the fat renders.
- Add onion, leek and garlic. Stir 1 minute.
- Stir in gochugaru and gochujang; fry 30 seconds to bloom the chilli.
- Pour in the anchovy stock. Add soy sauce. Bring to a vigorous boil.
- Squeeze the sundubu out of its tube directly into the boiling stew, breaking it into rough 3cm chunks with a spoon. Do NOT stir hard; the texture should stay irregular.
- Simmer 3 minutes (the tofu warms and absorbs flavour; if cooking clams or shrimp, add now and cook until shells open or shrimp turn pink).
- Taste; add salt if needed.
- Finish with sesame oil. Crack 1 raw egg into each diner's bowl just before serving (or do this at the table once the stew arrives).
- Scatter spring onion. Serve immediately while bubbling, with rice on the side.
Editor tip. Crack the egg into the bubbling stew at the table, not in the pot; the runny-yolk texture only holds if the stew is still at a hard boil when served.
The editor picks for Soondubu jjigae in Seoul are still in research. Meanwhile, see the Seoul signature-dishes index or the Seoul food guide.