Korean spicy sausage stew is a wonderful hearty stew that can provide comfort during cold weather. Loaded with kimchi, sausages, ham, spam, and many more makes it one of the most popular Korean stews. The sour and spicy kimchi broth goes well with the salty and fatty spam, sausages, and hams.
What is Korean Spicy Sausage Stew?
The other name for this dish is budae-jjigae or Korean army stew. It is fusion Korean-American stew. It consists of kimchi, gochujang (Korean red chilli pepper paste), ham, sausages, spam, and baked beans.
This stew usually uses a flavourful broth such as anchovy stock or chicken stock. The broth is spiced up with kimchi and gochujang. The sour ripened kimchi usually use in a generous amount to prevent the processed meats from overpowering the flavour of the broth.It is a meal by its own with the addition of ramen (instant noodles). It also usually served as an accompaniment to alcoholic drinks.
History of Korean Spicy Sausage Stew
This dish created after the Korean War in the 1950s. After the war, food is hard to come by. However, there are many leftovers of processed meats from the United States military bases.
Some of the processed meats include hams, hot dogs, and spam. There also many canned baked beans in the military base. Therefore, restaurants near the United States military bases started to make a stew with those ingredients.
Korean spicy sausage stew was born and becomes popular all over Korea. Korean refers to this dish as budae-jjigae due to its origin. Budae refers to military bases while jjigae means stew. Therefore, it is also famously known as the Korean army stew.
Now, as this dish has spread across the world. People start to experiment with the dish by adding various other ingredients. Example of such ingredients includes cheese, instant noodle, corned beef, and rice cake slices.
Tips to Enjoy Korean Spicy Sausage Stew
The various combination of processed meat in a broth might make someone hesitates to try it. Especially some people might not like spam. However, the spicy and savoury stew goes well with the salty soft American spam. You will regret it if you do not try it.
Korean spicy sausage stew is typically like a hot pot. The broth in the thick porcelain bowl is gently bubbling over the portable burner. The ingredients usually cut to bite-sized and can be added while eating.
You will find that some Korean restaurants will provide an extra broth while serving this dish. Thus, you can replenish the broth while eating. Especially when cooking instant noodles in the stew, noodles required a lot of liquids. This is where that extra broth is handy.
Once the noodles cook, make sure to eat it immediately while it is still chewy. Otherwise, the noodles might become too soggy. Other ingredients that can be added are cheese slices, baked beans, rice cakes, and mushrooms. Korean spicy sausage stew can be served in individual bowls with rice for a fulfilling meal.
This dish is high calorie and the sodium level can be quite high. The use of low sodium spam and sausages can reduce the amount of salt in the dish. Besides, it is not advisable to drink the broth.
Where to find Korean Spicy Sausage Stew in Malaysia
Most of the Korean restaurants serve Korean spicy sausage stew. It is one of the popular Korea stew dishes alongside Kimchi Jigae and Sundubu Jigae.You can order Budae Jigae with noodle from BOMNAL Korean Cafe & Restaurant (Johor Bahru). Besides that, get the Spicy Sausage Stew from The Matjib (Kuala Lumpur).
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