Welcome, welcome friends and neighbors.

It’s Sunday morning and not quite the NFL season so you know what that means!

Gravy Time!

Oh shit, oh dear, kids have we got a fucking beauty today.

While it is indeed one of those “2.0” things I mentioned last week, there is something outright fucking magical about this bastard.

We’re going back to making Soondubu – “Korea’s spicy tofu stew!” as our Universal Yums snack box guidebook calls it but I’m bringing some pretty fundamental variations when compared to the way we prepared it previously.

When we made this dish a few short weeks ago something happened in my brain. It fucking short circuited. That dish was really, REALLY fucking tasty but I just could not let it go.

At the end of that post I mentioned possibly trying a few alterations to the original and suggested a few ideas. Once I wrote that I could not stop thinking about it..

I became obsessed. 

That base of the stew was so fucking good that I just had to give it another go.

People…

Holy shit am I ever glad I went back to the well.

The big time Hollywood Star in this remake is this here motherfucker.

Ladies and gentlemen THAT is pork belly.

Never cooked it before. Ate it a fucking bunch yet it somehow slipped past the goalie and I was negligent in my proper gravy making duties.

I feel shame.

That shit changes today!

Maybe I should clarify, the belly actually takes about three days to prepare it properly.

Original idea/concept for this version is via the incomparable David Chang from Momofuku restaurants.

While researching I found out that pork belly will sometimes be sold skin-on, this one is skinless. If you purchase the skin-on variety simply make some scores across the skin-side using a knife. Not too deep though. Create a diamond pattern prior to applying the rub. Since ours is skinless we can skip that step.

We begin.

On the first day of pork belly we create a simple rub.

This will be applied to our roughly one pound pork belly.

Equal parts kosher salt and sugar, say about 2 teaspoons of each then a few grinds of black pepper.

That’s it.

Rub that belly!

Place in an airtight container and into the fridge it goes for the first of two overnight rests.

On the second day of pork belly we cook that fucker up.

This entire prep in done in the oven. Recipe calls for a heavy bottom cooking device. If you don’t have cast iron – first of all fix that shit – then you may use a roasting pan. Do keep in mind there will be much rendering of fatty substances while cooking.

Firstly preheat the oven to 450. The total cook time for the pork will be 90 minutes. Put the skillet with the pork fat side up into the oven for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 275 and cook for an additional hour.

Yielding…

Help me Lawd!

We are NOT, however, ready to serve. This is still only day 2 after all.

Remove the pork from the pan and let it cool to room temperature.

Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Yes AGAIN!

That edge facing the camera was the part where I sliced off a small slice for, you know, SCIENCE reasons.

We’ll get to the final step in a moment.

 

Finally on Day 3 it’s time to prepare our tofu stew.

Remember the base of the stew:

SOONDUBU 2.0!

4 green onions sliced thin and separated into green parts and white parts

4 tablespoons of sesame oil

6 cloves of garlic  – minced

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon* of gochugaru – first variation

 2 1/2 cups of chicken stock – variation 2

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of fish sauce

1 14oz package of “FIRM” tofu – variation 3

2 eggs.

Plus additional items for serving – you’ll see

About that tofu.

See that label there? This time I used a “firm” tofu rather than the “silken” variety. The silken version was a little too soft for my taste. I wanted to firm up that texture.

Yep, it’s still tofu after all and you still need to press the water out.

Get creative again. I used a plate and a heavy bowl placed on top of the tofu. Let this press for say 30-45 minutes to extract the water. I ended up changing the paper towels the tofu is draining on when they became too saturated with water.

Yet ANOTHER variation from our first rodeo is the addition of…

Hell yes. Shiitake mushrooms. They will add earthiness, a good chew and the downright funk that shiitake mushrooms are known for.

I’m all about that funk, Boss!

As mentioned, rather than using water this time we will be using chicken stock. The homemade gourmet shit!

Remember when we made the oven fried chicken and I fucked around and made some homemade stock with the leftover chicken bones and such?

This would be that.

We’ll measure the stock out and use it to replace the water that we used in the initial preparation.

Oh man! Look at the schmaltz!

The base for the rest of the stew follows the same process as the original version.

First with the green onion.

Slice pretty fine and separate the green parts from the white parts.

Go on now, mince up that garlic too!

Once again we start the stew with the blessing/anointing and pouring of the sesame oil.

Medium size stock pan will work just fine.

Add in the green onion parts and the gochugaru.

Cook down for about 5-6 minutes until VERY goddamn fragrant.

The stew will once again feature these two rascals.

Get them in the pot along with the minced garlic and the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Cook for 4-5 minutes.

The tofu has been pressed so slice it up.

See the difference in the firmness compared to the silken?

Once the stew has cooked for a couple of minutes add in the mushrooms.

These will cook through and reduce in size after a few minutes.

Now finally we can take the pork belly out of the fridge.

There was one final yet pretty significant change from the original soondubu recipe but not to the stew itself.

We used a different delivery method.

I served the stew over noodles instead of rice.

Yes, I am fully fucking aware that soba noodles are Japanese and not Korean. No, I don’t give a single shit.

I chose soba noodles rather than udon because I like the firmer and chewier texture that the buckwheat in the soba provides. Also I was afraid the texture of the tofu would be too similar to the texture of the udon.

Soba noodles it is.

Speaking of the tofu let’s give it a swim.

See how much the mushrooms have cooked down and been incorporated in the stew?

Looks like we’re almost ready.

A slight dusting of some more gochugaru – you know, for color.

One last step before we serve.

The one we’ve been waiting for.

Look at the fat lines! My god.

You’ve got to slice this thick. If you sliced this too thin it would just fall right the fuck apart.

Into a pan it goes.

Just like bacon you won’t need to add any fat to the pan to cook. This more than brings enough of its own.

Just a couple of minutes per side.

Cook it all and remove to a plate.

Alright. You can have one piece. ONE!

Final check on the stew.

Remember how we finished the stew last time?

Hell yes. Crack a couple of eggy-weggs in there.

Heat up your noodles.

I just added 1/2 cup of water to the noodles and nuked them for 3 minutes. This is like a fresh version of the dried top ramen and it even comes with a flavor pack.

Fuck that! I brought my own flavor pack motherfucker!

It plates up a little something like this…

Noodles in a bowl, then…

Couple of slices of belly on top. See how the pork looks almost like a well prepared brisket with the layer of fatty goodness in there? Holy shit!

Next just ladle the stew on top and garnish with the green parts of the onion.

Where to begin? Tofu firmness is close to perfect. The savory, woodsy element with the mushrooms and the chew they bring? Check.

You can feel free to call my ass a wimp for backing down on the gochugaru and it won’t hurt my feelings any. The 4 (four!) tablespoons called for in the original recipe in the guidebook was insanity. We should check with Commentist Dunstan for his take on the quantity of the gochugaru. The 1 tablespoon plus that I used today brought a solid level of heat while maintaining a perfect balance with the plethora of alterations in this iteration.

The chewy soba noodles combined with the perfect balance of the broth allows for maximum slurpability.

Slurp away good people, just keep a napkin on hand in case it splashes in your eye.

Oh yeah, the pork belly.

.

..

…

Perfection. ACHIEVED!

The pork was so soft it didn’t require cutting. It became yet another element in the total package. It had just the right amount of salt, while carrying just a slight sweetness from the sugar. The fat dissolved right into the stew giving it a richness and unctuousness that was stupefyingly delicious.

The total balance of this dish was insane.

This dish made me so goddamn happy I almost did the happy dance.

Not just for eating something flat-out fucking delicious but for providing me indisputable validation.

My ideas at the end of the narrative on the first version of this dish not only worked, they turned out even better than I hoped they would.

/wipes tear

Goddammit I really DO know what the fuck I’m doing in the kitchen!

This is a proud day. Not to mention a ridiculously delicious meal.

Feel free to use that pork belly preparation any fucking way you want to. Trust me. I will be doing the same. Holy shit was that incredible.

Thanks as always for playing along folks. Most of all thanks for allowing me to turn my rambling thoughts and ideas into a very tasty reality.

WOO!

See you next Sunday everyone.

Football soon come!

 

Be Safe.

Be Well.

PEACE!