“Miyeokguk is an absolutely delicious seaweed soup that is immensely good for your health.”
Whilst I don’t doubt the health aspect of that statement, I’m still yet to be won over by the taste of this soup after 12 years of marriage. However comma, it is an authentic old school Korean dish which wins much brownie points with relatives so I’m constantly cooking it in order to receive praise!
Traditionally you eat this on your birthday as a dedication to your mother who did the same thing immediately after giving birth to you. The seaweed has something in it that helps your system go back to normal after childbirth.
Recipe
Ingredients
- Miyeok - dried seaweed
- A couple of minced garlic cloves
- A handful of Myulchi (see at the bottom of the page for an explanation)
- Sesame oil
- Soy sauce
- 1lt-1.5lt of water (or beef stock if you have that)
Method
First put the seaweed in a bowl to soak, it’ll be ready by the time you’re finished frying stuff.
Next fry the garlic and mulchi gently in some olive oil for a couple of minutes to soften the garlic up and stuff
Then drain and squeeze the seaweed. It should be more akin to the seaweed you see at the beach now. Turn the heat up on the pan and chuck in the seaweed.
protip: If you have any beef lying about spare, chucking a about 50g in now gives the soup a bit extra. I usually shred some brisket in if I have some.
Anyway fry all that for about a minute on a high heat while making sure it doesn’t stick to the pan. (It helps if you’ve got someone is in the background repeating the sentence “you’re going to burn it!”)
After about a minute pour in the water or stock into the pan and bring to the boil. I then boil the soup for 20 minutes before letting it sit there to stew. In Korea the prevailing school of thought says “boil the hell out of it for hours” so if you want to be more authentic I’d do that.
That’s pretty much it! Before we eat I put a dash of sesame oil in and a glug of soy sauce just to finish it off.
짜자아아아아아아안~~~
Korean Things … Explained! (Sort of)
Myulchi / 멸치
They’re basically tiny little eel like thingies that live to be fried by us (poor thingies) - I’ve been looking on google, it says they’re “dried anchovies” so if you want to get some the best bet is to go to an Asian food store and ask for those. Failing that wave this photo in front of the people that run the shop …
(don’t be scared if there’s mini whole crabs in it too … DON’T)
Miyeok / 미역
At the time of writing I have no idea how to buy this, it’s just one of those things that are always in our cupboard ha ha - that’s not very helpful so I’ll find out. Apparently I’ve been using Japanese dried seaweed (wakame/ワカメ) for the past few months without realising and no-one can tell the difference though.
As far as I can tell though it’s plain unseasoned, dried seaweed.