Korean Soup (Fish)

Spicy Fish Soup (Maeuntang) 매운탕

Mae-un tang is a hot spicy Korean cuisine fish soup boiled with gochujang (Korean red chili pepper paste), kochukaru (chili powder), and various vegetables. The name is a combination of two words: maeun, which derives from maepda (맵다), meaning "hot and spicy"; and tang, meaning "soup". As its main ingredient, fresh or saltwater fish is cut into several pieces and boiled with ground beef, green vegetables such as watercres sand garland chrysanthemum. Onion, radish, chilis, crown daisy, garlic, and sometimes zucchini and bean curd are added to the mixture to absorb the chili pepper paste which is the main flavoring of this dish. It is then seasoned with chili powder, garlic, soy sauce, and additional gochujang may be added once more to taste.

Restaurants that offer this dish often allow customers to select their fish from an aquarium. Many specialty seafood restaurants have several aquariums from which to choose. Popular fish for this dish may include red snapper, sea bass, yellow corvina, codfish, croaker, pollock, and even freshwater fish like carp and trout. In addition, other shellfish such as crabs, clams, and oysters can be also added to this soup to complement and enhance its spicy yet refreshing flavors.

This soup is one of Korea's most popular dishes while drinking soju. If ordered with hoe at a restaurant, the soup is often then made from the leftover parts of the fish.

Ingredients:

a red snapper (25 cm long)
4 clams

4 large shrimp
Korean radish
2 shiitake mushrooms
water
dried kelp
minari (water dropwort)
enoki mushroom
ssukgat (edible chrysanthemum)
green onions
green chili pepper
red chili pepper
cooking wine
garlic
onion
ginger
hot pepper flakes
fish sauce
salt

Directions:

Make stock first!

1. Soak 2 shiitake mushrooms in warm water for 3-4 hours and cut them into bite size in length.
2. Soak 4-5 clams in cold salty water (2 cups of cold water +1 tbs salt) for at least 3-4 hours and wash them and set them aside.
3. Cut  radish thinly into about 3×4 cm size, 0.2-0.3 cm in thickness.
4. Place the sliced radish (about 1 cup), the pieces of mushroom, and some kelp in a pot.
5. Pour 6-7 cups of water into the pot and boil it over high heat for 20 minutes.

Make maeuntang sauce:

1. Place 7 cloves galic, ½ medium size onion, ½ tbs ginger, 2 tbs cooking wine (or soju), 2 tbs hot pepper flakes, 1 tbs hot pepper paste, 2 tbs fish sauce in the food processor and grind it for about 1 minute.
2. Set it aside.

Prepare  fish:

1. Put a red snapper on a cutting board and clean out guts, remove scales and fins. Wash it in cold water, cut it into chunks, and set it aside.
   *tip: to save time, you can ask your fishmonger to do this for you
2. Prepare 4 large shrimp: remove the heads and intestines, wash them, and set aside.

Prepare vegetables:

1. Clean ssukgat (edible chrysanthemum) and cut it into 7 cm long pieces.
2. Clean minari (water dropwort) and cut it into 7 cm long pieces.
3. Cut out the bottom part of enoki mushrooms and wash and split them.
4. Slice some green onions, 1 green chili pepper, 1 red chili pepper,
5. After boiling stock for 20 minutes, open the lid of the pot and take out kelp.
6. Place chunks of the fish, shrimp, clams in the boiling stock.
7. Add the maeuntang hot sauce and boil it all over medium heat for 30 minutes.
   *tip: It might boil over from time to time. Open the lid and remove the floating foam from the top and then close the lid halfway
8. Add ½ ts of salt, enoki mushrooms, minari (water dropwort) and ssukgat (garland chrysanthemum), green chili pepper, red chili pepper, and boil a few more minutes before serving.

Man se! 만세!