강된장 / Kang dwaenjang (Reduced fermented soybean stew)

My dad moved to Monterey Park from Seoul when he was twenty-four years old, and stayed there. He started work at a gas station, and eventually started cleaning swimming pools, then started building swimming pools. Every time we pass by the house in Monterey Park where his sister used to live, he points it out to me and notes how his younger self sat on that porch in the afternoons shortly after arriving from Korea, thinking about what to do next. These days, he’s having a hard time letting go of work.

Not too long before his life in America, he served in the South Korean military for eighteen months, as is compulsory for all young men of age. That was the last time he said he cooked kang dwaenjang, when his boss tasked him to cook a meal.

Kang dwaenjang is a reduced, concentrated version of dwaenjang jjigae (a stew of fermeted soybeans). It has less liquid than the jjigae and is therefore thicker and saltier. It is great eaten as a sauce for ssam (rice wrapped in various lettuces and greens) or bibimbap. One can also just dollop a spoonful or two into a bowl of hot rice and eating it just like that—which is the way my dad serves it.

My dad hardly ever cooked throughout my experience of him, so I asked him to cook me a meal during my last visit to Los Angeles. He chose kang dwaenjang. The moment was spontaneous, so he didn’t have all the ingredients he would have wanted, but he had what he needed to improvise the recipe he knew by heart.

Zucchini, onions, and tofu are cooked down with gochujang and dwaenjang in a beef-based broth, further seasoned with dried anchovies and shrimp.

I watch my dad work in the kitchen: chop vegetables, pull things out from the refrigerator and cupboards, mix the gochujang with the dwaenjang. He talks to himself as he improvises and make mental notes, and laughs that he’s not sure if this is going to come out right since it’s been so long. He doesn’t have fresh beef, which you are supposed to brown a little bit before adding hot water and the dried anchovies and shrimp, so he pulls out a carton of store-bought Korean beef broth. He sips spoonfuls from the pot during the cooking, and comments that it has to taste a bit saltier than normal, that’s the appeal of it. You eat it with plain rice, treating it like a banchan. It’s not a soup. Also don’t forget that adding tofu will reduce the saltiness level again, so after adding it, you have to taste it and season it again.

While we ate the kang dwaenjang, I asked him where he learned how to eat and make this. It comes from his mother, my grandmother, who he says was an excellent cook. According to him, she cooked a variety of different things, and everything was delicious to him. She was very old when I was born and didn’t cook anymore, and therefore I don’t know the taste of her cooking.

Here’s his recipe, spoken to me and now I’m writing it down.

Kang Dwaenjang

Ingredients list:
-1-2 zucchini, sliced into bite size pieces (preferably the lighter-skinned Korean variety but others will work)
-1 onion, diced
-1/2 cup green onions, diced
-1 spoon gochujang (korean fermented chili paste)
-1 spoon dwaenjang (korean fermented soy bean paste)
-beef brisket (thinly sliced)
-dried anchovies and/or dried shrimp (either ground or whole, with gut and bones picked out of the anchovies)
-sesame oil
-Firm tofu
-1 spoon medium to thick Gochukaru (dried chili flakes)

Prepare your vegetables - chop and dice them as described above - and prepare your beef.

Mix your gochujang and dwaenjang in a bowl. Set aside.

Saute the beef with a bit of sesame oil in a heavy bottomed pot. Then add about 1.5 cup of water. Bring to a boil, then bring down to a medium simmer. Add the gochujang and dwaenjang and dissolve in the water. Add a few pinches of ground dried anchovies and a few pinches of ground dried shrimp (if using whole, then add about 2-3 of each, and take out later before serving).

Add the zucchini, onion, green onions. The water should fill up just enough to cover the vegetables. If it doesn’t, add some more water.

Taste and adjust seasoning. If it’s too spicy for your preference, add a bit more water, or more dwaenjang if it’s not salty enough. Add the gochukaru. Taste again, adjust again. It should taste a bit like a soup that has been seasoned slightly saltier than usual. A bit salty, but still pleasurable.

When the zucchini is just about to be cooked through, add the tofu. This will dilute the saltiness level because of the extra water from the tofu. Let it cook for another 5-10 minutes, taste, and correct for seasoning again.

Enjoy with a hot bowl of rice, spooning a bit of the kang dwaenjang over your rice and eating it together, continuously.

*Vegetarian or pescatarian version possible: Omit any of the following: beef, anchovies and/or shrimp. Replace with dashima (dried kelp) for the broth.