The week before Thanksgiving my colleague and I were talking about my Miso Soup post.  I asked her about some of the traditional Korean soups she makes and she gave me a great explanation of a traditional Korean soup base and how it is used to make soups, noodles, stews and more. Anchovy Stock is  the Korean counterpart  to Japanese Dashi which is the base I made and used to make the Miso Soup.

I knew that once it was my turn to select the weekly soup in my house that I would this stock.  What I didn’t know or expect was that when I returned to work the week after Thanksgiving that on my desk I would have a little care package of the “essentials” to get my base started. (Thank you I.Y.)

In a little ziploc bag with a note my colleague’s mother had put enough dried anchovies and several pieces of dried kelp (Dashima) to get me started. I couldn’t wait until Sunday!!!

Armed with the essentials I headed to the local Korean market on Sunday for a Korean radish (JoSeonMu  조선무) , shiitake mushrooms, and some green onions.  While I was there I also picked up some wonton wrappers for shrimp dumplings and some firm tofu to make some seared sesame tofu (yumm)

For a simple anchovy stock one would just use the dried anchovies and the dashima, but to give the stock a bit more body I added onion, radish, garlic, and mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 20 small dried anchovies (I removed the guts, so not to sour the soup)
• 3 to 4 pieces of Dashima
• 4 ounces of Korean Radish cut into  large pieces
• small white onion cut in quarters
• 3 to 4 peeled garlic gloves
• 3 green onions (just the white parts)
• 4 Shiitake mushrooms

How to

• In a bowl soak the dried anchovies and dashima for 20 minutes in 4 to 6 cups of water
• While they are soaking put the radish, white onion, garlic, and green onions in a 5 QT stock pot with 6 cups of water and bring to a boil.  Once it boils reduce heat to medium high and boil for 20 minutes.
• Pour the anchovies, dashima and the water they soaked in into the pot with vegetables and return to a boil.
• Boil for another 10 minutes
• Strain out the liquid into another pot.
• Keep the radish for later and discard the rest.
• You now have Anchovy Stock

To Make Soup from the Stock

Once I made this stock, I the took the radish cut it up and returned it to the stock. I added a bunch of sliced green onions (both the green and white parts) in addition to some shiitake mushrooms.  I also added  about 6 ounces of very thinly sliced beef chuck that I had marinated in  Korean soup soy sauce and sesame oil and sauteed quickly prior to dropping it in the soup.

The results were yummy! The entire family enjoyed!

Sorry for the poor pictures.  The lighting and shadows were horrible!