Jjamppong (짬뽕)

The weather's getting warm and I'm getting the travel bug - especially torturous in these times. We spent last summer in Busan and I am seriously missing the food. But eating this beautiful bowl of spice, called jjamppong (짬뽕), took me right back.⁠

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While Korean food is famous in America for its marinated meat, the seafood is amazing. If you ever go, check out a seafood market - they're veritable edible aquariums. ⁠I think that the biggest one is in Busan, but they are all over the coastal towns and you can find the coolest, strangest, most delicious things there. And, you might run into a good tteokbukki stand to boot. I have some great pictures, but they're on another laptop in a corner of the basement to which I dare not go.

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Jjamppong is a Sino-Korean dish full of ocean bounty and noodles and relatively easy to make.⁠ Despite all of the seafood, jjampong doesn't have a very strong seafood taste or smell (the red pepper flakes take care of that). You can customize it by mixing in different types of seafood and adding more or less red pepper flakes, depending on how much spice you want. My favorite part is the thick noodles (we just use udon) that give an otherwise light dish some heft.

I know it's a hot, spicy soup, but it's really refreshing. Call me crazy.

Traditionally, jjamppong has clams, mussels, shrimp and octopus, but you can mix and match. I included abalone in mine.

I know it looks like a lot of ingredients, but it's pretty simple to throw together!

**One note - using fresh ingredients with seafood always taste better.

INGREDIENTS

(for a serving size of 4)

⁠5 cups of anchovy broth (dashima (kelp) + anchovies + onion boiled together)

4 shrimps per person (I prefer headless)

3 little neck clams per person

3 mussels per person

1/2 lb or octopus rings

*1/2 lb baby octopus or squid

*1 abalone per person

1/2 cup of red pepper flakes

1/3 cup of oil

1/2 an onion (sliced)

2 tablespoons of garlic

1 tablespoon of ginger

~1/2 zucchini - sliced into match sticks

a handful of thinly sliced cabbage

a handful of dried shiitake mushrooms

3 green onions, sliced long ways into thin strips

1/3 cup of fish sauce (add more to taste)

1/3 cup of soy sauce (add more to taste)

3 packs of udon noodles (usually come in single serving sized frozen packages)

*optional additions

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat a deep pot with the oil

2. When hot, add pepper flakes, garlic, ginger, over medium low heat (don't burn them!)

Note: use less of chili flakes for mild spice - 1/2 cup is borderline PAINFUL, but so, so, good

3. Add in zucchini and cabbage and green onions. Saute a few more minutes longer.

4. When the veggies start to wilt, add anchovy broth (Chicken broth is a great substitute... maybe even better than anchovy broth IMO), fish sauce, and soy sauce and bring to a boil over medium high heat

5. When pot starts to boil, add your rinsed seafood and cook until the clams open up

6. In a separate pot, boil the udon noodles. I only say a separate pot because it's easier to divvy up the noods into servings. You could totally cook the noodles in the jjamppong broth.

7. I pulled out the abalone and sliced it before putting it in everyone's bowl. Add green onions (sliced long ways) at the end with salt and pepper to taste.

Boom. Jjamppong.