Kom Tang Korean Beef Stock Soup Recipes

KOM TANG (KOREAN BEEF STOCK SOUP)

Steps:

• In a large dutch oven, add 8 cups cold water, the beef cubes and the radish. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 1 hour until meat is very tender.
• Remove meat and radish from the broth and skim off excess fat that has floated on the surface of the broth. Slice the meat into thin slices, cutting against the grain. Slice the radish into slices 1/4 inch thick.
• Add the meat, radish and garlic to the broth. Bring back to a boil. Add noodles to broth.
• Cut green onion into rings. Check seasoning and garnish with green onions.

GOMTANG AKA KOREAN BEEF BONE SOUP

Steps:

• Cover bones in cold water, just enough to cover, and let sit for 1 hour. Blood and fat particles will leach out. Drain the bloody water and rinse the bones under cold running water.
• Now it's time to parboil the bones. Cover with cold water (again), just enough to cover. Bring to a boil and vigorously boil for 5 minutes. Scum and other impurities will rise to the surface.
• Drain the pot. Wash the pot thoroughly with soap and water. Then wash the bones with cold water, one by one, until the bones look clean. Place clean bones into the clean soup pot.
• Add 20 cups of cold water, and 2 large, peeled onions to the clean soup pot and clean, parboiled beef bones. Cover and bring to a boil, then lower heat to a vigorous simmer. This is not a roiling boil with big bubbles breaking at the surface; this is a vigorous simmer with lots of small bubbles popping up all over.
• After 3 hours of vigorous simmering (covered), add beef tendon and simmer until soft, about 1 more hour (covered). Depending on the thickness of the tendon, this can take longer so poke with a chopstick to check for tenderness. The tendon should be soft enough so that there's some resistance, but not too much.
• After a total of 4 hours cooking time (3 hrs for the bones, 1 more hour with added tendon), the soup should look milky. Discard onion and beef bones. Remove beef tendon and slice into bite-sized pieces when cool enough to handle. Add tendon back into the soup pot.
• If possible, refrigerate overnight. This will allow the fat to harden. The next day, remove the hardened fat and discard. (This is an optional step but will result in a less fatty soup.)
• Season soup with salt. Then serve with a generous amount of chopped green onion, freshly cracked black pepper, and additional salt for people to add at the table. Rice and kimchi make perfect accompaniments.

SEOLLEONGTANG

Steps:

• Place the beef bones and brisket in a very large stockpot (the biggest you have), and add enough cold tap water to fully cover by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until the bones and meat are no longer pink and a gray foam collects at the surface, about 10 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse the bones under cold tap water. Rinse out the pot, as well, if it is especially dirty, and add back the bones and meat.
• Add 5 quarts cold tap water to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to gently boil. Partly cover and cook until the soup is rich with marrow flavor and milky-white in color, about 3 hours. (For the milkiest soup, you want to maintain this gentle boil, which should be more vigorous than a simmer but less volatile than a hard boil.) During these 3 hours, you don't need to stir, but you should check the water level once or twice to make sure the bones stay covered with liquid; add more cold tap water to the pot if this level gets too low, which can happen if your stove is especially strong.
• Carefully drain the contents of the pot into a colander set in a large bowl. Take out the brisket, slice it thinly against the grain and set aside. Rinse, cool and freeze the bones to use them again another time. At this point, you can refrigerate the soup overnight to remove the fat, which will harden on top once chilled and be easy to remove (don't forget to refrigerate the brisket, too), or you can pour it back into a clean pot and, just before serving, bring to a simmer over medium heat, skimming the fat off the top with a ladle. Season generously with salt.
• While the soup is reheating for serving, prepare the scallion garnish: In a small bowl, stir together the scallions, garlic and flaky sea salt.
• Divide the brisket among large bowls and ladle over the hot soup. Sprinkle some of the scallion garnish over each bowl, leaving the rest on the table so everyone can add more as they eat. The soup should be well seasoned with salt and aromatic from the savory scallions and garlic. Serve with white rice and radish kimchi.