Pressure Cooker Korean Beef Stew (Beef Doenjang Jjigae)

Back in May, I was chatting with Tina of FusionCraftiness.com at the Everything Food conference. I mentioned my love of gochujang, and she said “Have you tried doenjang? It makes a great stew.”

Why no, I haven’t heard of it…[pulls out notebook]…what is it, and how do you spell it? 3Doenjang has all sorts of different spellings, the usual result of converting from Korean pictographs into English letters. I’m going with the one on the tub I bought at my local market.

Doenjang is a soybean paste. I’ve seen it for years - it is in the brown tubs that sit right next to the red tubs of gochujang at my local Asian market. Doenjang is the base of Korean stews and soups. I’m using it in Jjigae, a stew that also includes zucchini.4It’s August. Any recipe that uses zucchini is good in August. I add the vegetables after the pressure cooker has done its work, for a last-minute simmer, because pressure cooking zucchini would turn it in to mush.

My kids love this stew - it has the big, bold flavors of Korean food, without the heat of gochujang. The two that can handle the heat will drizzle some gochujang on top, to spice it up; my oldest can’t handle hot food, so he leaves it off. Serve with white rice to soak up the sauce.

Recipe: Pressure Cooker Korean Beef Stew (Beef Doenjang Jjigae)

Equipment

• 6 quart pressure cooker (I use an Instant Pot Duo electric PC)

Pressure Cooker Korean Beef Stew (Beef Doenjang Jjigae)

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• Author: Mike Vrobel
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 6-8 servings 1x

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Description

Pressure Cooker Korean Beef Stew (Beef Doenjang Jjigae) recipe. Korean doenjang paste is the backbone of this quick beef stew.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 cup water or chicken stock
• ¼ cup doenjang (Korean soybean paste)
• 2 pounds flat iron steak (or chuck blade steak), cut into 2 inch by ½ inch strips
• 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt or 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 medium onion, sliced thin
• 1 medium zucchini, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 ounce of shiitake mushroom caps, quartered (discard the stems)
• 12 ounce package extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 chili pepper, sliced into rings
• 1 scallion, trimmed and cut into ½ inch pieces
• Salt to taste

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Instructions

1. Simmer the soybean paste: Bring 1 cup of water to a simmer in the pressure cooker pot over medium-high heat (Sauté mode in an electric pressure cooker.) Stir in the doenjang paste and simmer until the paste dissolves into the liquid, stirring often and breaking up any chunks of paste with a wooden spoon.
2. Pressure cook the stew: Sprinkle the beef with the kosher salt and the red pepper flakes. Stir the beef into the pot. Lock the lid and pressure cook on high pressure for 15 minutes in an electric PC or 12 minutes in a stovetop PC. Quick release the pressure in the pot.
3. Simmer the vegetables: Carefully open the lid on the pressure cooker - watch out for hot steam. With the lid off, set the cooker over medium-high heat (sauté mode in an electric PC) and stir in the onion, zucchini, tofu, and shiitake mushrooms. Bring the pot to a boil and boil for 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms and zucchini are tender. Stir in the chili pepper and scallion, taste, and add salt if needed. Serve.

Notes

Serve with white rice and a squeeze bottle of Gochujang sauce to drizzle on top.

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
• Category: Pressure Cooker
• Cuisine: Korean

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

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