Jangjorim

Ingredients

• 14⅛ ozBeefbrisket, shank or eye of round, cut into 5-8 cm chunks
• 3⅓ cupsWaterfor pre-boiling the beef
• ⅓ cupSoy saucefor the braising liquid
• 3 tbspSugarbalances the sauce
• 5 clovesGarlicsimmered whole
• 3Egghard boiled and peeled
• 3½ ozShishito peppersstems removed, braised at the end
• ½ ozGingersliced, to reduce the gamey smell
• 1Onionhalved, for the cooking broth
• 2⅔ tbspMirinor rice wine
• ½ tspblack peppercornswhole, in the cooking broth
• 1Dried kelpabout 8 cm square, remove after brief simmering (optional)
• 2Bay leafin the cooking broth, alternative to the kelp (optional)
• 5¼ ozKorean radishin large chunks, for the cooking broth only (optional)
• 2Scallionswhite parts only, for the cooking broth (optional)
• 2 tbspKorean soup soy saucepart of the seasoning, otherwise use more regular soy sauce (optional)

Method

1. Cut the beef into 5–8 cm chunks. Hard-boil the eggs, shock them in ice water, peel them and set them aside. Wash the shishito peppers and snap off the stems, leaving the peppers whole without slitting them.
2. Put the beef in a pot with the water, the halved onion, garlic, ginger and peppercorns and bring to a boil. If you like, add the white parts of the scallions, the Korean radish and the bay leaves as well.
3. Skim off the foam that rises to the surface, then turn down the heat and simmer the beef gently for about 30 minutes, until it is almost tender.
4. Lift out the beef and strain the broth, discarding the aromatics along with the bay leaves. Return about 600 ml of the broth to the pot and save the rest for soups.
5. Once the beef has cooled enough to handle, cut it into bite-sized strips or shred it into strands by hand, then return it to the broth.
6. Add the soy sauce, sugar and mirin — you can swap part of the soy sauce for light soup soy sauce — and let everything reduce uncovered for about 15 minutes. If you like, let the kelp steep along with it, pulling it out again after a few minutes.
7. Add the shishito peppers and the peeled eggs and braise for another 10–15 minutes, until the peppers are soft and the liquid has reduced to about a third.
8. Let everything cool and store it in a sealed container in the fridge, with the beef, eggs and peppers covered by the sauce. To serve, spoon out some beef, egg and peppers with a little sauce alongside rice and other side dishes — warm, room temperature or cold.

Tips and variations

A pressure cooker speeds things up: cook the beef under pressure for 18 minutes, then reduce the sauce uncovered on sauté mode. Quail eggs work instead of hen's eggs, and both the peppers and the eggs can be left out altogether — they're optional. You can also bring the broth to a boil first with the onion, scallion, radish, garlic, ginger and pepper and only then add the beef; simpler still, cook the beef in plain water and add the seasonings straight to the same liquid. And you can braise the beef in whole pieces and shred it by hand only at serving time — hand-shredding is the traditional way. Serve jangjorim as banchan with rice, with a few spoonfuls of sauce poured over — and keep eating it from the fridge for days.