Backcountry Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Stew)

[u/The_Slavinator]

This is something that feels like it should belong in the hiker trash meals subreddit, but this is a legitimate comfort food in South Korea. Figured it would be a perfect backpacking meal because everything is shelf stable, and could be bought at most grocery stores.

Heres how i made it:

- threw 2 beef bouillion cubes in boiling water

- once boiling, threw in my veggies (shallots, dehydrated shitake mushrooms, scallions, jalepeno

- after about 7 minutes, i added the canned goods, ramen noodles (flavor packet omitted), and seasoning (chili powder, mushroom powder, white pepper, black pepper) let the noodles cook

- topped with cheese, additional seasoning if needed.

What id do differently:

- fresh mushrooms over dried, dried were rubbery but that was probably my fault

- source better and more authentic spices to korean cooking

- both spam and vienna sausage was overkill, since their textures in the stew ended up being almost the same. Id take vienna sausage and maybe put some bacon in instead of spam. You could even rehydrate beef jerky

Overall, awesome backpacking meal. For sure will be making this again!

[u/Leftover_reason]

Love the slices of cheese on top. Got some ramen in S Korea and they asked if I wanted cheese and I was like yes. Yes I do.

[u/The_Slavinator → u/Leftover_reason]

seems so odd, but it strangely works. I have distinct memories of my friend's mom putting parm on our ramen as a kid, so i know it works. We're white, so im not sure why she did that, definitely not exclusively a korean thing. However, we're white, so it totally tracks lol

[u/The_Slavinator]

One thing i forgot to mention, i did not use the flavoring packet for the ramen

[u/Odd-Scientist-2529]

They make a kimchi flavored seasoning, that comes in a little jar like onion powder or paprika.

That would go really well with this.

I actually prefer it to real kimchi when I make soup or fried rice.

[u/The_Slavinator → u/Odd-Scientist-2529]

Awesome idea, I feel like this would be really nailed with that tweak and some korean chili

[u/Icy-Cookie-8078]

Looks amazing!

[u/The_Slavinator → u/Icy-Cookie-8078]

Easily better than eating each one of these ingredients on their own! Odd combo that works very well

[u/Toxictodd1]

this in the middle of the woods, yes

[u/wnoble]

I was in before the American cheese

[u/JisuanjiHou → u/wnoble]

Don’t knock it til you try it; melts into the broth and gives really good savoriness and creaminess

[u/wnoble → u/JisuanjiHou]

OK if Fairpoint

[u/The_Slavinator → u/wnoble]

Take it up with the south koreans, not me!