CraZY ABouT SooN ToBu

What is Soon Tobu? Actually it is a Korean dish for Tofu Hot Pot. A very common comfort food among the Koreans. Recently I had the best Soon Tobu at BCD Tofu House in LA and was very determined to try replicate the taste at home in Singapore. I invited my parents over to try it and also to beef up the menu, I roasted some saba fish to go along with the rice.... Yums!

The most important ingredient in the replica would be the Korean Chilli Paste and also the chilli powder. As i did not have the time to hunt down the Korean chilli powder, I used Cayanne instead...

Ingredients for the Soup Base:

• Anchovies ( or use Dashi Powder w Anchovies)
• Seaweed
• 3-4 cloves of garlic peeled
• 4-5 shitake mushroom
• 1 large yellow onion

Throw all these ingredients into a big pot of water and bring to boil and then simmer for an hour or 2.

• Drain out all the ingredients leaving the soup base to cool.
• Dice the onion and mushrooms. Discard the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients for the Soon Tobu:

• 3 tablespoon of Korean Chilli paste
• 1 table spoon of Korean miso paste
• 1 egg (1 egg for each pax)
• 2 packet of soft tofu (I used Fortune (for soup))
• 1/2 bowl of pork (u can use seafood or beef or chicken), marinate with a bit of soy sauce, pepper, seseme oil
• Reuse the onion and mushroom from the soup base
• Fish Sauce
• Soy Sauce
• Some sugar

In a seperate pot or you may go to the Korean shops to buy the hot stone pot for the authentic feel, heat a teaspoon of oil. Sauteed the pork, onion and mushroom with a pinch of salt.
When the pork is cooked add in the soup base. Add in the chilli paste, miso paste, tofu, a dash of fish sauce, and a dash of soy sauce. Cover the pot and bring to boil.

At any point, you may want to taste the soup and add the seasoning accordingly to your taste. I like mine hot so i added a lot of cayanne powder. Before serving, crack an egg on the surface of the soup and there you have it - A super "shoik" soup that goes really well with rice or udon.

Here are some pics of my soup... hope you will try it and do leave a comment or 2 of your trail... Enjoy~

Korean Spicy Paste and Miso Paste

Boiling awayyyy...

Teriyaki Saba Fish

Hubby's Dinner Soon Tobu and Honey Roasted Wings

Soon Tobu