Soon du bu (spicy tofu stew)
14 Sep
Soon Du Bu (aka Soon Doo Boo) is a spicy anchovy based stew with chunks of super soft tofu and other vegetables. Most Soon Du Bu specialty restaurants will give you a bunch of options. You can choose to get white (no spicy seasonings), mild, medium, hot, or a bean paste based soup, similar to miso. They even give you the option to add mushrooms, seafood, pork, beef, Kimchi, or a combination of the aforementioned ingredients. I threw in whatever I had on hand for this particular recipe.
This stone bowl keep the soup nice and hot so that it doesn’t get cold as you eat. As you can see, it totally fogged up my camera lens, and continued to bubble for a good 10 minutes.
When it’s cold outside, there is nothing more comforting than eating soups! This is one of my favorite soups and I have a feeling I will be eating a lot of it this winter! Won’t you join me in this endeavor of eating delicious Soon Du Bu at home? 
Feel free to add ground beef, or ground pork, or your favorite seafood to this recipe. Also, check out my other recipes for Korean Soups.
Makes 3-4 servings
Ingredients:
1/2 pound of fresh shrimp, peeled and cleaned
1/2 cup of fermented Kimchi, cut into strips
1 package of silken tofu (usually in tubes)
1/2 package of enoki mushrooms
1 cup of shiitake mushrooms
1/2 of a medium onion, diced
1 cup of sliced zucchini
6 pieces of dry anchovies
1 tablespoon of Asian red pepper flakes (gochugaru) (use less if you don’t want it to be too spicy)
1 teaspoon of Korean red pepper paste (gochujang)
1.5 tablespoons of diced salted shrimp (or fish sauce)
1 egg
2 teaspoons of canola oil
2 teaspoons of minced garlic
2 sprigs of scallions, diced
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
Procedure:
1. Boil 3 cups of water in a large pot with anchovies. After it has come to a boil, lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
2. In a frying pan, coat with oil. Bring to high heat. Cook onions, mushrooms, and zucchini for about 5 minutes, until slightly softened. Transfer everything to a bowl. Set aside.
3. In the same frying pan, add sesame oil and red pepper flakes over low heat. Continue stirring until you see more oil in the pan than you’ve started with and the red pepper flakes are a bit dark. Be sure to keep the heat at a minimum. Add garlic and saute for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Remove anchovies from broth. Add onions, mushrooms and zucchini to the pot and increase heat to high.
5. Add salted shrimp (smells bad but tastes amazing) to the soup. Add gochujang, red pepper flakes oil that you made earlier, along with tofu, kimchi, shrimp, and enoki mushrooms to the pot. Add more spices to adjust seasoning to your liking. Cook for 5 minutes, covered.
6. Whisk egg in a bowl, then pour into soup.
7. Add scallions and serve!
Update: My friend Sam told me that cooking down the ingredients in frying pan first made a big difference in flavor and I totally agree! I sauteed the onions with zucchini in a frying pan first and it gave the soup a nice, seasoned taste.
