Bugeo-guk (Dried Pollock Soup)

Bugeo-guk lives or dies before the water goes in. If you drop dried pollock straight into a pot and boil it, you get a thin fish soup and disappointment. Sweat the bugeo in sesame oil first. That is the step my teacher made me repeat until I could smell when the fish had woken up.

This is a morning soup, often a haejangguk (hangover soup), but don't make it only after a hard night. It belongs to the ordinary table too: a bowl of rice, a little kimchi, maybe one namul left from yesterday. The broth should be pale and lightly milky, with torn strands of pollock, soft tofu, egg ribbons, and scallion. It should restore you without shouting at you.

Use rice water if you can, the second rinse from washing rice, not the first dusty one. It gives the soup body without heaviness, and it helps the dried fish turn the broth cloudy and gentle. Season late and lightly. Dried pollock varies in salt, so taste after it has given itself to the broth. 손맛 is real. I still measure it, so it can be handed on.