Ttaro-gukbap (Daegu Separated Rice Soup)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •5- to 6-quart heavy soup pot
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Soup ladle
• •Pressure cooker, optional for the broth

Instructions

1. 1

   Clean the beef

   Put the beef in a bowl of cold water for 20 minutes, then drain and rinse it. This is not to wash away flavor. It clears the loose blood proteins that make a broth muddy and sour at the edges. Do not soak it for an hour and call that care; the beef still has work to do in the pot.

2. 2

   Simmer the broth

   Put the beef in a 5- to 6-quart pot with 10 cups cold water, the onion, smashed garlic, ginger, 200g radish chunks, 2 scallion white ends, and peppercorns if using. Bring it slowly to a simmer over medium heat, skim the gray foam for the first 10 minutes, then lower the heat and simmer gently for 75 to 90 minutes, until the beef can be pierced easily. A hard boil makes the meat tighten and the broth rough.

   A pressure cooker is a safe modern shortcut here: cook the beef, water, and aromatics 35 minutes at high pressure, then let the pressure release naturally for 15 minutes. The seasoning work afterward stays the same.
3. 3

   Measure the broth

   Lift out the beef and strain the broth through a fine strainer. Discard the spent aromatics. Measure the broth: you need 7 cups for four bowls. If you have less, add water. If you have more, simmer it down. This number keeps the salt, chili, and beef in balance instead of leaving you with a pot that changes every time.

4. 4

   Shred the beef

   When the beef is cool enough to handle, slice it against the grain, then pull it into spoon-size shreds. Do not leave long strings. Gukbap is eaten with a spoon, and the meat should come along politely with the radish and broth.

5. 5

   Bloom the seasoning

   Wipe the soup pot clean and set it over low heat. Add the sesame oil and neutral oil, then stir in the gochugaru for 30 to 45 seconds, just until the oil turns clear red and glossy. Add the minced garlic, guk-ganjang, and black pepper, then stir in the shredded beef until every piece is coated. Blooming the chili wakes its color and nuttiness; burning it gives bitterness that no broth can hide.

   Do not replace the gochugaru with gochujang. Gochujang brings sweetness and thickness, and this soup wants a clean red broth, not a sticky sauce.
6. 6

   Build the soup

   Pour in the measured 7 cups broth and scrape the bottom of the pot so the seasoned beef releases into it. Add the 250g cut radish and simmer 10 minutes, until the edges turn slightly translucent. The radish goes in before the sprouts because it needs time to sweeten the broth.

7. 7

   Add greens

   Add the soybean sprouts and the cut scallions. Simmer with the lid off for 8 minutes. For kongnamul, choose one path and stay there: lid off the whole time or lid on the whole time. I use lid off here because you need to watch the red broth, and lifting a lid halfway is what gives sprouts that raw, stubborn smell. If using cooked seonji, add it for the final 5 minutes and simmer until heated through without breaking it apart.

8. 8

   Season and rest

   Stir in 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, then taste the broth. Add up to 1/2 teaspoon more salt only if it tastes flat against the beef. The soup should be a little stronger than you would sip alone, because the rice is waiting beside it. Turn off the heat and let the pot rest 10 minutes so the red oil settles and the scallions soften without collapsing.

9. 9

   Serve separately

   Ladle the soup into deep bowls and scatter extra sliced scallion on top. Serve each person a separate bowl of hot rice, never rice already drowned in the soup. Each diner spoons rice into the broth bite by bite, or eats the two side by side. That is the name of the dish, and it is not a decoration.

Chef Tips

• •Choose brisket or shank with some connective tissue. Lean stew meat will cook, yes, but it gives you broth without body and shreds like a tired rope.
• •Daegu bowls can be red and still restrained. Use good gochugaru and let the beef broth carry the dish. More chili is not more flavor; it is only more chili.
• •Some old Daegu shops serve seonji (clotted ox blood) in the bowl. If your Korean market sells it cooked and refrigerated, add it near the end and heat it through. If it is not fresh and clean-smelling, leave it out without regret.
• •The corner you may cut is the vessel: a pressure cooker makes a good weeknight broth. The corner you may not cut is seasoning the beef before it returns to the soup. Meat tossed in red paste tastes seasoned all the way through; meat dropped into red broth tastes lonely.
• •Keep the rice separate until the spoon. Ttaro-gukbap is not fussy service. It is the whole point.

Advance Preparation

• •The broth and shredded beef can be made up to 3 days ahead. Chill them separately, lift off any hardened fat if there is too much, then bloom the seasoning and finish the soup when you are ready to eat.
• •For the best texture, add soybean sprouts and scallions on the serving day. They soften after a night in the refrigerator, still edible, but no longer proud.
• •Cook the rice fresh or reheat it separately. Do not store rice in the soup, or you have made ordinary gukbap by accident.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 900g)