Vegan Korean Ragu

I don't make it that often, but the Koreanish mapo ragu that Sam Sifton adapted from David Chang and Dien Ho is a comforting favorite. There is a Changier version in the 101 Easy Asian Recipes book.* I had been wondering about a vegan version of this for a while, and the upcoming series where Chang will explore meat alternatives seemed like a good impetus to give it a go.**

It is not a fast recipe, but I am happy with the results. Here is a picture of (most of) my mise. The only hard-to-find ingredient, depending on where you are, is the Korean red pepper sauce, or gochujang. Order a kilo or 2 from H-Mart, and keep it in the fridge, and you will find yourself reaching for it more than you might think. Otherwise, grapeseed oil (canola would have been fine), onions, garlic, ginger, maple syrup, soy, tofu, silken tofu and a big bag (1 lb) of turnip greens. 

 

I might spin this off as a separate post, but life is too short to stand over a pan of onions to brown them. For some reason, almost every recipe is weirdly optimistic about how long it takes to caramelize onions. If you can get out in front of the process, dice a whole bunch of onions (I did a 3lb bag), or better yet, run them through a mandoline w/ the julienne blade (use the guard, you maniac). Cover the bottom of a slow cooker with some oil, making sure you use a paper towel to oil the sides, so stray onions do not stick to the sides. Toss the onions with some salt, and throw them in the slow cooker. Crank it up to high until it bubbles, stirring when it occurs to you, and then turn it down to low or even warm, and let it do its thing. Wake up to a bunch of caramelized onions. You could just do this and keep the onions for some other purpose, rather than get suckered by all the lies about how to caramelize onions. 

This was not part of the original recipe, but put about a quart of dried shiitakes in a narrow mouthed quart Mason jar, and cover with boiling water, cover and let stand for at least an hour, or until cool. Reserve the soaking water, stem and slice the caps into slivers - about 4 per mushroom. Toss these slivers in a mixture of 3 parts sugar to 1 part salt.*** The soaking water adds some umami, and the mushrooms add some texture and a sense of occasion. 

This is possibly the trickiest part, but it takes attention, more than finesse. Crumble some firm/extra firm tofu as small as you can get. (Tofu has been a strangely tricky thing to get during this fucking pandemic, and I ended up using super firm, and wish I had gone with something slightly less firm. I crumbled with hands, and then used one of these to get it as fine as possible. The original recipe calls for 2lb of pork, and I did 3lb of tofu, figuring it would lose more water. The technique for the crumbled tofu is borrowed from Bittman's tofu chorizo, I omitted the seasonings, and spoiler, the technique is to cook the tofu in some neutral oil until it is browned. I am fortunate to have a big stove and three cast iron skillets, but in any case, you need to give the tofu space in the pan, so you may need to work in shifts. You will need to stir pretty actively to keep the tofu from sticking or sort of coagulating. Once you have your browned tofu pebbles, set aside. 

Start another good-sized pot with lightly salted water, and bring to a boil. 

Peel and mince a decent sized hunk of ginger, aiming to end up with about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of minced ginger. Do the same amount of garlic. You could do a whole head, if you like. Soften the garlic and ginger in a big pot with some oil. Add about 1/2 cup gochujang, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, or better still, maple syrup. Thin with some of the reserved mushroom water, until it seems saucy and simmering. Add the tofu pebbles and stir. Let simmer, then add your greens. I used a 1 lb bag of chopped turnip greens, washed and sorted, but you could use kale, collards, or even spinach. Use more greens than you think, b/c they literally get lost in the sauce. 

Add maybe two double handfuls of Korean rice sticks or cakes to the boiling water, and cook until soft, but not falling apart. Overdone pasta is roughly what you want. When they are ready, reserve a cup of the rice cake water, drain, and add to the stew. Check seasoning. Give the rice cakes some time to get to know the stew. Serve in bowls, and garnish with sliced scallions. 

 

 

 

 

 

*Peter Meehan's name is on the LP book, and it has emerged that he is a jerk. Chang, himself, has some work to do.

**I plan to write about this some. Watch this space. 

***This is another Chang trick, and there is almost no vegetable that does not benefit from a brief trip through this 3/1 sugar/salt mix. Pulls out water, enhances flavor, etc. I usually mix up about a pint at a time.