A colleague at work posted this stew one day as an easy quick-to-make recipe, and I kind of dismissed it as not looking that flavorful. I happened to have the ingredients for it a little while later, and was surprised how good it is.
I also think it shows off the strengths of the Instant Pot, since mom recently got one. You can use these techniques for anything. I use the "pressure cook just the beef" technique all the time.
It's also very easy to keep the ingredients in the freezer - I usually keep some stew beef stored, and daikon radishes are so huge I will cut the whole radish up and store the extra in the freezer also. So if you make this once, it's easy to make another round later.
The recipe is based primarily on the recipes from Maangchi and from here.
It's normally served with rice. How you combine the rice with the soup is kind of a choose-your-own-adventure situation. You could do noodles too for a true one-pot meal, but beware the red splashing everywhere.
Ingredients
- 4 green onions (whites in large chunks, greens in smaller chunks, separated)
- 1 Tbsp oil
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil (+1 tsp to be added later)
- 3-4 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 pound of stew beef (or more)
- 1 box beef broth
- 2 Tbsp milder Korean chili flakes (see below)
- Daikon radish (skinned and cut into cubes, quantity to taste, 1/2 to 3/4 of a large radish works well)
- 2 Tbsp fish sauce
- Salt
- Pepper (a small grind at the very end is quite tasty!)
- Optional:
- Soft tofu (cubes)
- Mushrooms (quartered)
Easy Mode Instructions
Fancy Style
Saute Mode
Select the saute mode, and choose medium. Add the normal oil and 1 Tbsp of sesame oil. Wait until it's warm, then add green onions and garlic, saute to take the edge off of both. If your meat isn't frozen, you can brown it as well.
If you like a more earthy flavor, you can also cook the 2 Tbsp of red pepper flakes in the oil with all of this stuff. Otherwise, just add it once you add the broth, I think that gives a brighter flavor.
Once that's done, add all the broth.
Pressure Cook
It's nice to have really fall-apart beef, and you want it to be more cooked than the other ingredients. We can use the pressure cooker feature to make this happen fast.
With garlic, onions, beef, broth and red pepper flakes all in the instant pot, close it. Make sure the selector on the top of the pot is set to keep the steam in. Choose "pressure cook" for at least 45 minutes (mine was frozen and 45 was barely enough, so maybe more if frozen).
After 45 minutes, make sure the pot isn't under anything important and flip the switch the release the steam.
Choose your own adventure: How long till dinner?
Once the steam release is done, what you do next depends on how long it is till dinner. If you have ages, toss in radish and fish sauce, and set it to slow cook until dinner. Add green onion greens and 1 tsp sesame oil, adjust S&P.
If you're right up against eating time, I'd suggest adding everything else (radish & fish sauce), and use the Saute mode again. This basically just makes it act like a normal pot on a stove, so it'll be done in about 15 minutes. Once the radish is cooked, adjust salt and stuff, add green onions and 1tsp sesame oil.
Korean Chili Powder (gochugaru)
I know it's annoying to acquire yet another new ingredient, but this stuff really has a special flavor without adding too much heat. It's actually easy to add to things like ramen for a little more flavor and to get your daily recommended quantity of red.
Supposedly there are different spiciness levels, but they're not super well labeled in English at Korean stores. I think I just got lucky. Supposedly the coarser variant is usually less spicy. According to Reddit, the extra spicy kind will be labeled with 청양고추 or 땡초 and the less spicy variant with 덜매운. The standard variant supposedly won't have any special text. Here's a photo of what I have, which I think is basically standard level of spice (which isn't that spicy).
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