Not OP, but Japanese S&B curry powder is very different from “standard” curry powder. I’d be willing to bet that in Korea they use a similar powder to Japan.
There’s no reason you can’t use tofu or seitan. Just make sure you use a decently firm tofu since you’ll want it to simmer in the curry for a while to absorb the flavor.
I use the S&B curry powder and it works really well. I actually prefer a mix of the S&B powder with some garam masala (maybe 2:1) but it’s also great on its own.
Echoing the other comment. Curry powder and Asian “instant curry” are very different things. That being said, Korean and Japanese curries are very similar. You can find both in powder or “block” roux forms. Ottogi is probably the most common brand of Korean curry mix. S&B being the most common Japanese one. You can find both in most Asian grocery stores.
The main differences is in what’s put in. Koreans use more pork or beef short ribs as well as fermented or pickled veggies, like kimchi in as well. But yeah, you can put basically whatever you want in. Tofu especially, we use tofu just as often as other proteins. Kimchi Jigae or Kimchi soup, being one of my favorites.
My chili powder (Alton Brown recipe and other stuff) goes into the pan with a little hot fat just before I brown the meat. This way it can borrow a truck from curry and fry the spices a minute before they come in contact with the meat.
Right before it goes into the pan/pot. You want to at least use salt at this point to keep moisture in the meat while cooking and allowing it to brown better before you start tossing in everything else.
Kenji has convinced me that it’s not worth trying to get a good sear on ground meat in chili and bolognese. In his recipes the ground beef is cooked with the chili paste, garlic, and onions (or with other stuff in the ragu). The lost maillard flavors can be recovered with soy sauce, fish sauce, marmite, and MSG.
So to answer your question, during. Kind of, since it gets flavored by the other stuff.
I think the only wrong answer is before, because that will give the meat a sausage consistency. I don’t want rubbery beef in my chili.
Also well done on asking a chili question that doesn’t start a war about beans.
Chicken bullion, soy sauce, msg, sesame oil, garlic, and a lot of hot chile. I kinda of just like hot. I want my nose running and eyes watering so much I can’t really taste anything, or if I can that’s not what I’m paying attention to.
Some dried mushrooms, ground ginger, onion powder, and a stock cube all ground up in the spice grinder. Then just add to water. Maybe add a spoon of gochujang and/or miso.
It isn’t exactly what you’re asking for, but here’s how I prepare those instant lamen packages when I don’t have frozen broth:
brown the meat in the pot that I’m going to use with the lamen. Reserve.
add ginger, sesame seeds, and brown sugar to the pot. Let them caramelise a bit, and add the rest of the seasoning (garlic, soy sauce, pepper sauce, MSG, etc). Then water.
add vegs and let them cook. Aside cook the noodles and probably boil some eggs.
assemble everything.
So the “broth” is mostly the juice of the vegs and meat, soy sauce, vinegar and condiments. It isn’t exactly flavourful, but good enough.
If I had to improve it I’d probably use a chicken bouillon (for any land meat) or powdered dashi (for fish lamen). And perhaps half of a package of flavourless gelatine, for texture. (Some people might use miso instead. My body does not handle it well so I don’t even have it, but it’s an option for you.)
Sometimes I also add half a sheet of nori, as kombu is hard to find where I live. Taste-wise it’s good, but be aware that you’ll get some “nori fragments” at the bottom, I don’t mind but the texture isn’t exactly great.
Miso paste, dashi powder, chicken buillion powder, sesame oil, soy sauce, chili powder or oil, and a raw egg.
Mix well, combine with noodles reserving cooking water. Mix to thoroughly coat noodles. Add reserved cooking water to desired consistency.
You can skip or adjust any ingredients as you prefer. It is easy to make it too salty though. I would say it is most important to keep the egg in there. It helps get the consistency and thickness of a proper broth.
I buy chicken/beef bouillon powder and use that with dry noodles. You can make a mushroom broth by steeping dried mushrooms in hot water for 15-30 minutes, too.
Someone else mentioned daishi, that’s a great soup base as well. If you wanna spend a little more time on it, you can boil kombu and dried anchovies placed in a tea bag in a pot of water to make a larger batch of broth.
Thank you! The kombu and dried anchovies sounds amazing! And I love mushrooms, and often put that into my ramyun, but didn’t even think of making a mushroom broth. Thanks!
Happily! Just make sure to remove the guts of the anchovies before using them for stock. It’s easily done with a knife or even your fingers. Honestly, I’m not sure why you have to do that, I was just always instructed to do it that way.
I don’t have an exact recipe, but my wife likes to add Perilla or Sesame oil to ramyun broth. We want to try truffle oil but we can’t find it in any of the asian groceries in our area. Oh and dashi and/or miso are definitely what I would use if I made broth from scratch.
Thanks! Perilla and truffle oil would be so good. I usually add a little sesame oil and soy sauce in most ramyun as well. I did try making Gyudon (Japanese thin sliced beef over rice/noodles) recently using dashi. Turned out pretty good. Miso is definitely a staple, even just mixing some paste with water for a quick soup.
One day I may try making an actual ramen broth but that takes forever, lol. I’m thinking about doing just a simple garlic and ginger fry and adding in chicken broth, sesame oil, and soy sauce for a quick Shoyu style broth. Probably experiment with everything you mentioned as well. Thanks!
Yeah, dashi is basically my cheat code. lol. When trying various mixes of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, onions, etc., adding dashi just automatically makes it taste complete.
Another thing we “discovered” was using the *don (i.e. oyakodon, gyudon, etc.) sauce recipe to make a thick broth for tsukemen (dipping noodles), and it works! We just add a little more water than usual so it’s more like thick soup in consistency rather than sauce. And the recipe being soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar/honey.
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