Korean Cabbage Soup

What culinary experience week would be complete without a nice soup? I stuck with a vegetable that I've always loved and am quite familiar with - cabbage! But not just any cabbage, no a beautiful napa cabbage! 
Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures of this pretty cabbage but I did get a few snaps of the soy bean paste that added a hearty slow cooked taste to the soup in literally seconds.

Baechu Gook

As you can see it looks like a gummy paste and comes in an adorable little storage container. On the front is a small picture of the soy bean paste bricks traditionally hung up and allowed to dry and ferment over the course of months. I don't think this particular paste has had that kind of love and affection bestowed upon it but it will do just nicely for this recipe. 


If I had it to do all over again, I would've been a bit less liberal with the beef stock powder. It's potent stuff! Just a tiny bit goes a long way so make sure you don't add more than the recipe calls for. 


Unfortunately, the beautiful napa cabbage that I spoke so highly of before cooking turned into a soggy looking mess after it cooked. My way of solving that problem was to take an immersion blender to it and blend the life out of it. Having done away with all the chewing that may have been involved had I not blended it to death, it went down rather easily and quickly and it was gone within two days. I call that success!