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The funny thing about Korean food in general, all you really need is red chili paste or flakes and you can make anything. Add it as an ingredient and it’ll make the food seem Korean no matter what’s in it, whether it be chocolate, durian fruit, or coconut crab. Even if you don’t know how to cook Korean food, you can improvise and pretty much figure out what’s in it just by looking and tasting it.

So, haemul tang is pretty much like gamja tang. It’s the same thing, the only difference is that you use fish stock and ….well, fish. I prefer monk fish, which used to be the poor man’s lobster…even though lobster used to be considered the poor man’s big mac. It’s just a great meaty fish.

Ingredients:

2.5 lbs of Monk Fish with the bones still on or separated by the fish monger. You’ll need it for the fish stock and if you want to keep the head, you can if it’s still attached, but it’s one ugly mother….

1 tlbsp of ginger, chopped up.

4 cloves of Garlic, chopped up.

2-3 tlbsp of Red Chili Paste

1 small Korea Radish, peeled and sliced up into medallions.

2 bushels of chrysanthemum leaves

1 medium size spud if you want, I prefer it since the starchiness thickens the soup. Peel and slice it up like the Korean radish.

1 Jalapeño Pepper

2 stock leeks sliced up.

Half a block of tofu, sliced up.

2 Pots

With one of the pots, put some water into it and fill it halfway up. Next, place it on the stove and let it boil.

Since I have no formal culinary training, separating the monk fish from it’s bones was hard as hell. Not only did I almost gag touching the slimy leathery skin, the membrane would just not separate easily. So be very careful, when you use a knife to slice through. From what I figured out by trial, just cut along the bone to separate the flesh from it. Good luck if you didn’t ask the fish monger to do it for you.

Once you finally manage to get all the meat off, cut them into chunks, place them into a non-metallic bowl, cover it up, and set it in the fridge. The stuff leftover, like the skin and bones, put them into the boiling water and let it simmer. This will be your fish stock and will take about 30 minutes to come together.

In the mean time, you can start preparing the other ingredients. Clean, slice them up, and put them away for later use. With the jalapeño, cut it in half and take out the seeds. You don’t need the extra heat, unless you want it. The sliced medallions, put them into cold water so they don’t brown up.

With the 2nd pot, heat up some oil and start sweating the garlic and ginger. Once you get a nice aroma, add the sliced leeks and let it soften up. Once the leeks start to get translucent, using a measuring cup, start pouring the fish stock into the 2nd pot. Add about 3-4 cups and just in case, have an extra bowl around to take soup out it if it starts to boil over. After it starts to boil, lower the heat and let it simmer while you add the red chili paste, jalapeño, potato, and radish slices. Once the potato and radish start to soften up, add one bushel of chopped chrysanthemum leaves, the monk fish, and tofu.

At this point, it should not take too long for the fish to cook and just before you serve it, add the 2nd bushel of chrysanthemum. Pair it up with some white rice and soju and you got yourself a meal!