Miyeok Guk

Korean Seaweed Beef Soup!  The flavor of this simple soup is much richer than it sounds!

     Miyeok Guk is a very traditional soup in Korea.  Miyeok Guk helps with fertility, luck, mental awareness, clarity and it is also great for women during pregnancy.  This nutritious soup does have medicinal qualities.  A high amount of minerals, electrolytes and iodine are contained in seaweed.
     A simple Miyeok Guk recipe needs no extra ingredients to be great tasting.  There is some kind of food chemistry reaction, when beef is cooked with seaweed, that creates a very rich flavor.  Seaweed seems to react with beef like no other meat.
     A Korean technique of quickly "marinating" the beef with soy sauce, while sauteing, causes the soy sauce to reduce and cling to the beef.  Just adding soy sauce to the broth will not produce the same effect.

     Miyeok Guk Recipe:
     Rinse about 1 ounce of salt packed dried wakame seaweed under cold running water.
     Soak the wakame seaweed in water, till it becomes its original size.
     Cut the wakame seaweed into wide strips.
     Heat a sauce pot over medium heat.
     Add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil.
     Add 2 chopped garlic cloves.
     Saute till the garlic becomes aromatic.
     Add  5 ounces of very thin, wide slices of raw beef.
     Add 2 pinches of sea salt.
     Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of soy sauce.
     Saute for 1 minute, to flavor and marinate the beef.  The soy sauce should reduce and coat the beef like a rich marinade after one minute!
     Add 1 cup of rich beef broth.
     Add 1 1/2 cups of light vegetable broth.
     Add the wakame seaweed strips.
     Raise the temperature to medium high heat.
     Bring the soup to a boil.
     Reduce the temperature to low heat.
     Let the soup simmer for 30 minutes, till the flavors of the broth meld.
     Pour the soup in a bowl and serve.

     The flavor of this Miyeok Guk is much better than the few ingredients in this soup would suggest it to be!  The iodine, sea aroma and spinach flavors of the seaweed combines with the beef flavor in a very flavorful way.  Iodine from seaweed is a great cancer fighting food.  Feeling good, alert and healthy in a short time is the benefit of eating this great Korean soup.  Yummy!  ...  Shawna