My Korean fiance is taking rest after whole night being busy so I decided to make 떡볶이 for him! And since I need this also, I’m making it now. Hope it’s going to end well~~

Seonkyoung July 30, 2015 at 3:55 pm

How cute and lovely you are!!!! <3

natasha carpina October 18, 2015 at 12:37 pm

hey! me again. ? can i substitute the dried anchovies to dried shrimp?

Seonkyoung October 18, 2015 at 8:05 pm

Yes, you can use dried shrimp. 🙂

lana November 7, 2015 at 3:38 pm

Thank you so much for this stock recipe. I was craving
된장 찌개 but was nor able to achieve the complex flavour. After living in South Korea for 4 years (songuri & hanam-shi), I learned to prepare many Korean dishes simply by taste. Now that I’ve returned to the states, 90% of the dishes I prepare in my home are Korean. I’ll head to my local Korean market today. Whilst I remain homesick for Korea, at least I can still prepare my favourite meals. It helps that I live in Chicago which has a large Korean community.

Seonkyoung November 11, 2015 at 5:20 pm

WOW!! You fell in love with Korean food, very deeply!! 90% is crazy, I’m Korean and I don’t think I don’t prepare 90% Korean food at my home.. lol It is amazing Lana!! So glad you have Korean community where you live, means you have at least 1 Korean grocery near by you too! Hope you try some of my recipes, and enjoy as much as I do when I cook them! 😀 Good luck and have fun in your kitchen~!!

Coppelia December 17, 2015 at 5:18 pm

Hi, thank you for sharing this recipe!
I’m just wondering if it’s okay to use laver (gim) instead of kelp (dasima)? What’s the difference between those two? As for the dried anchovy, do you use plain or salted one? Cos in my country we only have salted dried anchovy. Thank you!

Seonkyoung December 26, 2015 at 1:20 am

Hello! To answer you question, Gim and Kelp is 2 different seaweed, so you don’t want to substitute that 2 ingredients. Kelp will hold the texture as a solid ingredients, but as soon as you add gim into water, it will be a disaster!! Because gim is made out of small bits and pieces of seaweed. Also would’t give enough flavor as much as dasima can give to the broth. 🙂 You can use salted anchovy if that’s only type available. Just remember that your stock will be saltier than my recipe, so you need to adjust saltiness of my recipes when you are using that stock. 🙂 Hope this helped!!

Vin April 26, 2016 at 1:01 am

Hi, thank you so much for this recipe. I wanna try to make it for a smaller batch, maybe half of yours. Aside from water, should I use half of the other ingredients too? Thank you!!

Seonkyoung April 26, 2016 at 5:36 pm

Hello! Yes, if you want to make it in a half batch, please cut all the ingredients into halves. 🙂 Good luck in your kitchen~!

Neri Young August 2, 2016 at 11:50 am

Hello .. Can i use instant konbu powder Used by japanese for making konbu stock? Thank you,,, btw i love your recipe?☺️

Seonkyoung August 2, 2016 at 8:46 pm

Of course you can! 🙂

Alby August 26, 2016 at 11:30 am

Please share for me about how ml for 1 cup for stock?
Thanks you

Seonkyoung August 27, 2016 at 9:15 pm

it would be 236ml.

Ida December 2, 2016 at 3:09 am

Hi Seonkyoung

Thanks for sharing! I want to try this out. It looks pretty simple. I’ve 2 questions that I hope you can help me with:
1) how long can I keep the stock in the freezer? I’m thinking of making a big batch and use it slowly.
2) I bought korean dried anchovies before and it’s either too hard to peel to get the guts out or it disintegrates into small pieces if I manage to force it open. Is this normal?

Thanks so much and I’m looking forward to your reply!

Cheers
Ida

Seonkyoung December 4, 2016 at 7:34 pm

Hello Ida!
You can keep this stock in a refrigerator up to 3 to 5 days. In Freezer, up to 1 month.
I wonder the size of your dried anchovies. (It’s not normal that it disintegrates into small pieces) Dried anchovy comes out variety sizes for different uses. You need at least 1 1/2″ long big dried anchovy, but if yours is smaller than that, just don’t bother to remove the guts and the head. Make the recipe without removing them and when you ready to strain, don’t strain the stock, just take the sock out form the pot by using a ladle. This way you won’t get the bottom of the sock- which has bitter flavor from the guts and the head of anchovies.

Victoria December 21, 2016 at 2:52 am

Is there any substitute for the dried anchovies/shrimp the only market I have I’m my area gets them from a questionable source – the anchovies (only available by the pound) have the CA cancer warning label on them. The shrimp are farm raised in Thailand. Yikes!

Seonkyoung December 22, 2016 at 10:47 am

You can just add extra dried shiitake mushrooms and omit dried anchovy!

May February 25, 2017 at 11:26 am

Hi Seonkyoung, i don’t really have access to green onions.. may i know in your opinion which is a closer substitute? spring onions or leek? or do you have a suggestion for a better substitute? thanks! 🙂

Seonkyoung February 28, 2017 at 5:50 pm

Prink onion or leek would work just fine! 🙂

NikkiP March 23, 2017 at 4:40 pm

Thank you for this recipe! Can’t wait to make it! Question, would it be possible to sub fresh shitake mushrooms for the dried ones?

Seonkyoung March 27, 2017 at 4:24 am

I recommend you to use dried one, because fresh shiitake doesn’t have impact flavor as the dried shiitake. 🙂

Nadia Melchukov March 7, 2018 at 2:07 am

I have an urgent question! What do we do with the leftover ingredients.

Seonkyoung March 7, 2018 at 11:11 pm

They did their job, so I usually toss it away accept shiitake mushrooms (it can be add in any soup or stir fry later).

Nadia Melchukov March 7, 2018 at 2:55 am

What is a good way to use the leftover of the ingredients after this whole process?

Bruce Rae June 24, 2018 at 9:07 am

Hi Seonkyoung – I’m looking forward to making this, but I’m a little confused by this item in your ingredient list “5 Large dried anchovy for sock” … Do you mean “stock”?
Keep up your good work and your willingness to share your Korean cooking knowledge! (I’m in New Zealand, so this is very interesting to us!)

Karla P Fears January 10, 2020 at 7:53 am

Something is wrong with the printed recipe. For some reason, it has carried the url verbiage along with the photos. Though I can still read the recipe, it’s a bit distracting. Just letting you know in case you can clean it up. Thanks!

Seonkyoung January 29, 2020 at 10:19 am

Thank you for the feedback! We are working on a fix now!

Rachael November 12, 2020 at 11:26 am

If you want to make this vegan, do you have a suggestion for a substitute for the dried anchovies? Or just leave them out? Thank you!

Eugenia Kaneshige November 21, 2020 at 10:22 am

I can find dried sardines, but only frozen anchovies. Which would be the better substitute, and if I use the frozen sardines, how many should I use? Thank you for the help.

Seonkyoung November 23, 2020 at 12:29 pm

They both should work fine if they are both dried. However the anchovies would produce a more tasty broth. Hope this helped !

Tania March 21, 2024 at 9:00 pm

is it dried anchovies and use the shrimp as well or is it just one or the other?

Seonkyoung April 3, 2024 at 2:00 am

It’s best if you have both, but you can use one or the other as well 🙂