{"id":8453,"date":"2017-02-09T09:44:29","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T17:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kimchimari.com\/?p=8453"},"modified":"2023-05-18T14:17:38","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T21:17:38","slug":"alaska-pollock-stew-dongtae-jjigae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kimchimari.com\/alaska-pollock-stew-dongtae-jjigae\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska Pollock Stew with Gochujang – Dongtae Jjigae"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Spicy
Spicy Alaska Pollock Stew (Dongtae Jjigae)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alaska Pollock Stew or Dongtae Jjigae is a very popular Korean fish stew that is made with frozen Alaska pollock. I have shared in my\u00a0Bugeo Gui recipe<\/a> about how Koreans use different words to describe Alaska pollock in different states – fresh, frozen, dried, semi-dried.. Alaskan pollock is such an important ingredient in Korean cuisine that there are unique names (6 in all!) for all the different ways the fish comes in. Dongtae \ub3d9\ud0dc (frozen), Bugeo \ubd81\uc5b4 (dried), and so on.<\/p>\n

\"Pan
Pan Seared Dried Pollock (Korean Bugeo Gui)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

See my post on Bugeo<\/a>\u00a0Gui for more info on Alaskan pollock and also for a fabulous way to pan sear dried pollock!<\/p>\n

As you may have guessed, the ‘dong’ in Dongtae (\ub3d9\ud0dc\u00a0\u51cd\u592a) means ‘frozen’. And I don’t know why this phrase suddenly comes to my head but Koreans talk about someone’s eyes looking like ‘frozen pollock eyes’ = ‘\ub3d9\ud0dc\ub208’…hahaha…which is really not a nice thing to say (bad JinJoo!) because it basically means someone’s eyes looking lifeless and hazy. Usually referring to someone who is exhausted from staying up all night or often someone who had a little too much to drink the night before. Yeah..I’m sorry but I just couldn’t resist. \ud83d\ude1d\u00a0I am just too honest sometimes… hahaha..<\/p>\n

I probably mentioned before that my father loved seafood and Dongtae Jjigae was one of his favorite Jjigae to have at home. And although my mom was not a fan of fishy<\/em> fish like mackerel (\uace0\ub4f1\uc5b4) or herring (\uccad\uc5b4), she was also a fan of this Alaska pollock stew. I always remember my mom emphasizing to us that in order for the Frozen Alaska Pollock Stew to taste good, you have to chop up and include something called Iri (\uc774\ub9ac). All this time, I thought Iri was some part of the pollock’s stomach. Silly me…<\/p>\n

And until now, all the frozen pollock I bought at Korean markets in the US always had this Iri. But when I bought dongtae from our market recently to cook for this post, for the life of me, I could not find Iri!! All that fish had were huge sacs of eggs besides the usual innards. Hmm…have I lost my marbles?? Was I just mistaken? I was totally puzzled…<\/p>\n

I asked my sister and I even asked a retired deli owner in our church who is one of the best cooks that I know in the area (she used to serve a bibimbap salad that was quite addicting) and they all could not give me a clear answer why I could not find Iri in my dongtae.<\/p>\n

Hmm.. I was lost…<\/p>\n

Did I dream this whole Iri thing up? Did I somehow accidentally discard it? So I bought another fish..<\/p>\n

Is our local market selling a different fish disguised as an Alaska pollock? Koreans have been found to sell different fish you know – there was a scandal while back where people sold a similar variety to the very expensive yellow croaker (Gulbi \uad74\ube44) and colored the belly yellow. Embarrassing..<\/p>\n

Does this organ Iri shrink somehow when the pollock fish is full with eggs???<\/p>\n

I was going crazy.. and started searching online and couldn’t find much for some time. And then… well, SURPRISE!!! I found out that Iri is actually the organ that holds the sperm (testicle) of the male pollock!!! \u00a0So, DUH… of course, it will be missing in a fish that has eggs – aka FEMALE.. hahaha. Iri is the white, squiggly brain-like organ on the right in the picture below.<\/p>\n

\"Pollock
Pollock egg sac(al) and sperm sac(iri) (http:\/\/m.blog.daum.net\/myfoods\/1977916<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I ended up buying 3 dongtae from my local market in the search of the Iri but they were all female with only the egg sacs (on the left in the pic above) which is called Al \uc54c or Goni \uace4\uc774. FYI, this egg sacs are used to make Myeongranjeot (\uba85\ub780\uc813) – one of my most favorite food!!!<\/p>\n

Wow – stick with me and you will learn something new everyday!<\/p>\n

Right, let’s get cooking shall we??<\/p>\n

Frozen Alaska Pollock Stew (Dongtae Jjigae \ub3d9\ud0dc\ucc0c\uac8c)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Servings: 3 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Prep Time: 10 min \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Cook Time: 25 min \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Difficulty: Medium<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/p>\n