Korean Bone Broth

Bone brooth - a super cliche if you read the Guardian, the stock you've been making from carcasses for years if you don't. One of the good things about bone broth is that you eek out all the tasty goodness from bones so you can make the most of the animal who a) gave its life for you and / or b) you paid for. Honour and frugality, the cornerstone of any good woman cook*.

Here are some of the good things bone broth does according to the internet ('Wellness Mama' to be precise): a source of minerals / good for the immune system / improve digestion / high calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus / high collagen content / apparently it can even eliminate cellulite! I'm not a nutritionist, so I'm not sure where the truth lies in that, but I do know that this is tasty and hearty and I do know that if it's been a long day then this will make you feel better.

This simple broth takes inspiration from a small Korean cook book which features basic Korean recipes and bad food photography. You're working with four main taste-makers: garlic (lots of garlic, a whole clove), ginger, chilli (or gochujang) and soy sauce.

Here's what I used:

Beef ribs
Stock veg - onion, celery, carrot (plus bay leaves and peppercorns)
Garlic (minced)
Ginger (peeled and grated)
Gochujang (a Korean sauce which is like super hot turbo ketchup, supposedly its as ubiquitous as ketchup is to us Brits in Korea) use chillies otherwise, but if you can get Gochu from an Asian supermarket then you should grab it.
Soy sauce
Thick slooply udon noodles
Coriander
Spring onions

Here's what I did:

The cooking liquor of the meat is your soup. So I covered the ribs in water and added peppercorns, a carrot, a peeled onion and bay leaves, and boiled them for about 3 hours. When the meat was falling off the bone, I added sieved the liquor, removed the veg and other bits and pulled the meat off the bones in chunks using a fork.

In a separate saucepan, fry your garlic and ginger in sunflower or vegetable oil to take the raw edge off, and add your gochujang, followed by the soysauce, then add your stock / broth back and at this point you could add some chopped carrots and celery - perhaps also some mushrooms and cook for about 20 minutes. A little while before the end, you will need to add your noodles to cook through (packet instructions), and you will need to add the meat to heat back up. Garish with LOTS of coriander and spring onions.

Serve and slurp.

*Joking - dark ages.