Jjolmyeon (쫄면) is both the name of this dish and the type of noodles used to make it. These wheat-based noodles have a fabulous chewy quality, due to the way they are made – during manufacture, the dough is heated to 130-150 ˚C and extruded under pressure. Served with plenty of crunchy raw veggies and the lusciously…

“Kimchi-jjim is one of Korea’s favourite dishes, a daily food that every family will prepare in a slightly different way. Even when the recipe is the same, everyone’s kimchi is different so the dish will have its own character. I’ve even changed my recipe from my mum’s version: she doesn’t use stock. I’ll eat this any day, any time with boiled rice.” - Jung Eun Chae

You’d think, wouldn’t you, that this kind of a bung-together-and-forget simmered recipe would be made for the slow cooker, wouldn’t you. So did we. But THREE tests and many chicken legs later (many bloody legs), we can hand-on-heart report that it is, in fact, way better and far less hassle to just simmer it on the stove…

If you’ve been itching to break out the frankfurters, Spam, processed cheese slices and generally All The Good Things, then – yay. Here’s your golden opportunity. Called budae jjigae in Korea, this unlikely dish first surfaced after the Korean War when many foods were scarce and people made do with what they could find…