Korean Soybean Paste Soup

I was tempted to try making the Korean Beancurd (Miso) Soup as listed in AllRecipes.com but, as usual, I found out that mom's kitchen didn't have everything requires in the recipe. I've got no tofu, zucchini, or dashi in the fridge. And dad can't eat mushrooms as per doctor's order. So, I decided to improvise and try to make an alternate version (sort of like a Chinese and Korean fusion) of this soup. Here's what I did.



Servings:

• Serves, 4-5 adults.
  

Ingredients:

• 3-4 leaves of Taiwanese Cabbage, washed and cut into thick slices
  
• 5-6 medium/large cloves of garlic, peeled, halved if preferred
  
• 1 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced
  
• 1 stick of carrot, peeled and cut into 2 inch thin sticks
  
• 10 dried Chinese red dates (more if you prefer your soup to be sweeter)
  
• 10 dried Chinese oyster, cleaned by soaking in cold water, halved
  
• 100 grams glass noodle (or cellophone noodle), pre-soak in cold water for about 15 minutes, drain water and put aside.
  
• 300 grams of meat (preferably pork/chicken or beef), thickly sliced
  

• 1000 ml water
  
• 3 tablespoons Korean Soybean paste
  
• 1 tablespoon light Soy Sauce
  
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Preparations:

1. Boil water in a large soup pot. Throw meat, red dates, dried oyster, garlic and onion into pot when water is boiling. Add Korean Soybean paste, sugar and, light soy sauce into pot. Mix well. Allow ingredients to cook on slow heat for about 1 hour, or until meat is tender.
   
2. Add Taiwanese cabbage into soup. Allow to cook for 15 minutes, or until cabbage is soft. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add more Korean Soybean sauce if you require more flavor.
   
3. Add glass noodle into soup. Cook for 15 minutes or until glass noodle become transparent. Turn off fire on stove and leave stew to cool for about 15 minutes. This will allow glass noodle to absorb flavor from soup.
   
4. Remove soup from pot, garnish with spring onion. Serve hot.
   

Own Review:
I personally thought that this soup is a tad sour. I think it's because of the Taiwanese cabbage.

I would suggest replace Taiwanese cabbage from this recipe with regular cabbage. This would bring a sweeter taste to the soup.


Additional Ingredient Suggestions:

• Shitake mushrooms or Button mushroom (for extra sweetness)
  
• Wood/Cloud ear mushroom (for texture)
  
• Tofu, soft. (for texture)
  
• Chilli flakes (for a different flavor)
  
• Spring onion (for flavour and fragrance)