• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Pick a meal
    • One Bowl Meals
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch / Dinner
      • Appetizers
      • Salads
      • Soups
      • Main Courses
      • Side Dishes
      • Sweets
    • Snacks
    • Drinks
      • Summer drinks
      • Cold weather drinks
      • Cocktail hour
  • Pick your protein
    • Chicken, duck & turkey
    • Meat
    • Seafood
    • Eggs
    • Mushrooms
    • Tofu
    • Vegetables
  • Pick your carb
    • Rice & grains
    • Noodles
    • Bread
  • Newsletter
  • Sidebar
    • Kitchen
    • Dining
    • Edible Garden
    • Food Tales
  • Newsletter
  • Recipe index
    • By Meal
      • One Bowl Meals
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / Dinner
        • Appetizers
        • Salads
        • Soups
        • Main Courses
        • Side Dishes
        • Sweets
      • Snacks
      • Drinks
        • Summer drinks
        • Cold weather drinks
        • Cocktail hour
    • By Main Protein
      • Chicken, duck & turkey
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By Carb
      • Rice & grains
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Sidebar
    • Kitchen
    • Dining
    • Edible Garden
    • Food Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Meat Lunch / Dinner Main Courses Stews

Beef stew a la House of Kimchi

Published: 10.25.2021 » Last updated: 10.15.2022

Inspired by the soupy sweet and spicy beef stew served at the food court in a now defunct mall. Garlic, ginger, chilies, gochujang (Korean chili paste), soy sauce and sugar are some of the ingredients.

Beef stew a la House of Kimchi

Fifteen years after publishing my first beef stew a la House of Kimchi recipe, here comes the fifth version. We simply can’t get enough of this sweet and spicy stew with fork tender beef cubes. And the sauce is so tasty you’ll want to toss your rice in it!

For those of you who are not familiar with this dish, let me just make it clear that this might not be a traditional Korean dish at all. Most probably, it is Filipino-Korean — an adaptation (or an interpretation) of a version of Korean beef stew by a fantastic cook at the House of Kimchi at the Ali Mall Food Court in Quezon City. That was decades ago.

As of today, according to Google, there are establishments called House of Kimchi but I am not sure if these are reincarnations of the Ali Mall House of Kimchi or if they are just using the “House of Kimchi” name because of the reputation it has built. But, anyway… the beef stew.

The recipe is not much different from the fourth version except that we used a slow cooker this time. That means we didn’t have to let the stew sit in the fridge overnight to allow the flavors to blend better. Slow cooking for seven hours made that unnecessary.

Browning beef in pan

To cook this sweet and spicy beef stew, you’ll need stewing beef. Of course. We’re partial to shortplate here at home but short ribs, shank, brisket or other tough cut of beef that requires long and slow cooking.

Bone-in or boneless? Both will work. But here’s the thing. You get more meat if a boneless cut is used. But you get a more flavorful sauce if you use bone-in. Set your priority and decide.

Browned beef in pan

Lightly oil a heavy frying pan and brown the beef. For even browning, you need every surface of every piece of meat to get in contact with the hot pan. To do that:

  1. Spread the beef in a single layer
  2. Turn the beef on ALL sides
Pouring broth over beef in slow cooker

We take the beef off the stovetop and move the browned pieces into the slow cooker. When all the beef is in the cooker, broth is poured over them.

Adding ginger, shallots, chilies, garlic and bay leaves to beef in slow cooker

Then, we drop in the spices. Ginger, shallots, chilies, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves. Do the ginger, garlic and shallots need to be peeled and cut in a specific way? No and no. You’re going to discard all of them later anyway. You just want to squeeze out the flavors and aromas. And they don’t need peeling or cutting or shaping in order to do that.

Adding gochujang, sugar, soy sauce and rice vinegar to beef in slow cooker

With all the spices in, we move to the seasonings. Gochujang is a Korean chili paste. You’ll also be adding sugar, soy sauce and rice vinegar. You’ll find all these in Asian groceries, or the Asian section of big groceries.

Beef stew a la House of Kimchi in slow cooker

The beef, spices and seasonings are in the cooker, there’s enough liquid for the meat to cook in, so, we drop the lid of the cooker on, set the cooker to the required setting, and let the beef cook slowly as it surely soaks up the beautiful flavors and scents of all the spices and seasonings.

Beef stew a la House of Kimchi

Connie Veneracion
This is a deconstructed recipe. That means the beef stew was cooked based on how we remember the flavors and textures of the beef stew served at the food court of Ali Mall in Quezon City, Philippines.
Beef stew a la House of Kimchi
Print Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 7 hours hrs 15 minutes mins
Total Time 7 hours hrs 30 minutes mins
Course Main Course
Cuisine Asian Fusion
Servings 6 people

Equipment

  • Slow cooker

Ingredients
  

Beef

  • cooking oil
  • 1 ½ kilograms stewing beef - (short ribs, brisket, crest or shank, or a combination of two or more of these cuts)
  • 6 cups bone broth

Spices

  • 6 to 8 cloves garlic
  • 2 shallots - or 1 whole red onion
  • 2 thumb-sized pieces ginger - rinsed, scrubbed, and sliced (no need to peel)
  • ½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns
  • 4 to 5 bird’s eye chilies
  • 2 bay leaves

Seasonings

  • 3 tablespoons gochujang (Korean chili paste) - (the amount depends on how hot you want the dish)
  • 6 tablespoons soy sauce
  • ¼ cup white sugar - (or more, if you have a sweet tooth)
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Garnish

  • finely sliced scallions
  • toasted sesame seeds

Instructions
 

  • Rinse the beef, pat dry with a kitchen towel and cut into two-inch cubes.
  • Heat and brush a non-stick frying pan with oil and lay the beef cubes in a single layer.
  • Brown the undersides of the beef before turning them to brown all sides.
  • Transfer the browned beef cubes to the slow cooker and pour in the broth.
  • Add the ginger, shallots (or red onion) chilies, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves.
  • Stir in the gochujang, sugar, soy sauce and rice vinegar.
  • Cover the slow cooker, turn on HIGH and cook for two hours.
  • Turn down the heat to LOW and cook for another five hours.
  • Scoop out the beef, transfer to shallow bowls, ladle in the thin sauce, and sprinkle with sliced scallions and toasted sesame seeds.
  • Serve with rice. Optionally, serve the thin sauce on the side as broth.

Notes

About an hour before the cooking time is up, taste the cooking liquid and adjust the seasonings. You may want to add more soy sauce (or salt to prevent the stew from turning too dark) or sugar, or both.
The recipes published in 2006, 2009, 2017 and 2020 have been retired.
Print Pin Recipe
Keyword Beef Stew

Recipes and stories in your inbox

  • #26 More than one way to enjoy miso soup
    05.26.2023
    Basic miso soup has tofu, wakame and scallions. But you can add more vegetables, or even meat, mushrooms or seafood, and it won’t be sacrilege.
More Meat
Wontons in Sichuan Chili Oil Sprinkled with Scallions and Sesame Seeds

Wontons in Sichuan chili oil

Cheese and curry harumaki

Cheese and curry harumaki

Japanese braised pork belly (buta no kakuni) and halved hard boiled egg garnished with scallions

Japanese braised pork belly (buta no kakuni)

Deep-fried Crispy Beef Tripe with Dipping Sauce

Deep fried crispy beef tripe

One-pot honey mustard baby back ribs

One-pot honey mustard baby back ribs

Beef, egg and rice (tapsilog)

Beef, fried rice and egg (tapsilog)

Sidebar

Connie Veneracion, Chiang Mai, 2020

Hi, I’m Connie!

Welcome to Umami Days, a blog that advocates innovative home cooking for pleasurable everyday dining. No trendy diets, no food fads and definitely no ludicrous recipe names like crustless quiche, noodleless pho or chocolate lasagna.

  • About
  • Recipes
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Contact
Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki

10-minute shrimp, peas and cashew stir fry

10-minute shrimp, peas and cashew stir fry

Slow cooker callos

Slow cooker callos

Ginger scallion mussel soup

Do mussels and clams need to be soaked before cooking?

Stringed snap peas

Are snow peas the same as snap peas?

Fettucine aglio e olio with mussels

Fettuccine aglio e olio with mussels

Umami Days is powered by Apple, coffee & one bowl meals · Copyright © 2023 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved