North Korea – JeonBok-Juk

by Evelyn Brutz

This unique dish is also known as Abalone rice white porridge. It is a variety of Juke. Juke is a mixture of porridge, grains, rice cooked with simple vegetables and meat. It is boiling of the legume, beans, grains, rice, nuts, etc together and then a solid mushy mixture is formed of this porridge, multigrain bowl. You must add flavorful vegetables, and boneless meat in the grounded form of small pieces to get all the taste and flavor in one bowl. A huge amount of water is added to cook this dish because we have to dissolve the whole grains into a semi-solid consistency. Like a normal porridge is cooked but it has all the grains, legumes, beans, etc. You can add dry fruits, nuts, or even fresh fruits after the cooking procedure. Rice porridge is a very popular breakfast in Korea. It is said to be a very light and healthy meal to start a day with. This is a dish that is given to small babies as their first solid or semi-solid meal. For babies, even this dish is more liquify and water content is added to make it more liquidy and easy to swallow for them.

This dish is said to be Poverty meal or Famine food.

Following are the advantages of having Juk :

1. This meal is very soft and easy to digest.
2. It has high nutritional values in addition to having a huge amount of protein and carbohydrates.
3. This dish is GET WELL DISH, which is given to sick patients for their fast recovery.
4. This is ideal food for babies as their a soft texture and high nutrients.

Varieties of juk available worldwide are the following with brief explanation :

Ssaljuk

When juk is made up of plain white rice with some herbs and spices this dish is known as ssaljuk This is the plainest version of making Juk in which simple rice is cooked with a huge amount of water more than used in preparing for Bap. Two-three types of different legumes are added and let them cook together for an hour until it gets the soggy and mushy texture.

Jatjuk

This juk dish has main ingredient is Pine nuts. Fine powder of pine nuts and rice is added to the milk and water. This dish can be sweetened or salted according to the requirement of the meal. You can either serve it as a dessert or savory dish. This is a mixture of pine nuts, rice flour, some salt/ sugar and milk, water.

Yulmu-juk

Yulmu is an Adlay millet grain that is very popular in North Asia and consumes in many dishes to make it healthy and more flavorful. It has its own different aroma and flavor with the special grains to be added to the dish for a more healthy version of any dish. This powerfully flavored millet grain is added in a very small amount to the rice porridge and this makes it aromatic and healthy. The version of rice porridge is the same but with a different aroma and taste.

Patjuk

Patjuk is also called as Red beans Porridge. The main element of the dish is red beans with some rice and legumes can be added in small quantity. Red beans must overpower all the taste of the dish. This dish is red-colored porridge which is very healthy and good in taste. In Korea, it is eaten in winters to get a strong immune system and enjoy the hot soup texture of this red bean porridge.

Heugimja-juk

Heugimja is called Black Sesame seeds. So this dish has the main ingredient is black sesame seeds. This is black colored porridge, having nutty, little bitter in taste. This is said to be the source of good nutrients. This is good for a healthy liver and kidneys. It has a good amount of protein and digestive enzymes that boost your immune system.

Daechu-jom

This is a rice porridge has addition of JUJUBE .

Dakjuk

Dakjuk is very popular chicken dish which is chicken porridge. It is very similar to White chicken porridge meal but Dakjuk is mild in spices. Chicken is added in mince form or small bite size pieces, it is cook and dissolved into the rice and legume to make a solid paste.

Hobak-juk

Hobak juk is a little different from the other rice porridge dishes. This is more towards the rice dish. In this dish, glutinous rice is cooked in Pumpkin juice. Glutinous rice make it sticky but not completely dissolve like a mushy paste.

Euneo-juk

Euneojuk is a rice porridge dish cooked with Sweetfish .

Tarak-juk

This dish is the simplest and more loveable dish of Korean cuisine. This is simple milk, rice, and porridge. This dish is part of the royal court cuisine of Korea. It includes Glutinous rice, Muri, and milk with sugar. The ratio of milk to muri and rice is very critical to maintaining the consistency of the dish and flavors.

Jeonbok-juk

This dish is very unique and simple at the same time. The simple white rice issued to cook this porridge but with the addition of one main ingredient that is Abalone. Abalone is seafood known as Maine ear-shells, also known by many other names like Sea-ears, mutton-fish, mutton-mollusks, etc

This dish is from the largest island of Korea, Jeju Island. Where these sea-ears are found on huge amount. It is also a dish which is gifted to the King of that time.

Abalone is used in this dish but only muscles and skin is added to porridge. Internal organs are removed from the dish.

Ingredients of Jeonbok-juk

1. Short grain glutinous rice – 2 cups
2. Sesame oil – 2 tbsp
3. Sesame seeds – 2 tbsp
4. Scallions – 2 bunchs
5. Mutton-molluscs – 5 small sizes
6. Salt – 1 tsp
7. Soya sauce – 2 tbsp
8. Porridge – 1/2 cup

Direction of cooking

1. Soak rice into luke warm water for 45 minutes, then drain the water and rice is ready to cook.
2. Chop the muslce meat into fine cut and now our two main ingredients are ready to cook.
3. Add sesame oil with meat and rice into the pan and cook it for 5 minutes.
4. When rice gets translucents add 6 glass of water with salt, soyasauce and porridge into it.
5. Reduce the heat and cover the lid for slow cooking of rice porridge.
6. Stir the rice to avoid burning from the bottom.
7. It takes about 30 minutes to cook the rice completely.
8. You can adjust the consistency of rice porridge according to your taste.
9. At the end add scallions and serve.