I may be jumping the gun on seasonal dishes with this one, but today it was sunny and warm and I felt like having something that was cool, hearty, and refreshing after working out in the garden. Luckily I had all the right ingredients for kong guksu (콩국수), but as I've posted this recipe before, I thought I'd try making a variation of it: peanut kong guksu.
Usually the soy bean broth for this dish is combined with toasted sesame seeds, which gives it a wonderful nutty flavor. But recently I came across a recipe for a variation of this dish using instead peanuts. I thought it sounded good and peanuts were on sale at the grocery store, so why not? The result was tasty, but I must confess I prefer the sesame seed version!
This isn't an easy dish as it requires a lot prep:
1. Start by soaking half a cut up soy beans in water. Give them time to fully plump up -- at least an hour but probably a few hours. (I allowed mine to soak overnight.)
2. After soaking, boil the soy beans for 45 minutes and then rinse in cold water. Add to blender.
3. Now toast some chopped peanuts until fragrant (or substitute sesame seeds for the original version.) In my version I usually use about 4-5 tsp peanuts/sesame seeds. Add these to the blender as well, leaving aside some for a topping.
4. In the blender, add in equal part water to the mixture and blend the water-peanuts-soy bean mixture. Add some more water until most but not all of the blender is full. Blend fully until milky.
5. Now squeeze small portions of the blended soy mixture through cheesecloth, reserving the liquid. Discard the chalky soy bean remnants. When finished, add salt to taste to the soy bean broth and refrigerate.
6. Boil some white somen noodles, rinsing in cold water when done.
7. Place the cooked somen noodles into the soy bean broth, topping with cucumber, tomato, and the remaining roasted peanuts. Add ice cubes to broth to cool down, if you wish.
I'm not sure if it's authentic or not, but I also enjoy adding just a little bit of sesame seed soil and mustard oil to my broth before eating. But be careful to not use more than 1 tsp of mustard oil or you will soon be hating life! :-)
Some music to enjoy your kong guksu with...