I’m very excited to introduce you to this popular Korean side dish, “godeungeo-mujorim,” which is braised mackerel and radish in soy sauce based broth. Along with grilled mackerel, this is the most popular way of cooking mackerel in Korean cuisine.
I love not only the fish but also the cooked radish. The texture of the cooked radish is soft, juicy, and a little sweet and salty. When you cook this dish, expect your house to be full of a delicious aroma that might lead your neighbors to knock at your door and say with sniff sniff:
“Where does this delicious smell come from? It makes me go crazy! uh? Is this mackerel? Holy mackerel! It looks so tasty! Can you share some with me?”
For 4 servings
Cooking time: 50-60 minutes
Ingredients
Mackerel, soy sauce, sugar, Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru), garlic, ginger, Korean radish (or daikon), onion, green onions, green and red chili peppers.
Directions
Prepare 2 medium sized fresh or frozen mackerel (750 grams, or 1.7 pounds). Thaw them out if frozen.
- Cut off the fins and heads.
- Make a slit from the top to the vent and clean the guts.
- Cut the fish across into 2 inch pieces, rinse in cold water, drain, and set aside
Prepare your vegaetables:
- Peel a large, heavy Korean radish. Cut 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) worth of radish into pieces 2 inch wide, 2½ inch long, and 1 inch thick.
- Add the radish pieces to a large thick bottomed pot with. Spread them out evenly, by hand.
- 1 large onion or 2 medium sized onions (about 400 grams’, or 2 cups’ worth), cut into ¼ inch thick slices and place over the radish.
- Cut 3 stalks of green onions into pieces 1 inch long, and chop 2 green chili peppers and 1 red chili pepper. Set aside
Let’s make godeungeo jorim:
- Place the mackerel on top of the pieces of radish.
- Make seasoning sauce in a bowl by mixing ½ cup soy sauce, ¼ cup hot pepper flakes, 2 tbs sugar, ⅓ cup garlic cloves minced (12 cloves), and 1 tbs of minced ginger.
- Pour the seasoning sauce over the fish. Pour in 1 cup of water along the edges of the pot.
- Close the lid and bring to a boil over high heat for 20 minutes.
- Open the lid, tilt the pot, and use a spoon to push aside the mackerel and radish to make empty spot for the broth to well.
- Scoop some broth from the empty spot and pour it over top of the fish and radish. Repeat several times.
- Add the chopped green onion, green and red chili peppers.
- Close the lid and lower the heat to a simmer for 30-40 minutes, until the radish is cooked thoroughly. The radish will absorb the soy sauce based broth, so it will look brownish and a little translucent when cooked nicely.
- Open the lid and turn up the heat to boil off excess broth.
- Tilt the pot and use a spoon to push aside the mackerel and radish to make empty spot for the broth to well.
- Scoop some broth from the empty spot and pour it over top of the fish and radish. Repeat it off and on for about 5-7 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and transfer to a serving plate. Serve with rice, kimchi, soup, lettuce, and a few more side dishes.
Hello – I am going to make braised mackerel with radish for the 1st time. It looks so delicious!!! I wanted to know if I used 4 mackerels instead of 2, should I just double each ingredient portion?. Also, what would be the cooking time for 4 mackerels? Thank you so much for your help.
Thank you for the delicious recipe Maangchi! I was out of sugar so I used honey instead and I loved the outcome!
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Wow, yummy! All you need is rice! : )
Loved this! I only had canned mackerel but it was still delicious. I’ll use fresh next time.
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It looks great!
I tried this recipe and wow it tastes good. Thank you for recipe. I love you
One of my favorite dishes! Luckily, in Massachusetts, there are lots of mackerel near the coast. I made this dish in the afternoon with mackerel and bonito that I had just caught that morning! Soooo fresh
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Holy mackerel! : ) They look really really fresh!
Hello! I am having problems getting mackerel , do you think that I could do this with salmon? If so what would the cooking time be?
Annyeonghseyo Maangchi!
I live in Male(Maldives). So lots of fresh tuna fish are available here but i cant find mackerels . so can i replace the above recipe godeungeo-mujorim with tuna and normal white radish.
Warm Regards,
Jenna Gangmei
Tuna sounds great! Use some oily part of tuna then. It will turn out very tasty.
Thank you so much . i cooked exactly like you said and it was heavenly hehe. i made potato pancake, steam eggs,cucumber and radish pancake too. i am gonna try all your other recipes too . In many dishes you use dried anchovies. what can i replace anchovies? i cant find it here. thank you have a nice day
Hi Maanchi, I am new here posted in wrong place -sorry. My wife is from Pusan, and misses her mothers Belt fish stew. I think this is the same recipe just Belt fish in place of Mackerel. Will Belt Fish work? If not can you post a belt fish recipe?
Thank you
Joe.C Seattle WA
Yes, you can replace mackerel with belt fish in this recipe. Good luck with making delicious galchi-jorim (braised beltfish)!
I made this for dinner for my family, so delicious and easy, think this is going to become a regular dinner for us!! I’m actually looking forward to the leftovers!
What other fish have you made jorim with? Mackerel is great, but I’m sure other fish can be delicious for this recipe too, right? When I didn’t have mackerel, I used a Blue Dog fish. It was still delish. I have a pic with a bunch of fishes that my friend caught when he went fishing. Which fishes (from the pic) would be good for jorim? http://www.behgopa.com/2013/11/fishy-fishy-fishy.html
Do you ever go fishing, Maangchi?
Well, I tried it and it was so delicious. … the smells that come when I cooked it was so…. good…. definitely will make it another time… yummy, yummy…..
yes, I love the smell, too. The smell encourages me to make it again soon.
this broth is delicious with any combination of fish and/or vegetables… i did salmon and daikon with it, and also a vegetarian version using sweet potato and carrot instead of mackerel! :-)
thanks for the recipe!
Hi Maangchi! I really really want to try making this for my parents, it looks so good! But my dad won’t eat anything with fish bones still inside :( If I take the fish off the bones before braising, or buy just the frozen fillets where it’s already off the bone, will the recipe still be as yummy?
Hi Maangchi! My husband and I LOVED this recipe! Thank you for doing what you do. I’ve learned so much from you.
Great! Happy cooking!
Maangchi,
If I want to make Braised Hairtail Fish, can I used the same recipes….? well, when I search for hairtail fish, I found a video about Braised Hairtail Fish at Namdaemun alley, it’s look so delicous, this is the link :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiPar4VOL9Y&feature=player_detailpage#t=0s
I’m not sure if you can or not to find the link, so this the tittle for that video…
Namdaemun alley of Braised Hairtail Fish