If you love seafood and spicy stews, I’m sure you’ll absolutely love this one, called maeuntang in Korean and spicy fish stew (or soup) in English. It can be made with pretty much any type of fish but most importantly the fish should be fresh! In this recipe and video I use black sea bass, or nongeo in Korean, so this dish would specifically be called nongeo-maeuntang.
On a recent trip to Montauk, Long Island I was lucky to get fresh-caught black sea bass right off the dock, as soon as the fisherman brought it in. I know a lot of you won’t be able to find fish that fresh, so in your local fish market choose a fish with clear eyes and a firm body. Make sure it isn’t smelly at all and has red gills on the inside. You may have to open the fish head a bit to check the color of the gills. If they’re brownish, don’t pick that fish. White fleshed fish is best for making maeuntang, so flounder, fluke, yellow corvina, and red snapper will all work well, but any kind of fish will be good, as long as it’s fresh.
Maeuntang is one of Koreans’ most-loved seafood dishes. Most Korean households have all these seasonings on hand, so it’s a great way to share a delicious, fresh fish with friends and family. It’s easy to make and the savory, spicy stew sits in the middle of the table and everyone can enjoy it together.
Ingredients (serves 3 to 4)
- 2½ pounds cleaned whole fish (black sea bass, cod, pollock, flounder, fluke), cut into 2 inch pieces
- 8 cups water
- 1 pound Korean radish (or daikon) sliced into ⅛ inch thin bite sized pieces
- 7-8 large dried anchovies, with heads and guts removed and placed in a stock pouch (or soup strainer, or tied up in cheesecloth)
- 1 dae-pa (or 4 to 5 green onions), sliced diagonally
- 1 large green chili pepper, sliced
- 1 red chili pepper, optional but if you use, sliced diagonally
- 4-5 sprigs of chrysanthemum greens (substitute with a few basil sprigs)
For the seasoning paste:
- ½ cup Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru)
- 10 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons Korean fermented bean paste (doenjang)
- 1 tablespoon Korean hot pepper paste (gochujang)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 tablespoons mirim (or soju)
Directions
Make seasoning paste:
- Combine the seasoning paste ingredients in a bowl.
- Mix it well with a spoon. Set aside.
Make maeuntang:
- Combine the radish, dried anchovies, and 8 cups of water in a large pot.
- Cover and cook for 20 minutes over medium high heat until the radish turns a little soft.
- Add the fish and about half of the seasoning paste.
- Cover and cook for another 20 minutes over medium high heat until the fish is fully cooked.
- Remove the anchovy pouch and add green chili pepper and green onion. Taste the soup and add more paste if you want it spicier and saltier.
- Gently stir the stew a few times with a wooden spoon and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and add the chrysanthemum greens and red chili peppers.
Serve:
- Serve with rice, kimchi, and a few other side dishes, if you have them.
- You can put the stew in the middle of the table, with a ladle. Provide bowls for each person and ladle some of the stew into each bowl.
- Provide an empty bowl for bones. As people eat the fish they can discard the bones there.
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon for that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
Hi Maangchi! It’s impossible to find garland chrysanthemum here in Finland – would it be okay to replace it with arugula/rocket/rucola, for a similar fresh green and slightly spicy kick? Love all your fish recipes – I’m hoping making this soup will kick this seasonal flu I’ve got to the curb, hahaha!
Just slice up some good, fresh carrots diagonally very thinly.
The taste isn’t that different.
Yes, you can, or use basil or mint leaves.
This recipe is one I’ve wanted to try for a long time. I got my hands on some ssukgat so I went to the fish market and decided to buy a fish called Ling which belongs to the cod family. It’s not a very popular fish for some reason, but pretty cheap and very good. It’s firmer than cod and a bit fatter and is considered very suitable for fish soups and stews. It’s very big so I just bought half a fish and made sure to have the head. I also added some enoki mushrooms.
I love the taste, I bet this is a wonderful soup on a cold winter day. Now summer is starting here in Iceland so the sun is shining even if it’s not particularly warm. The soup makes me feel so energetic, I like spicy food and I love good soups and stews.
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It has been cold and rainy in San Francisco for the past two weeks, and I’ve been craving a dish that was warm, spicy and nourishing. This was that dish. I used a combination of red snapper and shrimp, and radish and zucchini. This was my first Maangchi recipe and won’t be my last. Thank you!!! This was the BEST.
I used this recipe to make a vegetarian/vegan version (I know, “why would you choose a fish-centered recipe to make it vegetarian”, well, I was feeling like having a stew of this style but with no meat of course). I used fried tofu triangles, the ones you can buy pre-fried at the Asian grocery store. I like them for stews and stir-fries cause they become really chewy and juicy as they cook. And to compensate for the lack of fish I used stock made with kelp, shiitake mushrooms, onion and Daikon radish to help enhance the flavor. I adjusted the amounts but kept the rest of the recipe as is and the result was great! We had it with rice and side dishes and I forgot to take a picture, maybe tomorrow when I have leftovers I will. Hopefully someone looking for more vegetarian recipe ideas will find the experience I shared useful!
Another fantastic recipe! I’ve been following your blog for a few years now but always felt intimidated to share my recreations with you
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I love to see you added some shrimp to the stew! The broth will be more tasty. I haven’t made maeuntang for a while, but I can’t resist making it soon after looking at this photo!
I make this with fish heads but there are so many small bones after cooking!
Hi Maangchiiiiiiiii,
I saw this video and made it immediately for my sister. SHE LOVES ITTTT. She was working a very busy day till 10pm. When she ate Maeuntang, she said she felt revived straight away. My sister has not been a fan of Korean food, but I’ve been making her a lot of your recipes and now she can’t get enough of korean food. She keeps telling me to make Japchae and kimbap whenever I have free time hahaha.
Thank you so much for this recipe!
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I can almost smell your maeuntang! Good job!
Can you use canned clams in place of fresh? Sadly I can’t find any fresh clams in any stores near me =(
Hi Maangchi!
My husband and I (both German) just love Korean food and culture, and our Korean isn’t to bad (his talking, my cooking ;-)).
I really like your site (just prepared yeolmu kimchi today).
I do wonder – why do you cook your fish that long?
Whenever I prepare maeuntang or haemulchongol, I heat it all up until the fish and seafood (and dubu) are just done – that takes only a few minutes.
Luckily, there is an excellent store for fresh fish and seafood nearby!
Bye, sanne.
Hi Maangchi
I’m interested in 매운탕.
Just want to ask that any recommendation to subsitute red snapper
because red snapper is a kind of expensive fish.
Thank you
I have made this recipe three times now, with whatever fish, that was on offer at the store (after asking the guy behind the counter, what he would recommend for use in a soup). I make him filet the fish but keep the bones and the fish head, and just remove them along with the kelp.
TIP! -Kelp (kobu) is a bit expencive here, so I DO NOT throw the kelp away! There’s still some good taste left in it!!! Instead I put it in the fridge and boil it again the next day or the day after, along with a small handful of dried anchovies, and a couple of dried shiitake mushrooms. Then I remove the anchovies and kelp. In the end, I add some doenjang or japanese miso along with whatever vegetables I happen to have in the kitchen that day. The mushrooms, I chop into small strips and add back in the soup.
PS! -Thank you for doing this site. I’ve followed along on youtube for quite some time, and done a few of the recipes (mostly this one, and you kimchi recipes, that are much better than any other I have found on the net)… I’m very happy to FINALLY have come by your site as well… It is a very good site, and everything is so well maintained. I love it!
PPS, I meant KOMBU not kobu.
Loved this soup! The broth was so good and had many layers of flavor!
The only thing I changed was i didn’t add shrimp i added squid that I cleaned myself! If turned out so so good! Also i just wanted to share that in my grocery store the Ssukgat was called Crown Daisy.
Thank You Maangchi!
I’ve just finished making this soup. It tastes great! I used the red snapper fillet instead of a whole fish, so it was very easy to make. Thank you, Maangchi! I love your recipe!!
This is a perfect recipe for me since I love spices. This recipe is also a healthy food because it contains fish, vegetables and other spices. We can actually add some oyster or other seafood. Thank you for sharing this recipe and I would love to share this to my family.Hope they would like spices too.
great! Happy cooking!
can I skip the cooking wine?
yes, you can.
Who needs to get married!??!? I have maangchi.com!
Hi Maangchi I’m Rose, filipina and have a Korean husband! I’m happy to learn with your recipes it’s very easy to learn and my husband like my cook. I have a question I’d like to cook this meountang but I don’t have blender wat will I do to make the sauce of maeuntang and I dont have kelp! Please help me tnx keep up the good work
“I don’t have blender”
Mince garlic and onion finely with a knife and skip kelp, it will still be delicious.
Made this soup for dinner , it was delicious !!! I replaced minari with spinach and enoki mushroom with button mushroom . Everything turned out really good , we really enjoyed this soup , thank you Maangchi !!
awesome!