Jeju Island Spicy Seafood Ramen. If you visit Korea, save a few days for Jeju Island! It's a very famous island in Korea known for its natural wonders - including waterfalls, white-sand beaches and a large dormant volcano at the center of the island. As you go trekking through the island, you'll inevitability work up a large appetite. The options are endless when it comes to food. From freshly grilled abalone, whole galchi (hair-tail fish) to Jeju Black Pork, you'll be enticed with Korean dishes that you can't find anywhere else! I reminisce about my last trip to Jeju and the amazing Seafood Ramen that I had by the shore. It was packed to the brim with scallops, crabs, abalone and ... even octopus!
Today, I'll show you how to make it from home! The recipe is very easy - its just cooking ramen! But the tricky part is the prep steps for each of the seafood ingredients. We'll run through each one in the recipe below. However, feel free to swap-out any ingredients you'd like!
Cooking notes:
- For this recipe, it's best to select a Spicy Korean Ramen! I would recommend either Shin Ramen, Neoguri Ramen or Jin Ramen (Spicy Flavor)
- Your pot can get overcrowded - take out some of the shellfish before adding-in the ramen noodles. Then add them back as toppings
- Before serving, cut the octopus legs and abalone into thin slices - that way it's easy to eat! (We put them in whole for a nice presentation only)
- Turn the heat off when the noodles are 70% cooked through (roughly 2 or 2.5 minutes) - that way the noodles don't wilt as you eat through the seafood
- We will use 2 Ramen Noodle Packages in this recipe - enough for 2 people
- If you'll use only 1 Ramen Noodle Package, reduce the water to 2 cups (and put in less seafood)
Enjoy Neighbors! This one is a truly IG-worthy dish - tag us if you decide to give it a shot!!
Dan-yul out! 🕺 Flexing on ramen like whaaa!
Ingredients
- 2 Packages Korean Spicy Ramen Noodles
- 3.5 cups of Water
- 1-2 cloves of Garlic
Fresh Seafood
- 2 legs of Octopus
- 1 fresh Abalone
- 6-7 fresh Scallops
- 6-7 fresh Mussel
- 1 fresh Flower Crab
Veggie Toppings
- 1 small stalk Spring Onion
- 1 teaspoon Dried Seaweed
Instructions
How to prep octopus
- If you're using fresh octopus, you'll want to kill it humanely. (Makes it much easier to handle). The easiest way is to do so is to use a knife and stab it the space between its eyes.
- Then use your fingers and flip the head inside out. Remove all of the entrails - be careful not to pop the ink sack. (If you do pop it, it's ok - simply wash it off).
- Cut out the eyes out. Then remove the beak that's on the underside. Trim the tips off the tentacles as well.
- Then give it a thorough wash. Let it drip off excess water.
- Place the octopus into a mixing bowl and pour on some flour. Massage it all over - imagine your doing hand laundry. The flour will stick onto the impurities of the octopus. After 30 seconds of massaging, take it to the sink and wash off all the flour. Pour flour on again and repeat this once more.
- Use a wooden pin roller or kitchen tenderizer and gently pound on the tentacles. This will help tenderize the meat.
- Then trim off a few tentacles to use in your ramen. Cut the other tentacles and store in the freezer.
How to prep Abalone
- Use a toothbrush and thoroughly clean-off the outside shell.
- Then throughly scrub the underside - the scallop itself. Try to get rid of as much black as you can (reference video).
- Note: In the Youtube video, I placed the abalone whole into the ramen - for presentation sake. Before eating, I removed the guts and sliced the cooked abalone into thin slices. If you're cooking for yourself, I recommend that you pop the raw abalone out of the shell with a spoon. Then trim-off everything except for the white scallop portion. Then cut-out the mouth portion (it has a hard tooth in it). Finally, slice the white scallop into thin slices and place it back on the shell. We'll add it to the ramen and cook it like this.
How to prep Scallop
- Use a toothbrush and thoroughly clean the outside shell.
- Note: If you don't like the taste of the guts, clean it before adding it to the ramen: Pry open the shell, trim-off everything except for the white scallop portion. Then keep it on the half-shell and we'll add it to the ramen like this.
How to prep Mussel
- Soak your mussels in fresh water for about 20 minutes. This will help disspel any sand inside of them.
- Use a toothbrush and thoroughly clean-off the outside shell.
- Then remove the beard from the mussels: Grab the beard with your thumb and forefinger and tug it toward the hinge of the mussel shell.
How to prep Flower Crabs
- Here, I will skip the details. There are many videos on Youtube on how to clean a live crab.
Prep veggie ingredients
- Place some dried seaweed into water. They will blossom within 15 minutes. Afterwards, strain out the water and cut the seaweed into small pieces.
- Julienne the green portion of a spring onion (a forearm-sized piece will be good enough). Soak the strips of spring onion in water - we'll use them as garnish. Then chop-up the white portion of the spring onion - we'll use this in the beginning to flavor the oil.
Cook Ramen
- Place some vegetable oil into a large pot. Once it gets hot, add in the spring onion pieces (the white portion). Then mince 1-2 cloves of garlic. Stir-fry it around in the oil for 10-15 seconds.
- Next, add in the scallops, mussel and flower crabs. Stir everything around for 30 seconds. Add in 3.5 cups of water.
- Once the water start to boil, add in the abalone and the octopus legs. Let it simmer away for 2 minutes. Then open up both ramen packages - add in both spice packets and dried veggie packets. (If the pot gets overcrowded, take a few of the shellfish out for now.) Then, add in both of the ramen noodles. Let the ramen noodles boil away for about 2 - 2.5 minutes. (We want to take it off the heat when slightly al dente, as it will continue to cook in the pot).
- Top the ramen off with seaweed and spring onion strips. Bon Appetit!
Tried this recipe?Tag us at @efutureneighbor with your dish!
messmachines says
A friend made this for book club night when we read The Island of Sea Women. It was so good, and I am going to give it a try this week. I will use a frozen seafood mix from Trader Joe's for simplicity, but I love reading about how to manage octopus, abalone and all the other goodies. Thank you!