Gamja-ongsimi or potato dough soup is a variety of sujebi (hand-pulled dough soup) in Korea's Gangwon cuisine. Both the potato dumplings (or potato balls) and the soup can be referred to as gamja-ongsimi. The juk (porridge) made with potato balls as its ingredient is called gamja-ongsimi-juk, and the kal-guksu (noodle soup) made with the potato balls is called gamja-ongsimi-kal-guksu.

Etymology and history

Gamja (감자) means potatoes, and ongsimi (옹심이) is a Gangwon dialect word for saealsim (새알심; literally "bird's egg", named for its resemblance to small bird's eggs, possibly quail eggs), which is a type of dough cake ball often made with glutinous rice flour and added to porridges such as patjuk (red bean porridge) and hobak-juk (pumpkin porridge). Originally, gamja-ongsimi was made into small balls as saealsim, but nowadays it is also made into bigger, less globular, and more sujebi (hand-pulled dough)-like shapes.

Preparation

Potatoes are grated, drained, squeezed, and mixed with the potato starch settled at the bottom of drained water in a bowl. The potato dough is balled into ongsimi, and boiled in anchovy-dasima broth with vegetables such as aehobak (Korean zucchini), shiitake mushrooms, shepherd's purse, and red chili peppers. The soup is often topped with gim-garu (seaweed flakes), toasted sesame seeds, and optionally white and yellow al-gomyeong (egg garnish).

Gallery