Braised Monkfish (Simplified)Agwijjim

Agwijjim is one of those Korean dishes that gets its reputation from a specific neighborhood. Pohang and Masan on the southern coast are the cities most associated with it, and in both places you will find entire streets lined with restaurants that have served nothing else for decades. The fish — monkfish, aekgi in Korean regional dialect, agu in standard — is braised in a gochugaru-heavy sauce with bean sprouts, garlic, and sesame oil until everything in the pot is deeply red and fragrant.

The first time I made agwijjim in a proper kitchen was in Busan, at a friend's apartment, using fish I'd bought from Jagalchi Market an hour earlier. The market vendors there have an opinion about how fresh fish should look, and they're not shy about sharing it. My monkfish had been out of the water maybe six hours. The bean sprouts were from a bag in the refrigerator. The result was messy and very spicy and tasted exactly right.

When I tried to make it abroad — for myself, in a small apartment in Tokyo a year later — the monkfish was frozen, and I made the mistake of skipping the blanching step. The recipe tip mentions blanching specifically to remove the fishy smell, and this turned out to matter a lot. The finished dish was edible but noticeably less clean in flavor. Since then I've never skipped the blanch.

For a home cook outside Korea, frozen monkfish is perfectly acceptable for this recipe. Thaw it completely, pat it dry, and blanch in boiling water for two minutes before continuing. The gochugaru coating does most of the work — it builds a spicy, slightly sweet sauce that clings to everything in the pot. The bean sprouts soften but keep some texture and soak up the sauce from underneath.

This dish is served family-style in Korea, typically with a bowl of plain rice and nothing else. The sauce is intense enough that you don't need additional seasoning at the table.