Ramadan Recipes: Amina Elshafei Spicy Korean Seafood Hot Pot (haemultang)

Haemultang is a deliciously healthy Korean soup made from a mixture of shellfish and fish, simmered in a spicy broth. Very often, it is cooked in a heavy stone pot which retains its heat at the table; but sometimes it's served bubbling on a portable stove, especially when there's a crowd to feed.

This already wonderful dish is even more special to me because it contains sentimental memories - both of the house I grew up in and of the trip to my mother's homeland.

My mother is Korean and my father is Egyptian. They met in Riyadh in the 1970s when they were both working as expatriates in Saudi Arabia, my mother as a nurse and my father as an accountant. Their marriage was mixed, which they say was actually quite common at the time. Saudi Arabia was opening up to the outside world and many expatriates and cultures were mixing.

With immigration and expatriate workers, there are approximately 100,000 Muslims in South Korea. The majority live in Seoul, where my mother grew up and my grandmother still lives, but there are also a few mosques across the country. Since 2004, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has indeed organized an annual Iftar during Ramadan.

But 40 years ago, when my mother was growing up, Islam didn't didn't really exist in Korea. She learned a lot about it, living in Arabia and meeting my father, and she was converted.

For me it is a great privilege to have two different legacies. This means visiting extended family from both countries and being able to inherit two very different cuisines. I think for my parents, it was enriching too. Dad does a lot of interfaith work.

There is no set recipe for Haemultang in Korea, although the broth is usually made with gochujang (fermented chili paste ), gochugaru (dried or powdered chili flakes) and a fragrant broth of seafood, anchovies or beef.

When my mom used to do her version, she often used blue swimmers...