Meat Lovers Kimchi Jiggae

*** Yang Household Favorite ***

With my inaugural post, I'd like to contribute the wondrous meat lovers kimchi stew, as re-invented by Myung and me. Less liquid, more meat! Traditionally, kimchi stew is mostly kimchi, some meat, maybe some mushrooms and/or tofu, and maybe some extra garlic, onion, pepper powder...covered with water and boiled until it all comes together. Everything is seasoned to taste, and everything is adaptable to what you have in your kitchen. We tired of fishing through the broth to find the 'fun' bits and dumping the liquid after consumption. Why bother? Thus, this version was born:

Ingredients:

The essentials ~

• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil 
• 1 lb Kimchi, cut into bite size pieces (the older and funkier, the better) 

• 3/4 lb Pork belly, cut into bite size pieces (pork shoulder works well here too)

• Kimchi brine and/or water
• 1 package firm tofu (140 g here in Korea - 1/4 to 1/2 lb is ok), drained and cut into cubes

• cooked white rice
• kim/nori/seasoned seaweed laver

The add-ins ~

• Mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
• 1-4 cloves garlic
• 1+ teaspoon Korean pepper powder (Gochugaru)
• 1+ teaspoon sugar

Directions:

Start by heating your oil in a Dutch oven or large stock pot. 

Add kimchi and cook until starting to caramelize (appx 5 mins)

Add pork and cook another 5-10 mins, stirring occasionally.

Pour brine and/or water (depends on availability of brine and your spice threshold) until it almost covers the kimchi and pork. 

Bring to a boil and cover with lid, leaving an opening for steam. Reduce heat to medium-low. This will help to cook pork through but not make it too soupy. You can cook it like this for 20 mins, checking and stirring occasionally.

At this point, give it a taste. If you want more kick, add gochugaru. If it tastes too sour, add sugar. If it seems like garlic or onions or mushrooms would add some nice flair, chuck that in too! The more, the merrier. You really can't fuck this up. When you feel things taste pretty good...

1. 1. 
      
2. Place tofu on top of stew and gently nudge it into all of the kimchi greatness, trying not to break tofu. Basically it can just steam and absorb some of the stew for a couple minutes.

You could add sliced scallions for color and a final "voila" but it's not really necessary. 

What you will need is a bowl of white rice, some nori (salty seaweed paper) and to crack a beer. Enjoy!