I cooked: Kimchi jjigae (Kimchi stew)

I love eating Korean food. The first dish I ever tried in a Korean restaurant was kimchi jjigae. I instantly fell in love with it. There is just something immensely comforting about kimchi jjigae.

Kimchi jjigae or chigae is one of the most popular Korean meals. Known as the mother of all Korean stews, it is a spicy stew made with kimchi, onions, diced tofu, scallions, pork or seafood and is to be enjoyed with a bowl of hot rice.

We previously made a batch of kimchi and found that the kimchi has matured, so what better dish to cook than kimchi jjigae. The Unc often makes this in Germany and always mentions how easy it is; I love simple recipes especially now that I have two kids to look after. He shared this recipe from No Recipes that he uses. No Recipes is a really fantastic blog; beautiful photos and things that I would and could actually cook in my own kitchen. Can't wait to try more of his recipes! I found out later that Marc, the owner of the blog is also one of the finalist for Foodbuzz's Project Food Blog. Amazing!

Anyway back to the kimchi jjigae.. matured kimchi is great as it gives the soup a much stronger and flavourful taste. The more mature the kimchi is, the higher the content of good bacteria too. Apparently, the soup tastes even better when left overnight and enjoyed the next day as the flavours are even richer then.

Our kimchi has released a lot of juices (the red liquid), so it was perfect to be used in this stew. No Recipes suggested the use of miso as it adds an earthy flavour and a lot more body to the soup, and I have to agree. The soup tasted very different from what I've had in Korean restaurant's before. It was REALLY good. Without the miso, the soup tasted somewhat more diluted. He also suggests that a little butter is added right at the very end (not too early as it would make the soup oily) as it will thicken the soup and make it richer. Another alternative to butter is to add sesame oil, a tip which The Unc has passed on to me. I found this recipe to be fantastic; the soup was appetizing and hearty. We loved it so much that we just couldn't help licking our bowls clean.

Kimchi jjigae (Kimchi spicy stew or soup)

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 - 20 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil

200g lean pork, sliced thinly (You can reduce the amount of pork if you find this too much)

1 onion, sliced thinly

100g kimchi, sliced

1 clove garlic, crushed

100ml kimchi juice

550ml water

2 tbsp cooking wine (I used Shaoxing)

2 tbsp miso or doenjang (I used miso)

4 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tsp gochujang (hot pepper paste)

1 piece beancurd, cubed

2 stalks spring onion, sliced

1 red chilli, sliced

1 tbsp butter

Gochugaru (optional)

1. Marinate the pork with the Shaoxing wine.

2. Heat the oil in a small, deep pot and fry the pork, kimchi and garlic for 3-5 minutes. When the meat has browned, add the kimchi juice, onion, water, gochujang, miso and soy sauce, stirring everything together to combine.

3. Bring to boil and taste for spiciness. If you prefer your soup spicy, then add some gochugaru. I decided to omit the gochugaru as our kimchi was quite spicy.

4. Allow the soup to simmer for 10-15 minutes, then add the tofu and cook for another 2 minutes.

5. Add the butter right at the end before serving and give it a quick stir to incorporate. Garnish with the spring onions and red chillies.

Dinner in a jiffy

For a seafood version, you can substitute the pork with canned tuna (yes, it works!).