Kimchi Stew

What is Kimchi?
Kimchi is any variety of Korean pickled vegetables. The most common type of Kimchi is brine-pickled Chinese cabbage spiced with red peppers. It is served as a side dish or used as an ingredient in kimchi fried rice or kimchi stew.

Kimchi has been an important part of Koran life for the past 3000 years. Traditionally, it was made by putting all of the ingredients in a clay pot that was buried. There are entire kimchi museums in Korea.

Korean people are very serious about their kimchi. My friend Hanjun told me that his family owns 11 separate fridges for storing different varieties, each at a specific temperature. The best Kimchi I've found in Salt Lake is from the local Korean market, called Oriental Market, on 700 E. and about 700 S. Whenever I shop there I usually run into a Korean acquaintance buying a 3 gallon jar. I buy the little jars, but be weary, it will stink up your fridge. Fortunately, I adore stinky foods.

Ok, now on to the stew...

Looks belly-warming, doesn't it? It can be yours without too much trouble.


This stew sold in pouches is very tasty and only about $3.


It's pretty dense so I add about 2 cups of water. I also add a bunch of other (optional) ingredients:

This is Korean pork. It looks like bacon, but tastes like pork. It comes in the fresh/frozen section of the market on those styrofoam meat trays wrapped in plastic wrap. Slice it into bite sized pieces and boil it. This doesn't seem like the most appetizing way to prepare it, but the texture is good for a stew.


Rice cakes- little frozen disks made from rice that become al dente when boiled. The only downside to using these is they don't make for good leftovers because they get soggy from sitting in the broth overnight.


How to chop onions with ease:
Cut off the ends, cut it in half, peel off the skin.


Then you can easily slice it evenly.


Here are all of the optional ingredients to add to the contents of the pouch - plus the 2 cups water:

1/3 C Korean red pepper flakes (they are finer, don't have seeds, and can only be bought in bulk- they can be stored for several years in the freezer in a ziplock bag)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 lb. Korean pork, sliced and boiled
1 onion, sliced
2 handfuls of rice cakes

You could leave any of these out or add other meats. The pouch already comes with big chunks of tofu in it.

Before adding all the stuff

After

Boil everything for about 20 minutes; long enough for the onions to cook and the rice cakes to get al dente.

Yum! You can see the fairly large pieces of pickled cabbage and tofu, plus everything else that was added. Pour this over rice and eat it with both chopsticks and a spoon. The rice absorbs the broth and swims in the uber-hearty stew.

This dish is both stinky (fragrant) and spicy! People generally love it but some don't care for this much flavor. I have to keep a tissue and glass of water by my side while consuming, which is awesome. Korean people believe that kimchi will literally keep your body warm, and should be eaten when you have a cold. Although they have kimchi for every season, for me it is definitely a winter dish.



More instant, more accessible:
Kimchi flavored instant noodles- a review



This is supposed to be kimchi flavored, but is more like soba noodles in an oyster broth. Not really worth $2-3 dollars in my opinion.



Fancy ramen! This is really flavorful and the ramen noodles are a great texture. It has dehydrated pieces of shitake mushrooms. If you notice, the package says spicy seafood. If you don't like fish broths, you probably won't enjoy kimchi anyway.


This one is delicious too. The heartiest of the instant ramens. Ranging around $1.50-$2.00. You can probably find these at your supermarket in the Asian section.


Or...
You could also just buy a jar of kimchi and eat some with a bowl of rice. However, I do not recommend the mass produced supermarket variety. Try to find a Korean market. They probably make their own.


*Coming at a later date:
My recipe for kimchi fried rice. (It's actually really easy if you know what to do.)