[cooking] Kimchi Jjigae

If there was only one food I could eat for the rest of life, it would be jjigae (Korean stew). There are different kinds and a near infinite way you can customize them, but my favorite is kimchi jjigae. You need old, "sour" kimchi that's gone a bit soft and extra ferment-y. Some basic ingredients:

Brown beech mushrooms, tofu (I use Vermont Soy, which makes the best tofu), beef stock granules, gochujang, mature kimchi, scallions. Missing from this picture are a couple strips of pork belly (which were already sizzling away in the pot) and flat, oval rice cakes.

My method is probably not super-authentic but the result is good. I brown the pork belly, add a generous tablespoon on gochujang, dump in the kimchi and scrape up the bottom of the pot, add beef stock until the kimchi is barely covered, add the tofu slices and rice cakes, boil, add the mushrooms, boil more, add the scallions at the end. Serve with rice on the side.

If you like kimchi, you should definitely order this the next time you're at a Korean restaurant. To make it at home, you do need some special ingredients that you can only get at a Korean food store but it's so nice to be able to make this whenever you have old kimchi.

P.S. This will make your whole house smell like kimchi stew. Dollar and the cats run for the hills when I make this at home.