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Cooking Kimchi Jjigae | Korean Stew

Whenever we visit a Korean restaurant we will order our two main staples - beef bulgogi and kimchi stew with pork and tofu.  In cold weather such as now, slurping on a bowl of steaming hot kimchi soup to go along with rice is oh so uplifting.  Love it!

Two Saturdays ago I realise I could try cooking the kimchi stew at home - should not be too easy I think?  We went to the Asian supermarket near us and I managed to get the ingredients I needed.  I referred to this website: http://norecipes.com/recipe/kimchi-jjigae because I like the idea of marinating the pork beforehand.  There are many variations available online.

The main ingredients are: sliced pork, tofu, Doenjang (Korean bean paste), Gochujang (Korean chilli paste), and of course kimchi (doh but of course).  Based on the ingredients I could get from the Asian supermarket, I had to tweak the recipe a little.

Top: Doenjang (bean paste) and bottom: Gochujang (chilli paste), both came in cute plastic tubs

Kimchi Jjigae Recipe

Serves 3

(A) Marinade the pork
Pork, sliced thinly (150g-200g) - the recipe called for pork belly but I wanted a healthier variation
Garlic, 3 cloves grated
Ginger, 1 inch grated
Doenjang 1 tablespoon
Gochujang 1 tablespoon

Set aside in a bowl and prepare the rest of the ingredients

(B) Stir fry
1/2 of an medium sized onion, sliced thinly
Kimchi 200g (or 1 cup)

(C) The soup base (we wanted more soup so I added more miso and chilli paste than what the recipe specified)
Kimchi juice (1/2 cup, squeezed from kimchi)
Water (I didn't measure lol, I poured the desired amount of soup we wanted and added more of the next two items below.  Recipe of 1 1/2 cups definitely was not enough for us)
Gochujang, 3 teaspoons
Doenjang, 3 teaspoons
Tofu 250g, cut into cubes
Spring onions/ scallions, 3x


Marinate the pork with the ingredients described in (A).  The recipe doesn't say how long to leave it marinated.  I think I left it for ~10min whilst preparing the rest of the ingredients.

We will use the same pot so ensure you have a deep set pan/pot which is enough to hold the soup later.

Add oil in pot and stir fry the marinated pork.
Add (B), ie sliced onions and kimchi

*By now the kitchen smells like a Korean kitchen :) oohlala*

Honestly I think we could eat this dish just like that

When pork is almost cooked, add in (C), i.e. kimchi juice, water, doenjang, gochujang, spring onions.  Stir well and it will soon start to boil.  Add in tofu.  I had some leftover crab sticks and threw in some too.  Stir well and turn down the heat to simmer.


I allowed it to simmer for about 15-20min like what the recipe said.  By then the rice was also done which was perfect timing.




Hubby's verdict?  Two thumbs up!! 💁

I was extremely pleased at how easy it was and how authentic it turned out.  Seriously tasted like what we order from the Korean restaurant.  And the two tubs of gochujang and doenjang can last a very long time.  I am very sure this dish will be appearing more than just this once this winter!

Warm bellies after the meal.. mmm...

~~~~~~~

Last Saturday was a dark, wet and gloomy day.  We decided to stay in and chill, and I was glad we had some pandan cake left and so I made a pot of tea for us to go with.

Afternoon tea time, the Singapore way :)


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