For those who weren’t aware, I was adopted from S. Korea when I was 5 years old. Growing up in Korea, you’re going to eat a lot of kimchi. Of course, when I came to the United States, and especially to northern Michigan, kimchi was about the only type of food that my parents could offer me in the way of “comfort foods”. Unfortunately, about the only kimchi you could get was at your local grocery store, which wasn’t the greatest, but it did suffice. After a few years, I started to get away from kimchi and enjoyed the finer American cuisine offerings.

It wasn’t until I was almost done with my undergrad years at the University of Michigan that a friend of mine made me a homemade Korean meal. He was only in the United States to attend high school and college, and was about to move to Philadelphia to attend dental school before returning to Korea. This immediately sparked my interest in eating Korean food again as many of the smells and tastes began instantly recognizable. That summer, after graduating, his family invited me to come stay with them for almost two weeks and we traveled all over Korea enjoying amazing foods. When I returned back home, I began making Korean food of my own, albeit not very good at first. It also re-sparked my interest in kimchi again. Luckily the wife also enjoys kimchi as much as I do!

One of my favorite Korean restaurants in Ann Arbor serves an excellent kimchi stew. After my wife bought me a korean cookbook, we tried the kimchi stew recipe in there and were decently happy with the outcome. Over the past few years, I’ve  modified a few recipes and have come up with a rather simple, but delicious recipe. The important thing is to have good kimchi! Being in Northern Michigan, this is not possible. We get ours from a large Korean Market in Ann Arbor – they get theirs from Chicago. Usually, the older the kimchi, the better. You don’t want to use “fresh” kimchi right when you get it. While I’ve made this plenty of times when the kimchi was just bought from the store, you’ll get the best flavors from older kimchi. It’s probably why it’s often used in a stew, as it’s “ripened” a bit. The kochujang and kochukaru were also found at the Korean market, though you may be lucky if your local grocery store carries a decent selection of international products. I’ve also ordered both from the internet as well.

Ingredient List:

1 lb pork – sliced/diced
1 onion – diced
1 package tofu – diced
3 cups kimchi – cut
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 scallions – chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp kochujang
1 tbsp kochukaru
2 cloves garlic – chopped

Directions:

Take 3/4 to 1 lb of pork (or chicken or whatever meat, seafood you want – I think pork is the best) and either slice it into thin strips or dice it. I’ve done both, and they’re both good. In this case, I diced mine. I like to buy the thinly sliced pork in about 1 lb packages, makes for easier slicing.

Drizzle 1 tbsp of sesame oil into a large pan and bring the heat to high. Move the pork around to make sure that all the pork has been lightly coated in the sesame oil.

Cook the pork until the outside is just turning color. Dont’ worry about cooking the pork all the way through, the pork will get plenty of heat throughout the rest o the cooking process to cook through.

Take your 2-3 cups of cut kimchi:

and add it to the pot. Stir fry on high for about five minutes.

After five minutes, add your garlic, kochujang, kochukaru and mix it all up.

After a few more minutes, add your onion.

Add three cups of water, bring it to a boil, then reduce the temperature to low – simmer and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes.

10 minutes into the simmer state, take one cube of firm tofu and dice it up.

Add it to the pot and let it simmer for another 10-20 minutes.

Right before serving, add the scallions:

Serve and enjoy!

If you have good ramen, adding that just before serving also makes a nice touch. I’ve also added thin sliced potatoes and shrimp as well in the past.