Audio Recipe: Kimchi jjigae (Kimchi Stew)

Chef Esther Choi guides you through the audio recipe of her "death row" meal, the classic Korean comfort food, Kimchi jjigae (kimchi stew). This simple, quick, and delicious meal contains 3 basic ingredients and is centered around the Korean cuisine staple of kimchi (fermented cabbage). This meal is featured in Episode 4: "King of K-Town with Bobby Kwak" when Chef Esther surprises her guest with his favorite Korean dish. Listen to the full episode to hear Bobby's reaction and how it compares to the meal that conjures up memories of his mother's home cooking. Try this recipe at home and tag Chef Esther @choibites with your photos and videos.

Kimchi jjigae Ingredients:

• 2 T unsalted butter
• 1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped
• ½ pound pork or protein of choice (spam, canned tuna, ground meat)
• ¼ onion, chopped
• 1 jar Mŏkbar kimchi, roughly chopped and juice reserved
• 8oz firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2t fish sauce
• 1t sesame oil
• 1t soy sauce
• 2 scallions, roughly chopped
• Nori, thinly sliced

To serve (optional):

• fried egg
• white rice 
• sesame oil
• gim (toasted seaweed) 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to get down with kay Town. I'm your host
esther CHOI. It's only appropriate for the first audio recipe
to be my death row meal. If you know me,
you definitely know my deep appreciation, passion and just pure
love for kimchi. It brings me so much joy. I
love kimchi in every stage and in enemy form, the

(00:24):
rawness of the freshly made kimchi, and nothing more satisfying
than the crunch of biting into it perfectly fermented peace.
I even love last year's kimchi, also known as brundy.
It gets so funky you can smell it from a
mile away, and my mouth is watering just at the thought. However,
my favorite form of eating kimchi is when it's made

(00:45):
into a stew. Kim t tet is my ultimate comfort food,
with every spoonful bringing me back to my childhood, to
my almost dinner table. What I really love about this
dish is that it's so simple and easy, super quick
to whip up, only takes about ten to fifteen minutes,
and my recipe is a version of my mom's but
quite possibly most koream moms out there. In a medium pot,

(01:09):
add about two tablespoons of butter and let it melt.
Add one or two clothes of mince, garlic, and your
choice of protein. In this case, pretty much anything can
be used whatever you have in your pantry. For me,
I love using any type of pork product. Pork belly,
loin or ribs or canned food is great, to spam, tuna,

(01:29):
even matherel or sardines, or if you're vegetarian, you can
totally just leave it out and add tofu at a
end instead. Every version is delicious. So let's talk about
the kim to real quick. Your kim t tige will
only be as good as your kimchi. This is very crucial.
If your kimchi is bad, your stew will be bad. Period.

(01:51):
I advise you to source great quality kimchi or making yourself,
because it's actually not that hard for kim tit today.
You want your kim ti to be pretty right, I'd
say the more fermented the better. So to your buttered
protein mixture. Add your kimchie at this point along with
some of its juices. The ratio should be about one
part protein to two parts skimchi. Let this salte and

(02:14):
bubble up until it's nice and caramelized and the water.
I actually don't like using any type of stock in
my kimchi chick I'm a curious when it comes to this.
I want the kimchie flavor to come through as much
as possible, so I keep it that way by using water.
And because this is basically a three ingredient dish, the

(02:35):
three ingredients has to be the best quality possible. That's
why I like adding purified water, so typically I use
my favorite bottled water, and for me, this is key.
Add enough water to cover your kimchi and protein mixture,
and at this point you can let it simmer for
about five to ten minutes. And I like to season
with a little bit of fish sauce for that extra

(02:57):
mommy pinch of salt to taste, and the tiniest bit
of sugar for balance. And because I love things with
an extra kick, I like to add some chilies, usually
tie chilies, because I always have that available on hand,
but totally not necessary. You can leave it out and
that's it. You can garnage from some scallions if you

(03:19):
have it, And to serve, I'd like to fry up
an egg and put it on top of screaming hot
perfectly steamed white rice with a little drizzle of some
good quality sesame oil and the side of cheam which
is seaweed on the side. It's literally the perfect meal
that will comfort your soul. And that's our show. Thanks

(03:44):
for listening. If you like what you heard, please subscribe
and leave us a five star review. Get Down with
Kaytown is a production of I Heart Radio and was
created by our executive producer Christopher Hasiotis and me as
their Troy Follow me on all sociare media at toy
Bites and I'd also like to thank our producer, editor
and mixer Marcie to Peina. For more podcasts from I

(04:06):
Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.