Real African Dishes: [MC-AllEthnic-Recipes] Kimchi Jigae - Korean Spicy Fermented Cabbage Soup; 7g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber

This one's for you Pete! watch out for the salt!
* Exported from MasterCook *

Kimchi Jigae - Korean Spicy Fermented Cabbage Soup

Recipe By :
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : LowCal (Less than 300 cals) LowerCarbs
Meat

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1/3 pound pork belly -- sliced very thin
1/2 small onion -- sliced
1 1/2 cups loosely packed kimchi
4 cloves garlic -- minced
1/2 cup kimchi juice
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
1 tablespoon cooking wine -- (such as mirin or shaoxing)
2 teaspoons gochujang -- (Korean chili paste)
2 teaspoons miso -- or dengjang
2 teaspoons Korean soup soy sauce -- (or light soy sauce)
2 tablespoons gochugaru -- (Korean dried chili flakes) optional
8 ounces silken tofu -- sliced into cubes
2 green onions -- thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter

Heat a small laquered cast iron pot (like a Le Creuset) until hot, then
add the pork belly and onion. Allow some of the fat to render out of the
pork belly, then add the kimchi and garlic. Saute until the mixture is
very fragrant, then add the kimchi juice, water, ginger, cooking wine,
gochujang, miso and soy sauce, stirring everything together to combine.

Bring to a boil and taste for spiciness. Add as much gochugaru to taste
until it's pleasantly tingly (I usually add about 2 Tbs, but this may be
way to much for some people). Add the tofu, turn down the heat to a simmer
and let it cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the pork and kimchi are
tender.

When you're ready to serve, add the green onions and butter and give it a
quick stir to incorporate. Put a trivet on the table and serve it straight
out of the pot along with a bowl of rice.

Serves 6

Like its German cousin sauerkraut, the various strains of Lactobacillus in
kimchi convert the sugars in the cabbage into acids over time. At some
point, most people find that kimchi gets too tart, making it unpleasant to
eat straight out of the jar, but this is the perfect time to turn it into
Kimchi Jigae. The tartness mellows out as it cooks with the other
ingredients and the kimchi, along with the pickling juices, adds a
garlicky depth to the soup that is hard to describe.

You might take one look at the color of this soup and assume that it's
going to trigger a thermonuclear reaction in your mouth, but it's not as
spicy as it looks and the heat can be controlled by how much chili you
add. Unlike some Latin American and South Asian chili's Korean chilies are
less potent, so the color can be misleading. Of course if you're anything
like me and like it hot, feel free to add some extra chili flakes to give
it some extra kick.

In the same way that every family has their own secret family recipe for
kimchi, the recipes for Kimchi Jigae vary widely by household. Here are
the secrets from our house for making good kimchi jiggae:

Use the kimchi juice, this is the red liquid that is released from the
cabbge as it's being pickled. Every package will have some at the bottom
and you can squeeze the kimchi with your hands to get more.

Add miso. I know, this is technically a Japanese ingredient, but it adds
an earthy flavour that juxtaposes the tart kimchi nicely. If it makes you
feel more authentic, feel free to substitute doenjang, but in tests, I've
found that doenjang is a little too strong and overwhelms the kimchi.

Add butter at the very end. This may sound really odd, but it thickens the
soup and gives it a wonderful richness without being greasy. The key is to
add it just before serving so it emulsifies in the soup (if you add it too
early the milk solids and fat will separate and make the soup oily).

Cuisine:
"Asian"
Source:
"Foodieview dot com"
S(Formatted by Chupa Babi):
"Nov 2010"
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Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 134 Calories; 9g Fat (57.4%
calories from fat); 8g Protein; 7g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 20mg
Cholesterol; 878mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 1 Lean Meat; 1
Vegetable; 1 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Nutr. Assoc. : 4548 0 1335 0 0 0 3617 0 0 0 558 4714 5290 0 0