Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew)

Kimchi jjigae exists because kimchi keeps fermenting. After a few weeks in the fridge it turns properly sour and softens, and at that point it is past its best eaten raw but exactly right for this.

Old kimchi is the point

Fresh kimchi is crisp, bright and only lightly funky. It makes a thin, sharp stew. Kimchi that has been open for three weeks or more has developed more lactic acid, the cabbage has gone soft, and the flavour has deepened considerably.

If your kimchi is young, leave the jar out at room temperature for a day or two to speed things along, and add half a teaspoon of vinegar to the pot.

Do not rinse it, and do not drain it. The juice is a fermented brine full of flavour and it goes straight into the stew.

Fry it before you add water

Five minutes of stir-frying kimchi in rendered pork fat is not a step to skip. Raw kimchi boiled in water tastes aggressively sour and one-dimensional. Fried first, its sugars caramelise slightly, the sharp edges round off, and the fat carries the chilli through the whole pot.

You will see it change colour from bright red to a deeper brick as it goes.

Pork belly, and why no oil

Pork belly renders a lot of fat, which is what you want as the cooking medium. Starting it in a dry pot means it fries in its own fat rather than sitting in added oil, and the browned bits it leaves behind season the broth.

Pork shoulder works if you prefer less fat. A vegetarian version using only tofu and a mushroom stock is genuinely good, though you lose the richness and will want an extra spoon of sesame oil at the end.

Two chilli products, two jobs

Gochugaru is coarse dried chilli flake — it provides colour and clean heat. Gochujang is a fermented paste of chilli, rice and soybean — it provides savoury depth and a slight sweetness. They are not interchangeable and most Korean stews use both.

Neither has a good substitute. Regular chilli flakes are far hotter and lack the fruity note, so if you swap, use much less.

Tofu goes in last

Firm tofu will break into fragments if it is stirred through a boiling stew. Laying it on top for the final five minutes lets it heat through and take up some broth while staying in one piece.

Nutrition

A bowl comes in around 560 calories with 30 grams of protein. Kimchi itself is a fermented food and a source of live lactic acid bacteria — though the boiling here kills them, so the probiotic benefit belongs to raw kimchi, not this dish. What survives is the vitamin C, the fibre and the flavour.

It reheats very well and, like most fermented stews, tastes better the next day.