14 recipes. Page 1 of 1
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Fermented skate, boiled pork belly, and aged kimchi are laid side by side, then stacked one piece of each into a single bite. Keeping them in separate rows instead of piling them together shows at a glance what is left, which makes pairing them up easy. The pork is sliced an even 0.5 cm thick so a stack of all three still fits in one mouthful.
Tofu is blanched in salted water for 3 minutes and cut into thick slabs, and sour aged kimchi is stir-fried with pork shoulder and onion to go alongside. The blanching firms the tofu's surface so the thick slices are easy to pick up, and a spoonful of the hot kimchi on top seasons the outside. When it is served with soju or makgeolli, the tofu and the stir-fry go on separate plates.
A Gangwon province dish: buckwheat batter is cooked crepe-thin, rolled around a stir-fried filling of aged kimchi, tofu and pork, then crisped in the pan a second time. Buckwheat has no gluten, and the batter needs more than 10 minutes' rest before it can be spread thin without tearing. Unrinsed aged kimchi keeps its fermented sourness in the filling; rinsing it makes the filling milder.
Well-aged kimchi brings a sharp sourness that plays against the oily white flesh of hairtail, so this fish stew tastes more tangy and spicy than fishy. A five-minute soak in lightly salted water, followed by a rinse, takes much of the strong smell out of the fish.
Each piece of mackerel gets a 20-second dip in hot water to set the outside white, then goes in a single layer over aged kimchi (mukeunji) lining the pot. By the end, the kimchi has soaked up the fish fat and turned glossy.
Pan-fried mackerel and stir-fried mukeunji, kimchi aged until deeply sour, turn a bowl of spicy mixed noodles into something closer to a full meal. Salting the fish and blotting away the liquid it releases keeps the fishy smell down.
Sour, long-aged kimchi and canned tuna are stir-fried together and spooned over hot rice. The tuna goes in last and is turned over just a few times in big folds, so it stays in chunks that take on the kimchi seasoning rather than breaking into flakes. Very sour kimchi can take about half a teaspoon more sugar, and canned mackerel works in place of tuna.
A local dish of Taean in South Chungcheong: blue crab and aged kimchi in one pot, seasoned with salted shrimp. The broth gets its flavor from the kimchi, and it has to be well-fermented mukeunji. The crabs have the top shell removed and the leg tips trimmed, and the bodies are cut in half before they go in.
Well-fermented kimchi, sour and soft, meets the oil from canned Pacific saury and cooks down into a tangy, concentrated sauce. With no fish to clean, the work is mostly waiting: about twenty minutes of simmering, partly uncovered, until the kimchi turns tender and the liquid thickens. Sliced cheongyang chili goes in near the end to keep its sharp heat. The fish only needs heating through and stays in large pieces as long as nobody stirs it.
Sour aged kimchi and canned tuna share a gochujang, vinegar, and syrup dressing in this quick pantry noodle bowl. The kimchi is shaken free of its seasoning and chopped fine so the sourness spreads through the noodles instead of landing in one bite. Both the tuna and the noodles are drained well, since leftover can liquid or rinse water loosens the sauce. Half the scallions go into the mix and the rest on top for fresh color and bite.
Mild, pan-browned tofu breaks up the sharp sourness of aged kimchi in every bite. The finishing oil is perilla rather than sesame, drizzled once the heat is off so its nutty aroma survives and smooths out the kimchi's fermented intensity.
Long-fermented kimchi (mugeunji) is sour enough that it gets fried in rendered pork fat before the water is added, which takes the harsh edge off its acidity. With plain water as the broth, all the flavor has to come from the kimchi and pork over at least 20 minutes at a medium simmer. Cut that short and the broth stays thin.
Sour, long-fermented kimchi and pork back ribs braise down together in one pot, so the first impression is tangy and savory before it is spicy. The riper the kimchi, the stronger its sourness and savory depth, which makes the state of the kimchi the biggest factor in how the dish turns out.
Layered with well-aged kimchi and left to simmer a long time, the kimchi goes soft right down to the stems and the pork shoulder, streaked with fat, pulls apart with chopsticks.