Kimchi Stew - Perfect for Rainy Days

Kimchi Stew.  The words alone can warm me up and fire up my salivary glands to overdrive.

A Korean lady who owns a grocery taught me this recipe.  It's a good thing I did not quite understand her - I mixed up her versions of Kimchi Soup AND Miso Soup and came up with spectacular results.  When I was telling her what I did, she was shaking her head - apparently I committed some sort of Korean Culinary boo-boo.

I continued making this mistake of adding miso paste to kimchi stew, since I liked the taste. Eventually, I found recipes on the net that make use of this combination, along with other flavorings such as chili powder for added fire, soy sauce, onions, and sesame oil.

I keep mine simple, and you can glean the ingredients from the picture above.

Kimchi, plus some kimchi juice from the jar, chopped to bite size portions
Wakame (dried Japanese seaweed)
Miso paste (about a heaping teaspoon per serving)
Soba noodles
Tofu
Water

That's basically it.  I make it in a Korean cooking vessel which I bought very cheaply.  It needs to be placed on a trivet, since it's quite unstable over my gas range.

Basically boil everything and you're done!  I sometimes break an egg during the last few minutes of simmering the stew.  Another one of my not-much-cooking recipes.

It's amazing how cuisines go together at one point as our lives intersect with that of other cultures.  One thing I learned from an Italian chef is to add a dab of butter after reheating left over spaghetti with sauce - it adds an element of richness and makes everything taste fresh.

I found exactly the same tip in this soup, in this version!  I must try that.

And the post that started my craving for Kimchi Soup - thank you, Shinshine!



Sources:

Lodge Cast Iron Trivet, and other Lodge Cast Iron Pans
     - Living Well, Podium, Ortigas, Manila

Fun Things to Do with Odds and Ends in the Refrigerator

I've written a previous entry on how easy it is to create a fresh-tasting Salad with miscellaneous items in the refrigerator over here.  

Sometimes, when I'm at the dining table already and something needs jazzing up - I turn to an array of flavor boosters.  Favorites, of course, are olives, capers... Filipino pickles (achara).  Spices and spicy food - small fiery chilies, kimchi.  I also make my own flavored vinegars, usually with my favorite herb - basil, of course.  

Recently, we've taken to dicing more raw mangoes that we can finish in a meal - so off it goes in a covered bowl, with a sprinkling of sugar and salt.  The mangoes eventually lends some of its juices to make a very flavorful pickling solution.

Here are the mangoes, added to various odds and ends in the ref.

With Broccoli and Dragon Fruit:

  

... and with tomatoes, basil, and fried dried anchovies.  

These are welcome additions to my pared-down diet - it adds a lot of volume and flavor to my meal - hence filling me up without adding a lot of calories.

Makes a most satisfying crunch, too!

Leftovers + Leftovers = Not Bad at All!

I was in a mood for a fast, quick snack after coming home, ravenous, from the farm.  I espied a container of diced fried tofu in one corner of the refrigerator.

Now, tofu is highly nutritious and is low fat - we all know that.  But it is also as boring as plain white bread.  What to do, what to do...

Then I saw a bowl of left over diced raw mangoes, which were tossed in a little bit of sugar and salt.  After  one day, the osmotic effect of the salt/sugar mixture drew out the juice of the raw mangoes. It was at that perfect stage - still crunchy, and oozing with that tart/sweet/salty juice.

I mixed the two together, and added some of the Tofu sauce (*).

The result:

The raw mangoes certainly added a bit of flair and flavor to the bland tofu - and the tofu sauce was able to offset its tartness nicely.  

Not bad, not bad at all.

(*) Tofu Sauce:

Mix soy sauce, chopped onions, garlic, a little rum, sugar, and scant black pepper in a saucepan.  Taste for balance of salt / sweet.  Put over low fire and simmer gently.  


Rescue the sauce with a splash of apple juice if it is too salty.  


Serve with fried tofu, cubed.

Tomato - Basil Salad

Yesterday's post on basil inevitably leads to this one - Tomato Basil Salad.  It's one of my favorite fast easy recipes that's healthy AND tasty.

To make:

Slice tomatoes thinly, so more surface area is available to soak up the marinade.  Sprinkle with strips (well, ok, julienne) of basil.  Sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and salt.  Drizzle with olive oil, and vinegar of choice.  I like balsamic for its depth of flavor, but apple cider is an acceptable substitute.  Take the obligatory photographs, and serve.

Yesterday, to make it more substantial, I sliced ripe mangoes and hard boiled egg, and added that to this tomato salad.  Croutons will turn this into a complete meal of carbs + protein + veggies.

Miso Soup

Miso Soup ranks high up in my list of comfort food.  It's easy to prepare, it's nourishing, and rich in flavorful umami.  What's not to like?

I used to be intimidated by it.  Most recipes call for making dashi - a soup stock made with bonito flakes and konbu.  Two more exotic ingredients, and just to make the soup stock!  That was until the proprietor of a Korean grocery taught me a simplified version.

Instead of bonito flakes, she taught me how to use dried fish from her store.  They seem like big fat dilis (dried anchovies) to me.  Simply pop off the heads and take out the stomach part containing the entrails.  Chop into fine pieces.

Drop in a pan (I use a Korean ceramic vessel), add some wakame (dried seaweed), and a tablespoon of miso per bowl of water.  That's it!  Optional ingredients are onion sprigs and tofu.

It's a bit less refined than the Japanese version - but good nonetheless.

I've taken to adding chopped kimchi to this mix, plus whatever left-over steamed vegetables I have in the refrigerator.  Some soba noodles oftentimes end up in the mix, too.  I add an egg when everything comes to a rolling boil, then turn down the heat.  The ingredients are now pantry staples - I have Miso paste in the freezer, and dried seaweed in the cupboard.  I've also discovered this powder in a Japanese grocery.  It's granular - much like fish food (...)  and it amps up the flavor in the broth.

My recipe is by no means authentic to either the Korean or the Japanese versions - but it's fast, cheap, easy, made with few ingredients, and I have dinner on the table in 10 minutes flat.  And quite a good one at that.