Kimchi jjigae
This is the dish worth forgetting a jar of kimchi in the fridge for a few weeks for. Fresh kimchi is crisp and faintly sweet — jjigae needs it over-fermented, soft, sour to the point of being unpleasant on its own. Cooking turns that sourness into depth fresh kimchi can never give. The second condition: the kimchi must be fried in fat before any liquid goes in.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Pork 8 min
- Frying the kimchi 8 min
- Simmering 20 min
- Tofu 6 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneRender the pork for its fat
Cut the pork into pieces and fry in the sesame oil for 6–8 minutes, until the fat renders and the edges brown. That rendered fat is the carrier for the chilli — capsaicin and the red pigment of the pepper dissolve in fat, not in water, so without it the stew tastes duller and looks pale.
Ingredients: 300 g pork belly · 1 tbsp sesame oil · 1 pcs onion · 4 cloves garlic · 400 g kimchi
Rendered fat is the base of all the heat.Add onion and garlic
Add the sliced onion and garlic and fry for 2 minutes, until softened and fragrant. Do not brown them hard — they will go on cooking in an acidic liquid that draws out their sweetness anyway.
Ingredients: 300 g pork belly · 1 tbsp sesame oil · 1 pcs onion · 4 cloves garlic · 400 g kimchi
Fry the kimchi for a full five minutes
Add the chopped kimchi and fry for 5 minutes, until it softens, deepens to brick red and the fat in the pot turns red. This is the key step: dropped straight into stock, kimchi keeps a harsh, raw sourness; fried first, it mellows and gains depth.
Ingredients: 300 g pork belly · 1 tbsp sesame oil · 1 pcs onion · 4 cloves garlic · 400 g kimchi
The fat turns red — the kimchi is ready.Stir in gochujang and chilli
Add the gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce and sugar, and fry for a minute, stirring so the paste does not catch. The teaspoon of sugar is not there to sweeten the dish — it balances the sourness of over-fermented kimchi, which on its own can be too sharp.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp gochujang · 1 tbsp gochugaru · 1 tbsp soy sauce · 1 tsp sugar · 700 ml stock
Add stock and kimchi juice, simmer 20 minutes
Pour in the stock along with the kimchi juice from the jar and simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, until the cabbage and the pork are fully tender. That juice is concentrated acid and umami — pouring it away throws out much of the flavour.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp gochujang · 1 tbsp gochugaru · 1 tbsp soy sauce · 1 tsp sugar · 700 ml stock
Add the tofu and do not stir
Cut the tofu into thick slabs, lay them on top and leave them alone — soft tofu falls apart at the first movement of a spoon. Cook another 5 minutes so it heats through and takes on flavour.
Ingredients: 300 g tofu · 3 pcs spring onions · 1 tbsp sesame seeds
Tofu laid on top, never stirred in.Scatter spring onion and serve with rice
Scatter with spring onion and sesame and serve straight from the pot, still bubbling, with a bowl of white rice alongside. In Korea jjigae is a communal dish — it goes in the middle of the table and everyone spoons it over their own rice.
Ingredients: 300 g tofu · 3 pcs spring onions · 1 tbsp sesame seeds
Before you start
Souring your kimchi
If all you have is fresh kimchi, leave the closed jar at room temperature for 1–2 days (open it briefly each day to let the gas out), then return it to the fridge. For jjigae the kimchi should be sour enough that you would hardly eat it on its own.
Without gochujang
Miso paste with an extra spoonful of chilli flakes and a pinch of sugar is a decent stand-in. Do not substitute harissa or sriracha — their profiles are entirely different and will pull the dish towards North Africa or Thailand.
Rice rinsing water
In Korea jjigae is often built on the cloudy water from rinsing rice. The starch thickens the broth slightly and rounds out the flavour — if you are cooking rice anyway, discard the first rinse and keep the water from the second.
