Your Pie, My Mouth: Kimchi Soup (Kimchi-guk)

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Kimchi Soup (Kimchi-guk)

When last we came upon this old friend he was fresh and new and exciting. But alas, over the past month, he has become tired, old, boring, in desperate need of a spark, something new.....

Kimchi-guk!!!!!!

Now please do not misunderstand, the Kimchi that we made a month ago is still super duper awesome and super duper tasty. It continues to fart it's brains out and stink up the whole fridge, kitchen, and house. Decomposing, rotting, growing deeper and deeper in flavor and tartness. It's delicious and I eat it all the time. It's just a little boring in this form now, so, I'm ready for a new way to eat this amazing food.

Kimchi Soup

A mixture of chopped kimchi, pork shoulder, red pepper paste, and a few other minor characters.

I have to say at the outset, this was super great, and with a minimum of ingredients, a pretty amazing bowl of soup.

Let's jump right in!

(in the unlikely event that you want to make this soup, please drop me a line and I'll give you the ingredient measurements)

It starts with Kimchi

You can see the transformation over the last month. More pale in color and more wilted.

On the left is now, the right is freshly made

Chopped

Pork Shoulder, cubed, kinda small.

I did an experiment on this and just sliced through the fat and all to see if after cooking it turned out to be nasty and gristly and fatty. It was beautiful and soft and delicious. No remains of the fat or anything, other than it flavoring the broth fantastically, rendering down to just tender beautiful meat.

Red Pepper Paste

Just a touch of sugar

Everything goes into the pot all at once and you boil on high for 30 minutes

After the 30 minutes you can add tofu, or dumplings, or whatever other items you might like, or nothing at all. We happened to have these Mini Chicken Cilantro Wontons in the freezer, and they ended up being perfect.

In the pot they go and cook on low for another 10 minutes.

Add sliced green onions and serve

I made Japanese Sticky Rice as well and I recommend just put it straight away into the soup. It acts as a vessel of sorts to transport the broth into your mouth, and adds texture, and makes the meal a bit heartier.