I think that kimchi stew is better with spam, although it is traditionally only with pork belly. Other ingredients like mushrooms (shiitake, enoki, etc.) are also a great addition. The first time I had kimchi stew with spam was at a friend’s house and she served it with instant noodles in an army stew style. I prefer eating with rice although the noodles were delicious too. Watch the portions though as pork belly is pretty high calorie, more than the spam.
The base of the kimchi stew is a broth called yuksu, which is similar to the Japanese dashi. Although you can substitute this with chicken stock or some other stock, it isn’t exactly the same. If you’ve got an extra 30 minutes on hand, I’d definitely make the yuksu. As a bonus, its remnants can be used as garden fertiliser.
Serves 4 as side (272 calories per serve)
Prep time 20 mins
Cook time 50 mins
Ingredients
Yuksu broth
10g dried kelp (dasima or kombu in Japanese)
30g dried anchovy, heads off and gutted
1 spring onion root
1.5L water
Kimchi stew
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic, sliced
100g pork belly, cut to 1cm pieces
100g spam, diced
150g kimchi
1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp Korean chilli flakes (gochugaru)
2 tsp Korean chilli paste (gochugang)
100g tofu, sliced
1 tsp sesame oil
1 spring onion, sliced
Make the yuksu broth by boiling the dry kelp, dried anchovy and spring onion in 1.5L of water. Leave it on a gentle simmer for 30 minutes. Strain and set aside 1L of broth. The remnants can be used as fertiliser for the garden.
In a large pot, add the onion, garlic, pork belly and spam and sautee for a few minutes until softened and fragrant.
Add the kimchi, salt, sugar, chilli flakes, chilli paste and retained yuksu broth. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the tofu slices and let it simmer for a furtehr 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat. Stir in the sesame oil and garnish with spring onion. Serve immediately with rice. If using instant noodles, add it in the last 5 minutes of cook time.
Step By Step Video
More Pork Recipes
- Sweet Chilli Pork Meatball Tacos
- Slow-Braised Pork Belly
- Herbal Pork Noodle Soup
- Fried Chinese Pumpkin Cake
- Chinese Sticky Rice Parcel