Cook’s notes
Yes, it’s a fusion of Korean and Japanese. And, yes, it’s terrific. Why not make kimchi soup the traditional Korean way? Too spicy for us. And, to be honest, we don’t cook Korean food as much nor as often as Japanese food so we don’t always have Korean ingredients on hand.
Koreans traditionally eat kimchi soup by scooping rice into the bowl mixing it in and slurping everything together. But this isn’t traditional Korean kimchi soup, so, enjoy it as you wish.
Soy sauce, sake, mirin, dashi, chili flakes, silken tofu ready-to-eat-kimchi are available in Asian groceries.
Kimchi soup with pork and tofu
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons sesame seed oil
- 450 grams thinly sliced pork belly (14 oz) cut into bite-sized pieces
- ¼ cup Japanese soy sauce
- ¼ cup sake
- ¼ cup mirin
- 1 onion peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 cups kimchi cut into bite-sized pieces (do not discard the juice)
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons dashi granules
- 1 small carrot peeled and thinly sliced
- ½ to 1 teaspoon chili flakes optional
- 1 300-gram block silken tofu (10.5 oz) cut int one-inch cubes
- ½ cup sliced scallions
Instructions
- Heat the sesame oil in a pot.
- Spread the pork slices on the hot oil and leave to cook for a minute or so. Stir and cook just until no longer pink.
- Pour in the soy sauce, sake and mirin. Cook until the pork slices have soaked up most of the liquid.
- Add the onion and cook with occasional stirring until translucent.
- Add the kimchi with the juice.
- Pour in about six cups of water.
- Stir in the dashi.
- Taste and add fish sauce, as needed.
- Add the carrot slices and chili flakes.
- Simmer for 30 minutes.
- Stir in the tofu cubes and simmer for another ten minutes.
- Taste the broth, add more fish sauce, if needed, then turn off the heat.
- Add the scallions to the kimchi soup and stir.
- Serve your kimchi soup with pork and tofu immediately.
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