Kimchi Stew
The first time we made this stew, it made us and a house full of guests believers in the idea of kimchi stew. We’re confident that you will find it to be one of the most soul-warming stews you’ve made too. It’s not very difficult to put together and the flavor will make your guests believe you really labored for hours to make it.
Serves 6-8 and you may have some for leftovers. This can easily be doubled or quadrupled if you are really ambitious and feeding a big crowd. Although you could halve for a smaller batch, you’ll want leftovers or to throw in the freezer.
Ingredients
3-4lb pork shoulder, bone-in
1 15oz jar Kimchenius Kimchi
2 medium to large sweet or yellow onions
¼ cup kosher salt
¼ cup sugar
4 cups/1 quart broth (for ease, this could be quality chicken or vegetable stock, or even better a homemade broth such as pork bone)
6 tablespoons Mirin
1/2lb rice stick cut into ½” pieces or sliced rice cakes
Fresh ground black pepper
1 cup sliced green onions
4 cups cooked white rice or other if preferred
Preparation
A heavy dutch oven (cast iron) works great and makes this a one-pot meal aside from cooking the rice. 8-quart size gives room to work with, but you might be able to get by with a 6-quart pot.
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
Slice the onions about 1/8-1/4” and put in the bottom of the pot with a tablespoon or so of olive or vegetable oil.
Combine the kosher salt and sugar and liberally coat the pork shoulder and continue to pat it in. If you have extra time, you can do this the night before, if not don’t worry about it. This will be a little messy, so doing it over a sheet pan will help cut down the cleanup. Once you think you’ve as much adhered to the pork as will stay on, shake off the excess and place on top of the onions in the pot. Discard the excess salt/sugar mixture.
Put your lid on the pot or cover with foil and place in oven. Check the pork periodically, but you can figure it will take 3-4 hours for a 3lb and closer 6 hours for something along the lines of 7-8lbs. You want to roast it long and slow enough that it comes apart easily with a fork. It doesn’t have to be fall apart when you look at it done, but tender enough that you can pull it apart pretty readily and maybe chop up a little. It takes a little time, but this is a pretty simple and hands-off cooking process.
Once the pork is done, remove the pot from the oven and put it on the stovetop. Remove the pork and set it aside so it can cool down a little. You are at a major decision point now. What you’ll have left in the pot at this point are the onions that have probably almost melted and a fair amount of pork fat and juice. You can skim some of the fat off, strain the fat from the onions using a colander or something. Or, you can just leave it all in the pot and work with it which is what I typically do. The flavor and richness of it outweigh the fat intake in my opinion, but it’s completely up to you. The kimchi will help cut that quite a bit.
Once you’re ready and hopefully you were able to save some of the onions if you decided to discard the fat & juice, turn the burner to medium and add the quart of whatever stock or broth you’re using and stir and gently scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen up and incorporate any bits that are left.
As the stock mixture starts to come up to high heat (no need to boil), add the Mirin and both jars of Kimchenius, juice and all. Add a nice grind of black pepper and stir well to incorporate. Keep the heat on medium-medium low to start bringing the flavors together. The sweetness of the Mirin cuts the acidity of the Kimchi, so give it a taste and see if you need to adjust. If it’s still a little too acidic, add a splash more Mirin and taste to get it to your liking.
If you haven’t already, pull the pork apart. There’s no science to it, all you need to do is get it into bite-size chunks. As you’re going through it, you can trim and discard any excess fat that you want. Go ahead and add the pork to the pot and give it a stir. Keep the heat on, but it can be low. All you’re doing now is bringing the flavors together, so 15-20 minutes should be plenty.
Assuming you’ve prepared the rice separately and once you’re getting ready to serve, add the sliced rice cakes or rice sticks cut into approximately ½’ discs to the pot. These don’t really take long to soften up, maybe 5-10 minutes tops. They’ll be a little chewy and are basically like a little dumpling.
To Serve
Put a scoop of rice in each bowl and ladle the Kimchenius stew over it. Just make sure you’re getting a nice mixture of all of the elements and broth. Top with sliced green onions (green part mostly) and you’re ready.