Kimchi Jiggae / Kimchi Stew

This is by far my favorite Korean dish.  Spicy, savory, hot and addictive.  Kimchi stew is a very common, humble everyday dish enjoyed by every Koreans.  You can make it with minimal ingredients or add meat, seafood, even more veggies of your choice.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup of chopped kimchi and kimchi liquid, preferably older kimchi

1/2 medium size onion chopped

2 tbsp Gochujang or more if you like it spicy  (Korean red pepper paste)

1/2 of package of tofu, cubed.

*4 oz of pork chopped to small pieces.   (I used pork stew meat) 

2 cups of water

1/4 cup of chopped scallion.

2 tsp of canola oil

1 tsp of sesame oil to drizzle at the end

Directions

Add oil to pan, saute onion till its translucent.

Add pork, saute till no longer pink

Add Kimchi and Gochujang.  Saute incorporating everything.

Stir in water and tofu and bring to boil.  Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add chopped scallion and drizzle with sesame oil and serve with steamed rice.

Serves 2

*Pork is traditional but you can certainly add any meat.  or none if you prefer.

Kale Kimchi

Inspired by my cousin Sujin, I recently made an improvement to the kale kimchi recipe.  I simply added both daikon radish and regular small red radishes and slice them half rounds instead of julienned.  Also used red Russian kale instead of curly kale.  (the radishes were salted for 20 minutes and rinsed before being added to kimchi paste)
Red Russian kale is slightly more bitter which reminds my of chong gak kimchi.  (baby daikon radish kimchi with the greens)  I personally prefer the red Russian kale over the curly kale.

Vegetarian Chili Rellenos

This is a follow-up to my black bean filling.
I just wanted to show recipe's versatility.
Just roast a poblano chili and stuff it with the black bean filling.
Top it with cheese and bake at 375 for 15 minutes.
Serve with sour cream and salsa.
Or you can get fancy and add 2 chipotle peppers and 1 tbsp of the chipotle sauce to
1/2 cup of sour cream and 1/2 cup of yogurt.  Blend till smooth.
Makes a delicious topping.  Pictured here.

Roast the poblano chili on an open flame, like your gas stove or in the broiler.  (If using the broiler
keep you eyes on it.)
Make sure it's completely charred.  Wrap it lightly with a paper towel or tea cloth let it steam
for 3-5 minutes.  Scrape off the skin with a spoon and also take all the seeds out.