A spicy Korean stew made with kimchi, tofu, and mushrooms. Kimchi Jjigae will warm you right up and keep the chill at bay.
Although the Bay Area is experiencing summer-like weather these past weeks, I do feel the season is slowly changing when the chilly wind blows in the evening. Fall is almost here.
I’m usually late to post seasonal recipes, but for once I’m ready to share this delicious dish to keep you warm. The dish is called Kimchi Jjigae or Kimchi Chigae.
Kimchi Jjigae- A Spicy Stew with Many Variations
This stew-like Korean dish is made with kimchi (or kimchee) and other ingredients, and today I made a simple version with abundant silky tofu in it. The stew is full of flavor from sweet, salty, sour, and spicy flavors from the kimchi, traditional Korean fermented napa cabbage.
There is a lot of room for variation with this dish; you can add protein (meat and fish) and/or other favorite vegetables. If you want to keep it simple like mine, it only takes a little more than half an hour from start to finish.
The Japanese like to add Japanese ingredients like miso in Kimchi Jjigae to add an additional layer of complexity to the flavor. This hearty spicy stew is served bubbling hot and it’s perfect for upcoming cold days! The soft silky tofu not only melts in your mouth, but it also keeps the dish sizzling to the very last bite.
The consistency of Minute Miso is more liquid than typical miso. If you cannot find Minute Miso, you can substitute with 1 Tbsp miso paste (white miso ) and 1 Tbsp. dashi/water for 2 Tbsp. Hikari Miso’s Minute Miso.
Hikari Miso products are available on Amazon. You can also buy Hikari Miso products in Japanese grocery stores (my local Japanese and Asian stores carry their product).
Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew)
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil (roasted)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 tsp ginger (minced)
- 1 ½ cup loosely packed kimchi (cut into bite-size pieces if necessary; add more kimchi, if desired. Adjust the spiciness with chili paste and red chili pepper flakes.)
- 1 Tbsp gochujang (Korean chili paste)
- 1 Tbsp sake (can be substituted with Chinese rice wine or dry sherry)
- 2 Tbsp Hikari Miso® M1nute Miso (liquid miso) (or 1 Tbsp white miso)
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes)
- ½ cup juice from kimchi (squeeze the kimchi to get juice)
- 2 cup water
- 3.5 oz enoki mushrooms (½ package; the bottom trimmed)
- 1 oz shimeji mushrooms (⅓ package; the bottom trimmed)
- 14 oz soft/silken tofu (kinugoshi tofu) (drained and cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) blocks)
- 2 scallions (use green parts only, sliced)
Instructions
- In a small pot, heat sesame oil on medium-high heat.
- When it’s hot, add garlic and ginger and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add kimchi and stir fry for 2 minutes.
- Add Korean chili paste, sake, Hikari Miso® M1nute Miso Organic, soy sauce, and Korean red chili pepper flakes, stirring everything together to combine.
- Add kimchi juice and water and bring to a boil.
- Add enoki, shimeji mushrooms and tofu and cook for 15 minutes.
- Garnish with the scallions and serve immediately.
Our favorite Korean restaurant on Monument Blvd. in Concord, Ca. is called Korean BBQ Plus. I ordered the Kimchee Chigae for my lunch entree and did enjoy it.
The restaurant has a Korean grocery next door and picked up the flavorful Korean chili paste for under $5 and some silken tofu and of course their fresh kimchee.
Your recipe is super easy and so wonderful for a day like today where the temps dropped like 20 degrees from the day before.
This is a recipe that I will repeat during our cold months. Many thanks.
Hi Mae! How convenient to have a supermarket next to a restaurant! I used to live around there and I had hard time finding Japanese/Asian ingredients (and I wasn’t too familiar back then). Hope you enjoy the recipe, and thank you so much for your comment! 🙂
I am ameize for that variety of delicious Japanese food. I am always been A faithful fan of japanese food. Thanks for share your knowledge
Hi Yvanaj! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy Japanese food. Thank you so much for reading my blog and I hope you enjoy cooking Japanese food at home! 🙂
This dish was delicious, thank you! Though I find it interesting that you mention your version is vegetarian. I was under the impression that kimchi was usually made with fish sauce and/ or fermented shrimp paste. I could be wrong, oh well, I’m not vegetarian and thought it was delightful and warming!
Thanks for noticing! True, usually regular kimchi has fish sauce and shrimp paste. I’ve updated the info. For those of you who want vegan kimchi here are some info:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/01/vegan-kimchi-as-good-as-the-real-thing.html
http://www.simplyseoulkitchen.com/#!product-page/c6np/a422e17a-72fd-fbbb-5eea-22dac5116c28
Thanks Jennifer!
Nami – arigatou gazaimas
Living in Nagoya, not speaking more than survival level Japanese, and wanting to try to make (more) authentically japanese dishes – your blog et al are a gift.
Cheers,
‘GaijinCyn’
Hello GaijinCyn (love the nickname!)! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy my recipes and thanks for trying them! Hope you enjoy living in Nagoya! I haven’t explored the city before, and I would definitely love to visit one day (last June, I was at the Nagoya shinkansen station on my way home from Takayama).
There is no recipe on mobile. I’m on an Android. Please fix!
Hi Alex! This recipe was a collaboration with Hikari Miso company, so the recipe is over at their site:
http://www.hikarimiso.com/recipes/liquid_miso/kimchi/
Thank you! 🙂