Week 4 - Kimchi jjigae

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I was randomly surfing around when I came across kimchi on some random website about health food. Kimchi, also spelled kimchee, is a fermented spicy cabbage mixture from Korea. There's other stuff in there like garlic and onions. It is the most popular side dish in Korea. It is eaten as is and often made into other dishes, like kimchi jjigae, which translates to kimchi stew and kimchi fried rice. According to Wikipedia, Koreans say "kimchi" when getting their pictures taken as opposed to "cheese". Kimchi is also known for being very healthy, as it is full of vitamins, fiber and healthy bacteria from the fermenting process.

I found many different recipes for kimchi jjigae on the web so I took elements from a bunch of them and improvised. Traditionally it is made with pork, but according to a few websites, some people use Spam after the American soldiers brought it there after the Korean war. Other people use bacon. I used an Asian brand of Spam like stuff. I also used tofu, zucchini, garlic, ginger, onion, red pepper powder, a splash of soy sauce, a splash of rice wine vinegar and kimchi from a jar.

The verdict: I decided to try the kimchi by itself before making the soup. When I opened the jar, the smell was a little overpowering and the spices cleared my sinuses. After heating it through, it tasted good, albeit spicy as hell. The soup tasted excellent. It was spicy, but not too spicy and the flavors all blended nicely. I added extra red pepper, but if you don't like spice then leave that out and it won't be too spicy. I would make this again and maybe try different recipes.