One of necessities of infrequent grocery shopping is keeping a handle on what I’ve already got in the fridge, where real estate is limited. Over the weekend, I purged, and among the jars of half-eaten condiments were three containers of kimchi. It was obviously time to make kimchi soup.
The dish I made was a very loose merging of Maangchi’s kimchi soup (kimchi-guk) and Hooni Kim’s kimchi jjigae, which I got from his great new cookbook, “My Korea” (W.W. Norton & Company, 2020).
Both recipes call for pork belly or shoulder, neither of which I had. But I did have a chicken leg, so I used that instead, and it was excellent and a bit lighter than other versions I’ve had. Use whatever meat you’ve got on hand, or skip the meat for a vegetarian soup.
To make it, sear the meat in a little oil in a soup pot. For one to two servings, use about 4 ounces of meat and a drizzle of neutral oil. When the meat is golden at the edges, add a minced garlic clove or two and a pinch of salt, and stir it around until the garlic makes your stomach growl. Then add 2 cups of water or dashi (I used water) and a cup of chopped kimchi and its liquid. (Mr. Kim says to use aged kimchi, which I indubitably did since one of the jars was way back in the fridge behind the duck fat and the Punjabi pickle.) You’ll also need some kind of Korean pepper, either a tablespoon of paste — gochujang, which Maangchi calls for — or 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons gochugaru flakes as per Hooni Kim, or just use whatever chile powder you’ve got on hand. I used gochugaru flakes, along with a pinch of sugar. Bring it all to a simmer and cook for 40 minutes, so the flavors meld and the meat cooks.