Prep 10 mins · Cook 35 mins · Total 45 mins · Servings 2 · Difficulty Moderate
For 2
Ingredients
8 oz pork belly, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 packed cups well-aged kimchi (mugeun-ji), chopped, plus 1/2 cup kimchi juice
1/2 block soft or medium-firm tofu, 1 inch cubes
1 tbsp neutral oil
Stock
1 1/2 cups anchovy-kelp stock (myeolchi-dashima)
or unsalted chicken stock
or water plus 1 tsp rice flour whisked in
Aromatics
1/2 large onion, julienned
2 scallions, whites and greens separated, sliced
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp sugar
1 to 2 tsp gochugaru, more if the kimchi is mild, less if it reads deep red
1 1/2 tsp gochujang
Finish
1 tsp soup soy sauce, guk-ganjang
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
Black pepper to taste
Build the stock
Steep a 4 inch square of dashima and a small handful of dried anchovies in 2 cups water at a low simmer for 10 minutes.
Strain. You want about 1 1/2 cups.
Sear the pork
Heat a ttukbaegi or smallest heavy pot over medium-high.
Sear the pork belly 3 to 5 minutes until lightly browned and some fat renders.
Reduce heat to medium.
Stir-fry the kimchi
Add the onion and scallion whites. Cook 1 minute.
Add garlic. Cook 20 seconds.
Add the chopped kimchi and sugar. Stir-fry 6 to 8 minutes until the kimchi darkens and smells round.
This is the most important step. Do not shortcut it.
Bloom the chiles
Push the kimchi to one side. Add gochugaru to the bare patch and stir 20 to 30 seconds in the fat.
Add gochujang and stir 20 seconds.
Simmer
Add the kimchi juice and the stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered 15 to 20 minutes.
Taste. The broth should read deep, sour, faintly sweet, and salty enough to want rice.
Add tofu
Slide the tofu cubes in for the last 5 minutes. Do not stir hard. Spoon broth over them.
Finish off-heat
Turn off the heat.
Add guk-ganjang, scallion greens, black pepper, and sesame oil.
Taste. If it wants sharper, add more kimchi juice. Salt only if needed.
Bring the pot to the table still bubbling.
Notes
Aged kimchi or nothing
Mugeun-ji, two months minimum. Fresh kimchi (geotjeori) ferments in the pot but never reaches the depth this dish needs. If your kimchi is young, age it another month before cooking.
Use a ttukbaegi
Earthenware holds residual heat through the first three minutes of eating. The bubbling at the table is part of the dish. A small enameled cast iron is the next-best option. Wide stainless lets the broth go cold by the third spoon.
Stock hierarchy
Anchovy-kelp first. Unsalted chicken stock second. Plain water plus 1 tsp rice flour whisked in third. Kelp-shiitake is the temple-cuisine version, fine when avoiding fish.
Chicken thigh variant
Swap 8 oz boneless thigh for the pork belly. Skip the sear. Add at the start of the simmer and cook 20 to 25 minutes total.
Optional add-ins
Enoki at the table. Half a block of fresh ramyun in the last 3 minutes for the budae lean. A raw egg yolk dropped into the bowl as you eat.
Why this order works
Stir-frying the kimchi caramelizes the cabbage sugars and tames the raw funk. Blooming gochugaru and gochujang in fat unlocks color and depth. Off-heat aromatics keep the sesame oil and scallion green from cooking out.
