little bitty girl

This post is dedicated to Marie, the little pork belly lover.

It's finally cold here in Toronto. About time since it's already November. I have to say, that I have never gotten used to the first blast of the cold. Not only is it cold but it's rainy. Worst combination of weather ever. Give me lots of snow and cold, but rain? Forget about it.

Since I had some leftover banchan dishes from the night before, I thought the perfect thing to do was to make a spicy Kimchi stew to eat with rice. I had some thinly sliced pork belly for a dish I am making my parents tomorrow. I had read that pork belly is a very common ingredient in Korean cooking so decided to add it into my stew.

The great thing about stews in any culture is that you just add what you like. This is what I added in mine:

Sliced Pork Belly
Kimchi with some kimchi juice
Enoki Mushrooms
Mung bean sprouts
Tofu
Julienned spring onions
Chicken Broth

Heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a pan
Saute thin slices of pork belly
When pork is almost cooked, add kimchi and kimchi juice
Saute for a couple of minutes
Add chicken broth
Bring the soup a boil and then lower to a simmer
Add the rest of your ingredients
Simmer until vegetables have softened (takes only a couple of minutes)
Pour over freshly steamed rice
Add a dash of sesame oil for extra flavouring

I usually make this stew vegetarian but must say that the pork gave it a really rich, silky flavour as meat tends to do. It really was the perfect thing for a yucky, cold night.