kimchi chigae: revisited

my flight is leaving sunday morning and i gotta use up this kimchi before i take off! not that it won't last through the month and a half that i'll be gone, but i just think it'd be impolite to leave it glaring at all the danes (and the swede) every time they open the fridge door. i already made kimchi pancakes, so the next thing to do with soggy fermented cabbage is to make kimchi chigae! i even took it a step further by adding my radish kimchi to clean out the last of the offending foods and to bring a new texture to the stew. two red, smelly birds with one stone.

this is pre-makeup and styling. looks like death both ways, eh?

the first batch of kimchi i made was good, but either i didn't mince the ginger finely enough or i just don't like ginger and i'm still in denial. little ginger bits kept exploding in my mouth with each bite and i just didn't dig it. so this time around i just left it out. sorry, maangchi! sorry, korea! it's... just better this way.

kimchi chigae: adapted from maangchi's recipe
(feeds 3-4)

half of a napa cabbage kimchi (about 2-3 cups...?)
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp hot pepper flakes
1 1/2 tbsp hot pepper paste
400g silken tofu
1/2 cup kimchi juice
1 1/2-2 cups water (depending how thick/thin you like the soup)
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 spring onion

chop the kimchi and squish the tofu with your hands. put everything in the pot except the last 2 ingredients and cook on medium heat for about 20-30 minutes. add the sesame oil right before serving and garnish with spring onions, shredded seaweed, whatever you got in the fridge...

serve with rice to soak up some of the spice.

to accompany this fiery stew i made sigumchi namul (시금치나물), which is spinach as a common korean side dish. but this is known as mina's super lazy version©. since fresh spinach is pretty expensive here in denmark i used frozen whole-leaf spinach. and it was on sale so i bought the organic kind. i didn't feel like adding garlic since the chigae would be spicy. thaw, toss in a dry pan, add some soy sauce, and when you turn off the heat just add sesame oil. mmm, smells so good! garnish with sesame seeds. this might be even better with thinly sliced red onion on top.

after the spinach was done i threw some canned tuna into the pan and cooked it in the same way (soy sauce and then sesame oil to finish) but i added a bit of minced garlic to this and served it seperately. in case, you know, my swedish vegetarian roommate came home hungry. WHICH SHE DID. man, can i call them or what? by the time we finished half our bowls, our noses were running and we were all sniffles. a spicy, hearty stew for yet another cold night in denmark.

i still have about a cup of kimchi left. what can i do with it?