Make “Bon Voyage Kimchi Stew” At Home, With BTS Suga’s Easy Peasy Recipe
In the latest episode of Bon Voyage 4, BTS‘s Suga-turned-Min-chef-nim blessed the members with a grand Korean feast for dinner. The two course meal consisted of kimchi-jjigae (kimchi stew) and kimchi–ramyun cooked in the stew broth.
In the case you’re looking for some menu inspo for dinner tonight, here’s Chef Min’s simplified recipe for the hot-and-spicy kimchi-themed specials. For ingredients, you’ll need pork belly, kimchi, kimchi brine, onions, green onions, and minced garlic.
Here’s the Chongga brand of kimchi Suga bought and used for his jjigae:
First, as Chef Min went about creating his masterpiece, you must stir fry chunks of bite-sized pork belly in the pot you’re using for the stew. The more meat, the heartier the stew — so be as generous with the amount of pork belly used as Chef Min was.
Then, once the pork belly pieces come to a golden color, add water directly to the pot. Depending on your preference, you can always add extra water for a more soupy texture. And while this step is missing from the actual episode, at this point, you must add the kimchi and the kimchi brine to the pot. In fact, the kimchi can be stir-fried with the pork, if you would like it to have deeper flavor. Adding plenty of kimchi brine also helps enrich the flavor, but too much can kick up the spice level — beware!
Once the mixture comes to a boil, add chunks of onions, green onions, and a bit of garlic. Onions will generally boost the sweetness, but can be left out. As far as substitutes go, if you have available at home, you may try adding bite-sized pieces of tofu. If you’re looking for extra-extra spicy, feel free to cut up some chili right over the stew.
Finally, add some sugar, close the lid, bring to a complete boil…
… then boom. You’re ready. Serve pipin’ hot with freshly cooked white rice, for some legitimate shut-up-and-stuff-your-face time!
Once a good portion of the kimchi, pork, and veggie chunks are gone — but you’re still hungry — the remaining broth can be used to cook kimchi-ramyun. Using the noodles from the instant ramyun packets, and some bite-sized chunks of hotdog sausages, you have round two made easy! Add water and noodles, with an option to use the included ramyun powder to season stronger as preferred, for some more wow-in-your-belly.
Hungry yet?
