Kimchi Chigea

Okay, so this is the first anti-Paleo dish I have made since I put the blog together and I hate to put something like this out there for you guys, but this is sooooo far out of my comfort zone in terms of familiarity and experience, and I had to post it. Also I changed enough ingredients to make it better (swapped out tofu for mushrooms, zucchini and onion for bean curds, brown rice for white, pork shoulder for belly) than what the authentic version is (authentic as far as my one experience eating this dish has taught me, and I had it for the first time at lunch today and it made me sick all afternoon). Anyway, without delay, here is your first anti-Paleo Korean dish of the year.

Kimchi Chigea

Three days prior to cooking (obsessed much? Three days?), take a 15 oz jar of kimchi (store bought, and mine was filled with the super anti-paleo MSG. It also contains a small amount of sugar, which can be over looked when it is less then 0.05% of the dish, but MSG fucks me up. Its like saying this dish has trace levels of mercury. Can't count the MSG as paleo, or even as "almost paleo") open top loosely, and let sit in room temperature (What?!?!? Loose lid?).

Ahead of time, but much closer to when you plan on eating, start cooking brown rice. Using 5/2c of "Brandon's paleo broth", cook brown rice by bringing to a brief (2 min) boil, and then reducing heat to simmer and covering for 45 minutes..

For the pork belly called for, I swapped pork shoulder, cut about a pound off, rubbed it super liberally with ground ginger, salt and pepper. Then I coated it with sesame oil, grilled briefly, and then cubed it (there is a lot of cubing in this recipe. I normally don't cube.)

Heat homemade chili oil, 1-2T. Add semi grilled, cubed pork. Saute till cooked. Drain liquid off of kimchi jar. Reserve. Add kimchi to pork, saute for 3-4 minutes. Add 4 cups of water. Add 1T of chili-garlic sauce, 2T paprika with crushed red pepper. Bring to boil and boil for 15 minutes.

Add 1/2 of a thinly sliced onion, a cubed, peeled zucchini, and cubed mushrooms (about 10). Boil until thick. Add biased cut, white portion of leeks (is that even a technical term? biased?) a few minutes before serving.

Serve with brown rice previously described. This means: take one bite at a time from the stew, place over rice, re-shovel food, and then cram into mouth. When I was at the Korean restaurant, I wanted to keep shoving food down my pie hole, despite the fact that I didn't even like the taste of the food. MSG, what a piece of shit.

Despite all the anti-Paleo talk: this is a spicy, delicious, fermented treat. My paleo fixes make this taste good with or without a "small amount of mercury". A worthy "cheat-day" challenge if you are near public restrooms.

UPDATE: The reviews are in: "Better than at Korean restaurants." S.A. Woo, Korean.