I used the very last of my kimchi last night by making mushroom and dubu chigae (두부찌개), or Korean mushroom and tofu stew. I used to eat this back in Silicon Valley for lunch once in a while and I have fond memories of it.
It was also the natural thing to make with quickly souring kimchi and while finding myself in the midst of a mad mushroom craving. (I had planned on topping off my chigae with some fresh green onion but it appears that hunger demanded expediency and I completely forgot.)
I love this dish because it's so easy to make: I just added some kimchi to a pot with a little dab of sesame oil and fried it slightly (with meat if you're so inclined), add water, some extra chili powder, and anchovy stock. At this point you can just add whatever you feel like. Really the only complicated part is preparing the kimchi the weeks prior, but even this can be simplified by using store-bought kimchi. (Just try and avoid King's brand in the U.S. which is terrible and not even worthy of being called kimchi. Spit-spit. Your local Korean grocer is your best bet.)
My side dishes were: oe muchim (spicy Korean cucumber pickle) -- see earlier entry for the recipe.
Parboiled broccoli. I couldn't find a recipe for this one but I craved it after eating it at Korean restaurants so often. I parboiled mine and then fried it briefly in a little sesame oil, garlic, and salt. It came out a little salty but I'll try it again with less salt next time. Anybody have a better preparation method?
This banchan was also an experiment. Without access to Korean mushrooms, I just used the same recipe for mushroom banchan but used the standard American type of mushroom available at all supermarkets here. I wasn't overly impressed! I hope to try this with the proper type of mushroom next time.
Yum. I was pretty happy with this meal. I could have gotten the banchan better by using less salt and the proper mushrooms, and my chigae presentation could have been much improved with some green onion atop the bubbling dubu broth. But in general it was still tasty and satisfying.
To be able to cook the meals one truly craves is to, in a small way, control the universe. Cooking is the control freak's most appropriate hobby. :-)