Kimchi KalGukSu

Hi, everyone. I’m craving something spicy, and the weather is getting cooler. I always eat kimchi with my Korean food, and I have some leftover dough for homemade Kalguksu noodles in my refrigerator. What can I cook to satisfy me? And, how many of you are actually in the same situation as me? When I posted homemade kalguksu recipe last week, the first thing that entered my mind was Kimchi Kalguksu. I could imagine that you would love it as much I do. The spicy and savory broth with chewy and soft homemade noodles, along with delicious cooked kimchi in it tastes so good. Please try it someday.

Yield: 2 Servings

Short Korean Lesson

• InNae (인내) = Patience
• GoNan (고난) = Hardship

Video Instructions

Main Ingredients:

• 12 oz Fresh Kalguksu Noodles
• 6 Cups Homemade Broth
• 1 Generous Cup Well-fermented Kimchi
• 1 Cup Onion
• ½ Cup Green Onions
• 2 Tbsp Green Hot Pepper (Optional)
• 2 Tbsp Red Hot Pepper (Optional)

Broth Ingredients:

• 7 Cups Water
• 6 Pieces Medium-Sized Dried Shrimp
• 4 Pieces Large-Sized Dried Anchovies
• 4 Pieces Dried Kelp (1 X 1 Inch)

Seasoning Ingredients:

• ¼ Cup Kimchi Broth
• 1 Tbsp Soup Soy Sauce
• 2 tsp Three Crabs Brand Fish Sauce
• ½ Tbsp Garlic, Minced
• 1 tsp Hot Pepper Powder

Directions

Let’s start by making the savory broth. Obtain 6 pieces of medium-sized dried shrimp, 4 pieces of large-sized dried anchovies, and 4 pieces of kelp (1 X 1 inch). This special broth will give you an extra savory flavor to the soup, but if you don’t have the ingredients for it, you can just use 6 cups of water for this soup. Aha, one tip for these Korean ingredients – I store my dried shrimp and dried anchovies in the freezer and the dried kelp in my pantry.

Remove the heads and the guts from the dried anchovies. If you don’t, the broth will become a little bitter and more fishy.

Pour 7 cups of water in a pot and add the dried shrimp, dried anchovies, and the dried kelp. Once it starts to boil, cook for 3 minutes on high.

In this step, start to boil a good amount of water for the noodles.

After 3 minutes, discard the dried kelp and continue to cook the broth with dried shrimp and anchovies for about 12 more minutes.

Prepare some fresh or frozen kalguksu noodles for about 2 servings. It is about 12 oz total and that is half of the amount from my homemade kalguksu noodle recipe. If you don’t have enough time to make homemade noodles, you can also buy kalguksu noodles in a Korean or Asian grocery store. For my homemade noodles, add the noodles in the boiling water, bring it back to boil, and then cook it for about 5 minutes on medium-high. Follow the instructions for your store bought noodles, but only cook the noodles half way through.

While the noodles and broth are cooking, let’s prepare the rest of the ingredients. We will need 1 generous cup of well-fermented kimchi.

Cut the kimchi into bite-sized pieces and get ¼ cup of kimchi broth from your kimchi jar.

For the vegetable ingredients, we will need 1 cup worth of an onion, ½ cup of green onions, and 2 Tbsp each of red and green hot peppers. If you cannot handle spicy food, you can skip the hot peppers.

Slice the onion into ¼ inch thickness pieces, cut the green onions into ½ inch pieces. Finally cut the hot peppers thinly.

Drain out the hot starchy water and rinse the noodles in cold water several times. You can see that the noodles made the water very thick.

After 5 minutes, the noodles will be half done cooking. I want to finish cooking the noodles in the soup later, so the noodles will get flavor from the soup. The reason why you cook these noodles separately is to get rid of all that extra starch, so that the broth will be clearer and thinner.

Now, the broth is done. Discard the dried shrimp and anchovies. You will get about 6 cups of broth.

Add the onion and chopped kimchi into the broth. Cook it for about 5 minutes on high.

To season the soup, obtain ¼ cup Kimchi broth, 1 Tbsp soup soy sauce, 2 tsp Three Crabs brand fish sauce, ½ Tbsp minced garlic, and 1 tsp hot pepper powder.

After 5 minutes, add all the seasoning ingredients in the broth.

Then, add the noodles into the soup, once it starts to boil again, cook it for 5 more minutes on high.

After 5 minutes, the noodles will be done cooking, add the green onions and hot peppers. Cook for another minute and then turn off the heat.

 

I enjoyed this kimchi kalguksu with my son, Logan. It was so delicious that I thought I could eat this everyday. lol I also thought that it might be a little too spicy for him to eat, but he ate and ate it because he loved it. Of course, he drank lots of water to wash out his hot mouth. hehe Enjoy this special homemade noodle soup during these cooler days.