Kimchi Mamas

One Kimchi Jjigae Recipe to Rule Them All

Long time no talk, Kimchi Mamas!

Fall is here, my favorite time of the year!  In my house, that means a return to rich, warm, comfort food that sticks to your ribs and makes you want to kiss your mama.  

(And various fantasies of someone coating me in spices, searing me on all sides, and cooking me low and slow for hours until I melt.)

Ahem, now where was I?  Oh yes.

 

A video posted by Julie Kang (@juliejkang) on Oct 3, 2016 at 5:38pm PDT

Julie's Fancy, Low-and-Slow, Pork Rib Kimchi Jjigae

• 2 T oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 rack (2.5-4 pounds) pork spareribs
• water
• 8 cups (1/2 gallon jar) kimchi, aged in the fridge for 2 weeks or longer so it’s sour/vinegary, chopped
• 2 t minced garlic
• 2 T gukganjang, "soup soy sauce" (lighter-colored and saltier than normal soy sauce, closest substitute is fish sauce, but probably 1T normal soy sauce + salt to taste might work as a substitute?)
• black pepper
• Optional, reserve for when you want someone to fall in love with you:
  • 1 block tofu
  • 2 stalks green onion, sliced into 2-inch chunks
  • 1-2 slices of AMERICAN cheese
  • handful of mushrooms

Directions:

1. Get a large pot that can accommodate a gallon of stuff. 
2. Brown spareribs and onion in the oil.
3. Add enough water to barely cover, pop on lid, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, chop 8 c. kimchi into 2-inch pieces (or buy the already-cut kind).
5. Add kimchi, along with any juice, into the pot.
6. Add the garlic, soup soy sauce, and a dash of black pepper.
7. All of these can also be left out since the kimchi by itself has a lot of flavor.
8. Simmer everything together for about 30-45 min.
9. Optional: in the last five minutes, add tofu (might water down the flavor, so taste first)/green onions/mushrooms/cheese (it will dissolve and thicken the soup).

Pro Tip: if your jjigae at this point tastes bland, that means your kimchi wasn’t stank enough.  You can atone for your sins by adding salt, fish sauce, powdered dashi, even some sort of bouillon.  In other words, bump up the umami.

This recipe will garner you one gallon of super-savory, umami-packed, porky goodness.  And lots of friends.  Maybe an extra lover or two.  Enjoy, ajummas!

~Julie

Midlife?

Hi there Kimchi Mamas!!! How are things going?

Things are going alright here in the Choi family. I turned 40 this year and I kind of am really liking the older me. I feel so mature! Can you tell?

 

 

So mature! Right? =)

In all seriousness, I actually do feel like I am just barely starting to get this thing called life. And by "get" I don't mean that I have figured it out and have the solution to all of life's problems and have unlocked the secret to happiness. No. I do not have any keys to happiness here. And yet, I do feel a smidgen of self confidence and maybe a sprinkle of faith and a sliver of hope, that no matter what happens, that I will be ok.

And I know shit happens.

Kimchi in outer space!

Heard on NPR's Morning Edition this week: click the link to hear a story from the fabulous Kitchen Sisters on the impact of Korean cuisine around the world...and beyond!

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/22/489805398/how-south-korea-uses-kimchi-to-connect-to-the-world-and-beyond

--Jomama

Home is nowhere for this Kimchimama

John Steinbeck was my first literary love as an ESL gal. I finally read my first serious fiction at 19 years of age because my then boyfriend(first love), Mark, gently but persistently made many books of different genres appear on my lap. I rejected all of them until he brought me “In Dubious Battle” by Steinbeck and I fell madly in love with it. I then read everything that I could by Steinbeck.

When I got to his “Travels with Charlie,” I found another reason to love John Steinbeck.  He made me see that nothing was wrong with me. He too was like me, needing to go elsewhere, needing to travel, needing to see new things and needing to feed the wonderlust.

Need to travel and see new things is in my DNA.  But I think that something else is going on with me as well. Some of my need to move around might be coming from my sense of belonging nowhere.

I had been transplanted onto a brand new country with a new tongue at age 12(almost 13).  I then became Americanized not only in habits but also in a new world view.  This makes me belong nowhere. Not really. I don't really belong here with my skin color. I don't really belong in Korea with the lense color that I see the world through.

I suppose I belong to the world and I could live with that.

- Nancy

In case you are wondering..., the 3rd child from the left is me.

 

Why I am with Hillary Clinton

When I was just a toddler I was adopted by a childless couple.  My father who had a deep distaste for women resented my personality in every way.  I grew up never knowing what to do or how to behave in front of him or around him since the punches and poundings came at me with not a consistent origin or cause.  I made things worse for myself because I was headstrong and full of life, which meant, without meaning to, I defied everything about him.

Even though I managed to leave those two people at age fifteen, it took me a very long time to learn how to honor my own voice and to trust what I think and what I feel.  As a grown woman, I am still coming into my full self.

A few years after I left them, my mother said to me, “if you had been prettier, softer, more girl like in your behavior, he would not have beaten you.”  She may have been right in some ways.

All of his beating, physical and emotional, was to beat out of me who I was.  My mother used to say to me when I was a little girl, “you are too smart for your own good.  That’s why you are a bad girl.”

In response I used to pray every day for God to make me not so smart, so that I could be good.

What I grew up into, how I ended up responding to those two people in my childhood, so that I don’t let them win, is to become passionate about making a positive difference in the lives of children.  I can call myself a survivor.  

But I know another survivor.   She has been through the hell and back and really not many think of her that way because she has never let anyone think of her that way.

The abuse that she has endured is not quite as obvious as a child abuse and the toll that must have taken in her life and her heart is not readily apparent because she will never tell you that or does she appear to even look at herself that way.

In the end she has turned herself into so much more than a survivor, but a super strength woman because she managed to power through the pressure of emotional punches and stayed on course of her life, her own hero’s journey and never allowed those immense pressures and roadblocks to stop her from doing her work.

She is a superhero because most normal humans would have quit a long time ago.  She has fortitude unlike most.

Her abusers, GOP and others with motivations that I cannot explain have put her into awful positions.  They have pushed her off balance with the games that continued to change.  She has had to adopt and adjust so that she, a woman could survive in order to stay in the game, that which many now use to accuse her of being dishonest.  But through all of this she does not complain or claim being victimized.

If she cannot express what is deep in her heart, we the world had forced it upon her.  She would have been accused of being weak or she would have been cut off of her path.

If she had lived her life like Bernie Sanders, she would have never made it this far in the political game.

She has had to fight off million different forces that Bernie Sanders could never even imagine or understand.

I am with Hillary Clinton because I am so damn proud to watch a woman not let anything crumble her and she fights.

Her slogan that she is fighting for us, is so appropriate.  She has fought an amazing fight and she is still standing.  I cannot think of anyone who can match that strength, that tenacity and endurance.

Throughout this campaign, she never once wined.  She never once said woe's me, look what they are doing to me.  She never aligned herself with the imagery or the idea of victimhood.  

That to me is a measure of a true leader.

Hillary Clinton makes me proud to be a woman.

-- Nancy

 

Hello from Nancy!

Hello everyone!  

It’s been a long time.  I have been working on learning, growing and healing many aspects of my life.  One thing I am loving learning is knowing how to find gems in my imperfections.  Growing up Korean means knowing too well how to be self critic.  Some aspects of that are good.  I love growing.  But some of them are destructive.  It's hard to fly when your wings are weighted down with the heavy stuff.

One of the funny ways this new aspect of me is manifesting is that I find myself telling interested suitors that  "I am a handful and a pain in the ass.”  So far, I seem to make them laugh.

On another note, I just finished my new book!

I wrote this book to help parents who are struggling to get control over their children’s obsession with screens.  It is imperative that we address this problem sooner than later.  The authentic happiness of our children depends on it.

My book, Free Your Child From Screen Addiction will be available as a free down load for 5 days on Amazon, starting Saturday, 4/30/16.  

Please feel free to let your friends know about the free down load so they can all get a free copy.

 

- Nancy

 

Time of My Own

Growing up as an immigrant kid, I watched my parents struggle a lot. They worked painfully long, labor-intensive hours, often more than 14 hours a day with no real breaks, six days a week. They could never catch up on their sleep and had no time to spare. I remember their exhaustion stretching out like a rope of molten glass, drooping from its own weight, threatening to crack with the passage of time.

As a teenager, I tried as much as I could to help. I cooked dinner, washed the laundry, cleaned the house, helped out at their store. And I was hyper-aware that I should never impose on their time. I remember one time I returned to law school after a visit home. I accidentally left something behind at my parents', perhaps a watch. When I mentioned it to my roommate, she casually suggested that I just call my parents and ask them to send it. I thought her suggestion absurd. No, that's not possible, I said to her.

But more than with regard to time, I knew I should never impose on them emotionally. We weren't an emotionally open family to begin with. But the idea of bringing my personal issues into the household, where my parents' stress already stretched out the seams of our family fabric precariously, was unthinkable. When their frustration and unhappiness started to swell and they started unfurling their anger at each other, we just quietened our breaths and sagged against the cold, desolate walls.

I learned to be accommodating. To figure out a way to help quietly. To identify the areas of need so that I could find a way to fill them. I took it upon myself to play that role. I had to help us. I was the only one who could do something. There was no one else.

Letter from Dad

My dad wrote me a letter from a detention center. He's waiting to find out if he will be deported or not. He's a permanent resident and broke some laws so the government is trying to deport him to Korea. Here is a translated version of his letter.

Praise be to Jesus.

I'm glad to hear that your family are healthy and well. Thanks to the money you sent in July, I'm able to buy various snacks and am well. 

There are many here whose circumstances don't allow that and they just stare at others who are eating. I think it gives happiness and joy when one is able to gladly share with those around us who are less fortunate.

Rather than to those who share our happy times, to those who share our hard times is where our love flows and affections run deep. One can be healthy and suddenly, one can face hard times. Such is life. 

In a little while, I'll be ending my time here. I'm choosing to think that it's one phase of my life that God is giving me, and trying to have a thankful heart, thinking of those who are less fortunate and pitiful than I. 

According to the lawyer, things will be decided in mid November. But we'll only know when times has gone by and when all things that should happen, have happened. Things change so quickly, the outcome is unknown.

Your card was brimming with love and I received it with joy that I wouldn't exchange for anything. Additionally, you hand made the card and I could know how much you love me.

Your sister also has created a happy family and is living a busy life. When I see you both, I think that my daughters have turned out so well and am filled with joy and pride. 

I think the ajumma [referring to his girlfriend] has a kind personality. Even during hard circumstances, she has a pleasant attitude and we have a good time every time she comes to visit. I tell her to stop visiting since it takes almost the whole day for one visit and she has to spend a lot of time waiting but she still comes. There isn't much time left in here but I'm still being healthy.

I called your sister. She was worried and told me not to worry about money and to just be healthy. Even though my current circumstances are difficult, I am joyful when I think about how kind my daughters are.

Your uncle [his little brother] says he'll visit in October. I'm not sure what's going on but I just heard that he's coming. He will tell me the details when he comes to visit. 

Well until next time, I wish for you to be healthy and happy and have a peaceful family life in prayer.

To all of my loving family members.

Your dad.

 

I'm not sure why he thought the card was hand made, because it was not, but I'm surprisingly touched by his letter and his poetic writing abilities. I thought he was writing to ask for more money because that's the only time that he seems to get in touch with me but I'm glad that I was wrong. Anyway, I wanted to put it up here so that I don't ever lose it.

- Mary

How am I supposed to teach my daughter to love her body when I hate mine?

My daughter is this smart, funny, angry, beautiful ‘tween. Too young to be an adult and too old to be a child. She plays soccer and games online. She is as comfortable alone in her room reading her latest manga book as she is giggling with her gaggle of gal pals in the living room. But as most moms know – and sadly can relate to – she struggles with her ever-changing body.

What fit yesterday is too tight today. What she loved about one blouse she hates the next. Day to day (hell hour to hour) her mind shifts, changes, adapts and back again.

But the body she inhabits now is the body she will have for the rest of her life. It is the vessel that will carry her in this world through adventure and learning, victory and loss. It is a fine balance teaching our girls about healthy eating and healthy living without accidentally seeding a paranoia about what is “wrong” with their bodies. . .

And as a half Korean child, she sees and is aware of the “ideal” body and face types strewn all over the Tumblrs and Instagrams of K Pop girl groups. The lithe bodies of creamy white skin will never be hers. And that’s ok. With me.

How do I make it ok with her?

How am I supposed to teach her that her strong thighs and calves are what propel her forward in a physical match against someone she is guarding in a game when I obsess over the size of my calves in high boots?

How am I supposed to be an example of body happiness/contentment when almost every night and morning I look in the mirror and turn my face to the left and right to see the wrinkles (laugh lines) more clearly and suck in my #mombod gut to remember what 15 pounds ago looks like?

How do you do it?

*Angie in Texas is ALL about the #mombod right now...

The Sea Women

I have never been to Cheju-Do, but am looking forward to finally seeing "Korea's Hawaii" this summer when my family goes. It has been a longtime dream to bring my mixed race children to see where their mother comes from. I had almost given up on dragging my reluctant teens, when one of them actually expressed interest in going. I signed us faster than he could finish wrapping his seaweed around his rice!

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/sea-women-of-south-korea?intcid=mod-most-popular

--Jomama