Separating Siblings & Stir-Frying Kimchi...

They say familiarity breeds contempt, and to some extent, I'm inclined to agree. Social animals though we are, too much of anything makes us at best less appreciative of it, at worst utterly contemptuous of it. So although it seems counterintuitive, sometimes a little distance is the best thing two people can share.

And when those two people are pre-teen siblings who have to look at one another's annoying mugs every single day while their little crank-making hormones are raging, it behooves those charged with their care to give them a break from one another lest someone should lose a Bieber-cut covered eye...

So while we have a couple of weeks of summer left, we have sent the boychild and girlchild off to their separate corners for a few days. The girlchild is with her dad so she can attend her Tae Kwon Do classes  - the kind where she's guaranteed a black belt within three short years as long as her dad keeps paying a hundred fifty bucks every month and seventy five bucks every six weeks for belt testing if by *testing* you mean *everybody passes as long as their parents pay* - and the boychild is hanging with me and The Man so he can do Chopped baskets and go for bike rides to the beach.

A little tequila plum-flavored juice to
celebrate the quiet in the house...

This kind of time apart is good for me, too. It doesn't happen as often as it probably should, but when it does, it gives me a chance to relate with my kids one-on-one without them feeling like they're competing for my attention and without me going batshit from hearing "Mommy!", "Mama!", "Mommy!", "Mama!" in rapidfire succession, one in each ear from the boychild and girlchild respectively.

We're scheduled to get the girlchild back tomorrow, at which point I am certain her brother will hold her to the promise she made to play an hour straight of Beyblade with him upon her return. So to commemorate our last night (this week) of alone time with him, he got to choose dinner at the beach, and the dinner he requested was kimchi bokkeum (stir-fry).

We packed up our dinners along with some fun juice <*WINK* *WINK*> in to-go containers and headed out for a couple of really lovely hours at an uncrowded beach. Which did make me feel like an Asian Ina Garten if I do say so myself, only without all her money.

Oh, and I also didn't visit any fabulous gay friends on my shopping errands in my 10 year old notBMW, either. (Not that my gay friends aren't fabyoolusssss...).

KIMCHI BOKKEUM (GIHMchee BOHKgeum)
Serves 3 to 4 with steamed rice

As with any good stir fry, almost uncomfortably high heat and small quantities cooked quickly produce the best results.

- 1 pound pork shoulder or belly meat, sliced into roughly 1/4" thick, 1" x 2" pieces
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

- 2 cups ripe kimchi with the excess liquid squeezed out (reserve 1 Tablespoon of the liquid for seasoning) By *ripe*, I mean at least as sour as a kosher dill.
- 1 cup sliced onion (about 1/2 medium)
- 3 green onions, sliced into 2 inch segments

- 1 Tablespoon gochoojahng
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic (about 1 small clove)
- 2 teaspoons to 1 Tablespoon sugar (depending on how sweet you like your food)
- 1 Tablespoon kimchi liquid

- 3 to 4 Tablespoons neutral oil
- 1/2 Tablespoon butter (optional)

- steamed rice

1) Season the pork with the salt. I purposely add only a little salt to the meat because the kimchi is pretty darned salty, as we all know.

2) In a large wok or skillet, heat about 2 teaspoonfuls of oil over medium high to high heat and wait until it's so hot that it starts to smoke. If you look closely, you can somewhat sorta see that the oil's so hot it's rippling.

 

3) Stir fry the meat in two equal batches, adding oil to the second batch, until the meat is cooked through and browned on both sides. Because these slices of pork are a little big for regular stir fry, you may want to let them sit on the cooking surface for a minute or so to give them a nice sear before you start stirring.

Set aside the cooked pork.

4) Now add 2 Tablespoons of oil to the wok or skillet and let it heat up again before adding the onions, green onions and kimchi.

Keep the heat on high as you stir fry these components until the onions start to become translucent.

5) Once the onions are translucent, remove the wok from the heat and make a well in the center where you'll add 1 Tablespoon of oil and, if you like, a half Tablespoon of butter (this is one of my dad's tricks that he picked up during the Korean War when he was lucky enough to get US government surplus rations of butter).

Put all the seasoning components into the well and return the wok to the heat.

Stir to incorporate all the seasoning ingredients and wait until you see the gochoojahng bubbling a bit - this is when the sugars start to caramelize. That caramelization that happens when enough sugar hits enough hot oil is one of the reasons that guai lo Chinese takeout tastes so good.

6) When the seasoning sauce has been bubbling for 20 to 30 seconds, stir in the veg and then the cooked pork along with whatever juices come with it.

Give it a few good stirs to make sure all the flavors are evenly distributed, and there ya have it - kimchi bokkeum.

Serve it over or with steamed rice and finish if you'd like with a little drizzle of toasted sesame oil. (I left it out because the boychild hasn't yet acquired a taste for it.)

Or pack it in to-go containers along with a little fun juice and head for the beach with a takeout meal so differently delicious not even Ina knows how to make it (I'm guessing). ;)

I'm not sure that Jeffrey would *LOVE* this...

He might *LOVE* this, though...

And who wouldn't *LOVE* this???

We shall see tomorrow if a little absence and kimchi make the heart grow fonder...

shinae