Kimchi Fried Jambalaya/ 김치 볶음 짬뽕

I know what you're thinking.  I must be out of my mind.  Well, yes.  After this post, it will pretty much confirm it.

Sometimes, I create stuff on accident and like it so much, I keep making it.  This dish is one of those "accidents".  Before we go any further, I should warn you that this isn't Cajun or Creole like at all.  This is purely Kor-Merican.  Or maybe it's more Fat Gurl inspired?  I'd didn't occur to me that this is a recipe somebody would want.  But my colleague and friend Ji Hyun, who gets recruited to eat a lot of my left over recipes from this blog, asked me for the recipe.  Okay!  This is for you Ji!

So this started out as a simple Kimchi fried rice.  You can find my recipe for it here.  The kimchi fried rice with spam recipe is more a standard recipe.  This one you're reading now is a good example of how my crazy mind works while listening to my stomach.  I had intended to do a kimchi fried rice, but wanted to replace the rice with tofu so I would have a lower carb, higher protein version.  I've done it plenty of times before and it's delicious.  But the fat gurl in me just really likes the chewy, yummy rice too and that's what happened here.

I decided I'd add just a little bit of rice to satisfy that part of me that just wanted to chew on some rice.  Did I mention the Indian doesn't really like kimchi?  So while I was making my kimchi fried tofu/rice dish, I happened to be making him some spicy ramen.  Just as I was finishing up both my kimchi fried tofu rice, his ramen was done too and I really wanted a bite of ramen too.  Next thing I knew, I was adding some of his noodles into my kimchi concoction and viola!  A big kimchi mess was born!  But sooooooooooo good.

In Korean, I would call it 김치 볶음 짬뽕 (kimchi bokkeum jjampbong).  짬뽕/jjampbong is this spicy seafood noodle dish that Koreans eat.  It's one of those Korean Chinese dishes I talked about in this post.  Koreans also use the word 짬뽕/jjampbong to indicate that something is a mix up of stuff or a mish mash.  Totally appropriate here.  So in English, I'm calling it jambalaya because according to Wikipedia:

The Oxford English Dictionary indicates that 'jambalaya' comes from the Provençal word 'jambalaia', meaning a mish mash, or mixup, and also meaning a pilau (pilaf) of rice.

 Again, totally appropriate here.  Uh, let's see mish mash or mix up?  Check!  Also meaning a pilaf of rice?  Check!

Are you curious to see what this jumble of mish mash looks like?  It looks like this:

Here's the team:

ripe kimchi (about 2 cups)

sesame oil 

kielbasa sausage

spicy sausage

firm tofu

cooked rice (preferably cold rice, not fresh)

spicy ramen noodles (already cooked)

I start with about 2 cups of nicely ripen kimchi.  Remember, when you buy it from the market, it will most likely be on the less fermented side.  In order for this dish to be super tasty, you'll want to age it before you use it.  A week or so in the fridge or overnight in your sink will help ripen it.

I use my scissors to cut up into bite sized pieces:

Add about 2 tablespoons of sesame oil and cook on medium until kimchi becomes soft and "fried".

While your kimchi is cooking (don't forget to mix it up while cooking) start cooking your noodles.  I like this is brand:

It's nice and spicy.  The Indian loves this brand.  I use HALF the amount of water because I don't want to end up with any broth.  But otherwise, cook as you normally would.

While both the noodles and the kimchi are cooking, I chop up my kielbasa sausage and one extra spicy sausage into cubes.  You could use spam or ham too.  Add to your cooking kimchi:

I use this brand of super spicy sausage:

I usually can find it at Von's or Vallarta Market.  It seriously has changed my life.  I cook with it and it really makes a huge difference in what I make.  If you don't like spicy, this is not the sausage for you.  I eat it fried up with rice and an egg, I chop and add into jambalaya, or spicy fried rice.  It goes on and on.  Sometimes, I'll get 2 of these packages at a time and freeze them in pairs in ziplock baggies.   Because God forbid I ever run out!

I did this once at a Von's.  The cashier was this African American lady and she looked at me and asked, "What you know about them sausages?"

"Only that they are amazing and they changed my life."

To which she gave me a resounding, "MmmmHmmm".  

I won't lie.  I felt totally validated.  

I should add that I happened to have a already cooked potato from another dish I made yesterday.  So on a whim, I chopped it up and it went into the skillet along with the sausages:

See what I mean about being jjampbong or a mish mash?

By now my spicy ramen noodles are cooked and the broth has evaporated.  I like mine to be slightly underdone or al dente.  You can decide how you like them, but just remember they will kind of bloat or get softer in the finished dish.  Turn off the heat on your noodles.  We'll come back to these.

When your kimchi sausage (potato) mix is cooked nicely, I add my tofu.  I use this kind:

Ignore everything else in the pic.  This pic is from my Korean Mapo Tofu recipe.  This container of tofu will have 4 rectangular pieces.  I used two of them.    Add tofu directly into your kimchi mixture by squishing the heck out of them in your hands.

I like to crumble it.  You could cube it. It's up to you.  There are no rules here.  Mix around until your tofu is nicely incorporated into your kimchi mixture....You COULD stop right here.  Basically, this is my kimchi tofu recipe (but without the potato).  OR you could keep going....Are you with me?  Lessa Go!

To this, I add about a cup of cold rice.  You can use fresh cooked, but I think cold rice keeps the texture from becoming too mushy.  But you can use fresh if that's all you have.

I like to put a lid on it right now and let it steam a bit before I mix in the rice. 

You could stop here too.  This would be kimchi fried tofu and rice....OR we could keep going!  

Remember our spicy noodles?  I use scissors to cut them but not too much.  I don't want them long, but I don't want them really short either.  Like 2 cuts.  Boom. Boom.  Done.

Add them into your mish mash mixture and mix up.

Here we have it.  Officially, this is what I'd call a Big Hot Mess.  

Did I mention it's overcast and cold today?  I take a big bowl of this and get back into bed.  Turn on my favorite TV show or put on a movie and I'm set.

(By the way, the potato in here was soooo good!  The chunks of potato soaked up all that yummy kimchi flavor.)