Kimchi is too sour and old. What now?

There are several things you can do with sour/fermented kimchi. Is it bad/spoiled? No. But the taste may be too strong to enjoy.

One thing you can do is make 김치찌개 (kimchi jjigae or kimchi stew).

Here is my mom's SIMPLE kimchi jjigae recipe. You can do a lot of things to it, but you can think of this as the quick and dirty version. Also, note--measurements may be generalized or off a bit, since she's the "just throw it in" old school type of cook.

What you'll need (serving size: 1):

1 cup of fermented kimchi

a bit of butter

pork or beef (maybe 3/4 cup?)

half an onion

2 cups of water OR chicken broth

Directions:

• In a pot, put in your butter and once it's melted, add your 1 cup of kimchi to fry. Cut your onion lengthwise and throw the strips in to fry with the kimchi as well.

• Cut up your pork or beef into small, bit size pieces and add it to the pot to fry with the kimchi.

• Once the meat is cooked through, add your water OR chicken broth. Mom's tip is chicken broth is more salty and flavorful, but if you want to build your own salt profile, try water. Bring to a boil for about 10 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

This is, again, the very simple version. You can do different things, like adding tuna, not adding meat, adding spam, adding tofu, peppers... etc. Possibilities are endless!