Jono & Jules do food & wine

We’re not buying any meat or fish this January, it’s not veganuary, but just an effort to be a little frugal at the start of the year. We also want to make sure we use up all the odds and ends in the freezer. We’ve been making lots of Korean dishes but they tend to focus on meat or fish, so we decided to give some winter veg the Gochujang treatment. Serve with some sticky rice.

Wine Suggestion: The sommelier’s secret weapon: Quinta Soalheiro’s Allo. Light and fresh, but with fruit, texture and depth to stand up to any dish. The earthy, iodine kale and spicy flavours just work with this wine.

Korean Winter Veg Stir-fry – serves 2

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• a small clove of garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
• a small bunch of long-stemmed broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 carrot, cut into batons
• 100g greens, we used purple kale but any kale or cabbage will be good, remove any thick stalks and shred
• 4 scallions, 2 chopped and 2 cut into 4 cm lengths
• ½ tbsp sesame seeds

FOR THE GOCHUJANG SAUCE:

• 1 tbsp gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp mirin or rice wine
• 1 tbsp honey

To make the gochujang sauce, mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.

Heat a large wok over a high heat, then add 1 tbsp of the vegetable oil. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and stir-fry until softened, a couple of minutes.

Add another tbsp of oil to the wok, then add the broccoli, carrot and longer pieces of scallion, continue to stir-fry until slightly softened.

Add the sauce and the kale and stir-fry for another 2 minutes. The sauce should be sticky on the vegetables and everything piping hot.

Serve the veg over sticky rice and sprinkled with chopped scallions and sesame seeds.

(Original recipe from My Asian Kitchen by Jennifer Joyce, Murdoch Books, 2018.)