How Many Ways Can You Do Butakim?

I don’t really like to name a dish because I think it sets up an expectation for what it should be exactly. So, I quickly regretted it when Michael asked what was for dinner and I replied, “Butakim”. He saw me slicing a red cabbage and was very concerned about the outcome of this dish. Ingredients for butakim usually include baby bok choy as pictured below. But if I don’t have that, I will use another cabbage; even a red one. Get inspired by this spicy sauce for stir fry and cook a fantastic meal with ingredients you have on hand.

What Is Butakim?

Butakim is a dish we discovered at a local izakaya (Japanese pub). Buta means pork and kim is a shortened form of kimchee (spicy, fermented cabbage). That izakaya no longer exists and we always had trouble getting them to bring the rice at the right time anyway. We didn’t want the rice for dessert. We wanted to eat it with the butakim. So I started making it at home.

The first thing to do is to take the kimchee out of the refrigerator. I like it to come to room temperature if possible because I want to stir it in at the end of preparing the dish. Why? I don’t want to lose the probiotic benefits by cooking the kimchee.

I began with browning some ground turkey. Then I removed it from the skillet because it was very lean and I didn’t want to overcook it. Next, I sauteed the mushrooms and then added some sliced onions. Some minced garlic goes in there too. Finally add the bok choy.

If you’re using red cabbage, be sure to splash a little vinegar into the skillet because the acid helps preserve the pretty purple color of the cabbage. It doesn’t look very appetizing if it and everything else in the skillet turns blue.

Sauce For Stir Fry

Once the ingredients appear to be nearly finished cooking, start adding your saucy stuff: soy sauce, mirin (sweet cooking sake) and Go-chu-jang (Korean hot and sweet sauce). If you don’t have some of these ingredients, you can improvise with whatever you have. Got some Sriracha (spicy Thai chili pepper sauce)? Some other kind of hot sauce? No mirin? Try a little sugar or honey with a little water. Taste and see what you think it needs in order to find an appealing balance of sweet, salty and spicy. You will have fun expanding your palate and cooking without a recipe.

Of course, it’s the kimchee that ultimately makes the dish. So stir that in at the end along with your cooked meat. Be sure to put a little liquid into the jar once you have poured all the kimchee out. That way you can shake it up and get the last bits of spicy goodness out. A little soy sauce or chicken broth would do the trick.

Basic Ingredients:

• ground or sliced meat of your choice
• cabbage such as baby bok choy
• sliced onion
• mushrooms (such as shitake or button)
• garlic
• soy sauce
• mirin (or something sweet)
• Go-chu-jang (or other hot sauce)
• vinegar (perhaps)
• Kimchee
• cooked rice

Want to learn about other probiotic foods? Please read Miso Adaptable next.