A big part of the reason I am behind on blogging.... cooking new dishes and fika with friends...
Way back in August when we still had daylight and sunshine, my friend, Michelle Lee, agreed to teach me how to make kimchi. Kimchi is to Korean cuisine what hamburgers and hotdogs are to American cuisine. Although hamburgers and hotdogs are faster to prepare, kimchi, once made, will last a while!
Michelle uses
www.maangchi.com for her kimchi recipe -
Napa cabbage kimchi and radish kimchi. Maangchi.com was started by a Korean woman, living in NYC, who loves cooking and gives instruction in English about Korean cooking. Watch out, it is a time suck once you start looking at all the recipes!
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| this is the most time consuming part of making kimchi - Napa cabbage - quartered, salted between each leaf, rests for two hours then turned over for another two hours. After four hours rinse the salt off the Napa cabbage really well in a sink filled with cold water. Shake off excess water. |
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| sweet rice flour - the base of the paste |
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| yes, a big measuring cup of red pepper flakes! |
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| giant bag of red pepper powder - Asian stores are the best places to buy herbs and spices in bulk |
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| the best fish sauce according to Michelle |
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| red pepper and garlic are added to the paste... |
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| along with green onions... |
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| carrots and diakon (Asian radish that looks like a parsnip).... |
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| mixing all into the paste |
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| kimchi paste |
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| the messy, fun part - smear kimchi paste between each leaf |
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| pack the kimchi into a container |
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| hmmm... the knife in the sink has nothing to do with how my hands look! |
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| ready to ferment for about 36 hours - Gabby, Audra and Sofia called these jars - 'the body parts' |
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| once the pressure is released (with a towel over the jar) store the kimchi in the refrigerator, it's ready to eat! |
Kimchi can be eaten as is (if it's too spicy some of the paste can be
wiped off) or used in many different recipes (www.maangchi.com) - some
of the ones I've tried and love: kimchi fried rice, bibimbap, kimchi
soup. Kimchi soup is so easy... chop and saute some bacon, chop kimchi,
add to bacon, cover mixture with water, boil for 30 minutes, serve over
rice.
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| kimchi fried
rice (okay, so Michelle loves to add diced and fried Spam to her kimchi
fried rice and I must admit it's good but you still won't find a tin of
Spam in my kitchen!) |
Thank you, tack så mycket Michelle! Kimchi will always remind me of you (and so will Spam!).
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