Saturday, July 10, 2010

leff brand kimchi

Ever since I was 10, and my sisters came to us from Korea, we had kimchi in the house. I've never gotten to the point where I eat it with every meal, although I certainly see the appeal of that aspect of Korean life. In short, yay kimchi!


raw kimchi

Also, yay home food! Up with home pickling! Obviously, I snagged a copy of Wild Fermentation the first chance I got. And naturally the first recipe I tried was kimchi. It was incredibly easy, and surprisingly successful for a first attempt.

It goes like this. Chop up your asian style cabbage and a daikon radish. Brine it for a bit. Drain it. Mix in the hots and spice paste, push down until it's covered by it's own juices. Wait a week or so, and voila, kimchi. I'm not going to copy out the whole thing because if you're in to home pickle you're getting the book anyway.


Pre funk

I had fear that it wouldn't work. I had western peppers like habaneros and junk. But the spices did the trick. I was amazed. It tasted like kimchi almost immediately. After a week of sitting out, it tastes even better. Obvs, I recommend the book if you're into the idea at all. It's got all kinds a stuff in there.


bubble bubble toil and trouble

Note about the container. I've tried sauerkraut in the wrong shaped deal. It failed. If you're gonna try it, get a nice strait walled bucket thing. You'll be much happier.

4 comments:

santos. said...

i wish you were here more often (which maybe wouldn't be that often at all) because i've been reading through your archives. so many interesting posts! there must be more, right?

leff said...

I have been absent of late, haven't I? TBH my relationship with food has devolved, in recent months, to "that thing that keeps me alive."

Part of it is, there's not that much more in Seattle. Need to travel more, I guess.

Or I could cook more. Yeah, that's the one.

santos. said...

it's funny because i've been googling random terms like "salmon sandwich" and "kimchi pizza" and esculents always ends up on the first page. A SIGN

leff said...

Ok, that is a sign. I'll have to dust off the cobwebs and get this thing going again!