Kimchi Fest

For some reason I got a bee in my bonnet to make kimchi this year. Not satisfied with one type, I made three in the course of one week, then took off on vacation while it "cooked" and came back craving a Korean grill-fest.

The first type was scallion kimchi. I saw a recipe for ramp kimchee, but at $25/lb., there was very little chance that I'd buy enough to yield a pound of greens. But scallions? Dirt cheap at the farmer's market, so I decided to give it a go.

Here's the recipe, not terribly traditional with the Aleppo pepper, but...
http://tigressinapickle.blogspot.com/2011/05/ramp-greens-kimchi.html

Once that was on the counter fermenting, I started thinking about the daikon and Napa cabbage we weren't going to get to before we left. I had ideas of making a Vietnamese bun bowl for dinner, but then w got a rain storm in June and that seemed less exciting.

I searched for recipes. David Lebovitz had one that looked tempting, till I noticed that more traditional recipes never call for rice vinegar. This one looks fabulous, a Steamy Kitchen guest post from Kimchi Mom complete with video, but with a grant due and a vacation to pack for, this was clearly more aspirational than realistic. I settled on the sauce and daikon prep from the Wandering Chopsticks recipe, with some Kimchi Mom influences.

1 large napa cabbage
about 1/4 cup kosher salt
1 T red pepper flakes, medium coarseness
2 T gochujang (Korean chili paste)
4 tablespoons fish sauce
3 t sugar
4 green onion stalks, cut into 1/4" pieces
1 T minced ginger (~1" piece, peeled)
1 T minced garlic (3-4 cloves)
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 8" piece daikon
water

Cut the daikon into 2" sections, reserve one piece and cut the remainder into 1" dice and place in a clean nonreactive bowl. Add 1-2 T salt and toss till well coated. Weight the top (I used a bowl with a can of beans in it) and allow to sit 3 hours.

Slice the remaining piece thinly lengthwise and add to the julienned carrot.

Cut the cabbage into four wedges, remove core and any discolored leaves, and cut into 2" pieces. Layer in a clean nonreactive bowl with a liberal dose of salt between each layer. Weight the top (I used a bowl with a can of beans in it) and allow to sit 3 hours

Just before the three hours is up, combine the sauce ingredients -- the pepper flakes through the minced garlic -- to make a sauce. Clean two jars that seal well and have a nonreactive top. I used an old caper jar for the daikon and a qt. jar for the cabbage.

Rinse the daikon well, squeeze out the excess water and return to the bowl. Add 1/4 of the sauce and stir well to coat. Add to jar but do not seal yet.

Rinse the cabbage in two changes of water, squeeze and add to the remainder of the sauce. Add the reserved daikon slices and julienned carrot. Stir and toss until coated thoroughly.

Do not clean the sauce bowl. Instead, add 1 cup water and 1 t salt. Stir to dissolve and pour over daikon until it's just covered. Pour remainder over cabbage, pressing cabbage down into jar.

Don't fill either jar more than 75% full, as the mixture will bubble and needs some air.

Seal both jars and set out on the counter out of direct sunlight for 24-48 hours to allow the kimchi to ferment, then put it in the fridge.

According to Kimchi Mom: After the first 24 or so excruciating hours, sample the kimchi. There should be a slight tang. At this point it is ready to be refrigerated. You can eat the kimchi right away, but I prefer to wait at least a week to indulge. The kimchi will continue to ferment at a much slower pace in the refrigerator and will keep for about 4 weeks. The kimchi will turn really sour at this point and if you have any left in the jar, it will be perfect for jigae, fried rice, ramen or jun.

Dinners Week of 07/26

This week's challenge: how to turn MZ into a chile head? I am craving good hot food, where the heat is cooked in rather than added at the end. But what would MZ eat? I know she could get used to chile if I made consecutively hotter dishes over a few intensive weeks, but I don't think she'd enjoy the ride. So I continue to dumb the recipes down, and hope that she develops an appreciating for the sensation of hot food on her own.

Sunday: Dinner at Friends' house

Monday: Grilled Lemongrass Beef Noodle Salad (Bun Bo)

Lemongrass-marinated grilled flank steak sliced over a layered salad of rice vermicelli, julienned zucchini, cucumber, shredded carrots, thinly sliced romaine lettuce, chopped mint, cilantro, Thai basil, green onions and crushed roasted peanuts. I marinated the meat, made the nuoc cham and prepped the veggies (all except the herbs) the night before. When I got home from work, I marinated the carrots and zucchini in the nuoc cham, boiled the noodles and chopped the herbs while R grilled the meat. MZ enjoyed hers deconstructed.

Tuesday: Grilled halibut, boiled new potatoes with butter, steamed broccoli

Wednesday: "Spicy" Grilled Chicken, "Spicy Eggplant with Tomatoes", Whole Wheat Chapati, Cucumber Raita

The chicken was from Madhur Jaffrey's Quick and Easy Indian Cooking, minus most of the cayenne. I made the marinade and put it in a zip lock with the chicken the night before. We received both eggplant and roma tomatoes in our farm box, so this quick recipe from 5 Spices, 50 Dishes was perfect. When I got home, I quickly cut up the eggplant and tomatoes. I added 1/2 t garam masala at the end to make up for the missing cayenne, thinking otherwise it might be bland. Definitely a make-again dish. The chapati, purchased from the frozen case at our local pan-Asian market, was an easy accompaniment. I made the raita from a diced cucumber and some yogurt and spices while the vegetables and chapati cooked. R and I added lime pickle for heat, MZ prefers the sweeter taste of tamarind chutney.

Thursday: Slow Cooker Tacos - FAIL

Wow, this estofado recipe did not work at all. When I started it in the morning, I thought it needed more liquid, but then thought more would be created as the pico de gallo salsa cooked down. R called me at 5 pm to suggest that it hadn't quite gone to plan, but was very polite and so I just thought it wasn't a lot of meat. It was shoe leather. Very salty shoe leather. We ate it in warm tortillas with a lot of sour cream and salsa.

Friday: Lemongrass Chicken, Asian Slaw and Judy D's fabulous Coconut Lime Rice

Angie's lemongrass marinade was outstanding! The chicken went really well with this new slaw recipe. I made brown Kalajiri rice in the rice cooker and stirred in a can of light coconut milk, some lime zest and the juice of one lime at the end. Also on the table: delicious heirloom tomatoes and good bread to start, grilled corn, teriyaki flank steak, edamame, and Mitchell's ice cream for dessert. A feast with good friends.

Saturday: Leftovers for MZ, NOPA for the adults

Asian Slaw

This recipe is based on the Ginger Pickled Red Cabbage Slaw in the China Moon Cookbook. I love this cookbook, but rarely have all her house-made pantry items on hand these days. To compensate for the lack of handmade pickled ginger, I added handfuls of fresh, tasty herbs and some carrots for contrast. This salad is gorgeous and tasty. It was great with grilled meats and hot rice, and would be good on a SE Asian-flavored burger.

2 T minced pickled ginger (sushi ginger)

1/4 cup ginger pickling liquid

1/2 cup rice vinegar

2 T sugar

1.25 t kosher salt

1 lb red cabbage, cored and cut into fine strands

2 medium carrots, grated

3 green onions, finely sliced on the diagonal

2 T each chopped mint, cilantro ad Thai basil

1 T black sesame seeds

Combine the first five ingredients in a nonreactive, shallow bowl. Toss with the cabbage. Toss again in 15-20 minutes, cover and refrigerate for a day, tossing occasionally. The mixture will turn hot pink. Just before serving, add remaining ingredients, reserving some sesame seeds for garnish. Serve.

Steamed Tilapia with Cabbage and Shiitakes

After our Ono Mix Plate fest, something light was needed, and something that would use the odds and ends in our fridge. We always have udon noodles on hand, I buy three-packs of the individual fresh udon without the sauce base whenever I do a Nijiya shop. I also had shiitakes that had dried in the fridge, a few teaspoon-fulls of tobiko left over from Robert's birthday poke, and a quarter cabbage. We picked up a handful of snow peas and some tilapia and I threw this together. It came together quickly, and was satisfying, tasty and healthful.

It was gorgeous topped with the tobiko, pretty enough for a dinner party. We used the shimchimi pepper mixture to give some heat to ours, but just garnished Miriam's with gomasio and gave her some "tiny orange balls" on the side. I would also serve this on soba, top with cilantro if I had it on hand, or replace the cabbage with Napa cabbage. Julienned carrots would be pretty, too, but at that point it stops being a quick/easy recipe.

1 lb. tilapia

6-10 dried shiitakes

2 c. coarsely shredded cabbage

1 handful snow peas, sliced on the diagonal to 1" pieces

2 green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

1 garlic clove, finely minced

1 t. minced ginger

1/4 c mirin

1/4 c soy sauce

2 T ponzu

1 t sesame oil

Gomasio (store-bought or home-made)

Shichimi Togarishi

Tobiko (optional)

Soak the shiitakes in hot tap water till soft, about 15 minutes. Lay the tilapia filets out on a plate. Bring a medium pot of water to boil.

Slice the veggies: cabbage, snow peas, green onions, garlic and ginger. Combine the garlic, ginger, mirin, soy and ponzu in a small bowl.

Drain the mushrooms (save the mushroom water for another use if so inclined), rinse any grit off, squeeze out moisture. Remove stems and slice caps thinly.

Set up a steamer, bringing water to boil. In a pie plate, place cabbage, then snow peas, then mushrooms and 1/2 green onions. Pour 1-2 T sauce over, and steam five minutes.

Meanwhile, blot any moisture from fish, with a paper towel, then liberally salt and pepper; prepare udon noodles. Place fish over veggie mixture, sprinkling remaining sauce and green onions on top. Steam 10 minutes.

Drain udon noodles and distribute in ramen or pasta bowls. Check fish for doneness. When just cooked, distribute veggies, then fish fillets on noodles, ladle sauce over fish and sprinkle with gomasio and shichimi togarishi, adding a dollop of tobiko if available.

Serves three adults or two adults, one kid with leftovers for one lunch. Delicious with a glass of chilled Gewurtztraminer.