Home made Kimchee - fermentation fascintion

I have been fermenting foods for healthy eating for most of the year.  Summer time I make sour pickles to go with my many summer bbq's.  Winter time I eat a lot of soups and asian style often, amking dashi's with kombu and bonito flakes and adding egg and shrimp or clams, wakame and clear bean thread noodles.  garnished with kimchee, or a spicyKorean style octopus stir fry over rice with kimchee garnish.  you get the idea.
Kimchee is very simple.  and the ratio I find to be perfect is this
2lbs of napa cabbage cut into quarters length wise and  then cut the quarters into thirds
soak in salted water completely submerged (1/2 cup of kosher salt) for two hours up to 24 hours.
then rinse and completely dry.
mix with 1 medium daikon radish cut into match sticks
1/3 cup of corse ground Korean chili powder
1/4 cup of preserved shrimp (or fish sauce)  I prefer the shrimp.  not as salty and a mellower nicer flavor profile in the end
a half a dozen chinese scallion (regular scallions will do in a pinch)  I very much prefer the chinese ones
2 inch pice of ginger and a small head of garlic minced fine
1tsp sugar or honey or agave.  your choice of sweetener

mix all of the ingredients and put in a large Ball Jar with a sealed top and set out on the counter in a cool place.  for the next two days crack the lid and let the gas out.  then let it sit for a total of six or seven days.  at this point the kimchee has settled by about a third of the way down and I transfer the Kimchi two two medium Ball jars and seal them up and into the fridge.  they will last well into a month.  they rarely last that long in my fridge because I eat it!

these measurements are guides and the result is a beautiful spicy pungent kimchi.

dont get hung up on exact measurements...  your kimchee will be fine.  and you can adjust if it is too salty gingery or garlicky for your tastes from there.

eat like poor people - comfort food - congee

I was first introduced to congee when I lived in lower Manhattan, pretty much Chinatown.  It was full of Chinese immigrants cooking authentic chinese food.  And aside from 5 for dollar dumplings, congee was the cheapest comfort food you could buy.  It seemed simple enough, a porridge made of rice, garnished with white pepper, hot oil, chili paste, soy, red vinegar, peanuts...   and you can add anything to this porridge to flavor it...  there was close to 2 or  3 dozen choices at congee village maybe 100...  from shrimp to preserved fish to lobster, chicken, frog legs, duck hearts, duck blood, pig intestine,  abalone, snail, liver what ever you pleasure in any combination.  One of my favorites was dry scallop and these little white nuts.  It came to the table steaming and bubbling in ceramic bowl that must have been heated in 500+ degree oven and stayed warm until consumed...  always too hot to eat at the table.
a Congee was available at every corner in chinatown just about so I never attempted making it until I moved back to Texas....  no congee in Texas that I know of.
Most recipe's I saw just called for water and sushi rice or jasmine rice or a combination...  Either will do what ever you have or try the difference and whatever your pleasure I used sushi rice.  Brown rice would work and be very healthy too.
I started by making a stock from about 2 lbs of organic chicken necks $1.96 and added a few marrow bones I had laying around + celery stalk, carrot, 1/4 onion, a few garlic cloves and some chinese ginger root.  I cooked that for a couple of hours and let cool.  strain and refrigerate.
The next morning I soaked a cup of sushi rice.  and changed the water three times in an hour.  last time I used a hand blender to chop up the rice into finer grains.  strained and added to the stock which I was reheating after skimming the fat.  I add a little more ginger root here.  and on a med low heat stirring frequent to occasionally to make sure the rice does not stick to the bottom.  recipe's call for 8 to one stock.  I go 10 to 1 and  might even add two more cups of water and let it go longer than the required hour and a half.  I like mine extra creamy with small grains still intact.  for this I broke out the hand blender and creamed the congee quickly and pulsing (after removing the ginger).  I place the ginger back after this...  all this does is speed things up a bit.  your congee will cream if you stir and let if go long enough....  no hand blender?  you can crush the rice with mortar and pestle in the first step...  for the little salt content I add 1 TBS of fish sauce.

now I have congee for the next few days in my fridge and I add few shrimp to that  right before serving
cooked in the congee.  I garnish with chinese scallion, white pepper, and home made Kimchi.  One of the classic additions to classic congee is preserved salted cabbage...  I always have kimchi on had so I add that...  and I am back in the comfort of the L.E.S. and the whole meal costs me about 3 or four bucks  that will last me several days.  I can add chicken or just plain congee with kimchee... or mix it up with what ever I have in the fridge.  This is such a health way to start the day or end the day on a cold winter night... or anytime really.  I pour myself some hot tea.  and feel blessed.

Gazpacho de-constructo

I love this soup.  It's the end of summer and what a better way to celebrate it than the ugly heirloom tomato.  The uglier the more delicious.  Start by picking the ugliest three pounds of tomatoes you can find.  cut them in half and grate them on a box grater.  Push through a sieve or bain marie extracting the juice and discarding seeds and excess flesh.  cut six inches off of a baguette and strip the outer crust off.  and make some cubes.  soak these in warm water.  and wring out after a few minutes.  chop this up with some smoked sea salt and a garlic clove or two if you like garlic.  add some olive oil and make a fine paste of this.  then whip into the juice with a whisk.  refrigerate.

for the relish fine dice red pepper, fennel, cucumber, celery, tarragon, chive, shallot and splash with balsamic and toss with just a touch of olive oil.  chill in fridge.
slice the baguette long ways and coat with olive oil.  and put it on a baking sheet and convection roast on 350 until they are croutons.  while still hot rub garlic clove on them.
when you serve make a mound of relish in the middle and ladle the gazpacho around the relish.  garnish with crouton...
a nice addition to this would be fresh boiled lobster or rock shrimp.
if you love heat.  try incorporating some smokey dried chipotle peppers to the mix...  reconstitute them and use the left over water for your bread soak.  then rub the flesh onto the mesh screen and discard the skins.

half sours

I'm experimenting with fermentation.  Pickling cukes.  trying to find that ultimate bite I had that one time in the east village.  The pickle was bright green and crunchy and the flavor really was fresh and not too salty, no vinegar and just a touch of sourness.  the subtle pickling spice enhancing the natural pickle.  Cnt find em here in TX.  Ba'a tempte attempts but is too salty and has other preservatives in there to keep on a shelf.
So on the heals of summer and fresh cukes abound.  I started going for it.  Here is what I learned so far.
If you are gunna go for this go large.  I pickle at least two dozen at a time.
use Two bunches of Dill, one beneath and on above the pickles.
1. Start by picking only fresh firm pickles...  with out these don't bother.  wait for fresh ones.
2. Bath them in ice water for an hour or even two if ya like.   This gets them even firmer and they perk up to a lively light green color.  Pickling them in this state retains this color and firmness.
3.  Use pickling spice mix or if you can buy bulk spices assemble your own for cheap. Yellow or brown  Mustard seeds, all spice, clove, juniper berry, tellicherry peppercorns, bay leaf, whole coriander... add a few bulbs of garlic.  (I just added fresh pequin peppers and cayenne peppers from my garden s well)
3.1  I just picked about five small green tomatoes from my patio tomato plant ad added them to the cold cukes)
4.  VERY IMPORTANT use only drinking water and pickling salt.  everything else will have impurities and cloud your brine or worse dull and soften your cukes.
5.  the standard I found was about 1 TBS salt to 1 Cup of distilled or filtered water.  I still think its a touch too salty.   So I am trying 3 TBS and five cups in this new batch of of these fresh cukes, green tomatoes and a few chiles...  the brine tastes amazing already.  you want enough salt in there to start the culture and get that healthy bacteria going
6.  fill a ziplock bag with water and place on top of your cucumbers and keep them submerged for three days on the countertop then into the fridge.  I place them in individual jars and place them in the fridge.  I may keep a few five days and up to a week this time.  see what happens.  usually saltier, more sour and probably less snap.  maybe even less color..  but I do know for sure after three days they are unbelievable.

TX Style BBQ Brisket

O.K. this is to cool...  I smoke briskets several times a year and its like a sport.  I can see why they compete.  There is so much care put into these babies.  and I am cooking these particular four giant packers for the one and only Ian Maclagan of the Faces, the newest inductee into the rock and roll hall of fame.  It's his birthday and a friend recommended me for the gig.  It was kind of last minute bu I hear his parties are epic.  they are expecting 100 or more.
I made ranch beans and TX style potato salad as sides + a home made BBQ sauce with espresso  (a little something I ripped off from Aaron Franklin of franklin's world class BBQ).
I like to use old mesquite when I can...  couldnt find it.  It is sweet after a long burn.  The young mesquite can be bitter.  However, I always love Hickory in a long smoke and chose Pecan wood to join it this time around...  I also like Oak.  Franklin uses  an Oak and Hickory blend.
My rub was a classic cayenne, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, course ground peppercorns, brown sugar, himalayan pink salt, and maybe a smidge of another thing or two....  I borrowed a bullet smoker from a friend because mine was too small for the amount meat I was smoking...  I needed to use both.  and they were a little different in their timing...  kepping the temp steady.  eventually i got the rhythm of them both down.  I check in every hour and half or even two and can start a new chimney and add new coals to the smokers fairly quickly.  They have been holding steady around 200...  I need 225 but I'll take steady a 200 if thats what it's giving me.  they are really large so they could take a while.  usually an hour and half per pound so...  I got them started at 4pm and I serve at 7pm till its gone.

I'll wrap them around 2pm and set them in my ice coolers on some towels...  and they should seal in the heat and keep them at temperature for at least 2 and half to 3 hours. At 4pm i'll get them back on the fire at the site and finish them for a couple of hours...  or maybe the big ones will need more time.? we'll just have to see.
Mac is an englishman but a Texan for many years now...  He has a several acres in Manor and this will be a field party of Austin musicians and cats on the scene...  I'm pretty stoked,  It's a lot of work...  but will be  lot of fun.  I am gunna nap now and do the 2hr naps til noon if I can pull it off.

Party was a success.  Mac is a sweet man and he has great friends.  The Party went late.  Best part was late night in the studio hangin and listening to tunes.  The brisket got rave reviews and that made me feel real good.  It was nice to be there.  When I got home though, I was exhausted.  Dead and beat up... I may never work a party alone again.  ever.  That was ridiculous.  I am still trying to recover and it's Monday night.
I needed two hot tub soaks and some deep tissue massage this morning just to get close to normal.

I'll probably do another brisket this weekend...  serve it with my pickles

mediterranean

Lamb chops, tabouli salad, and hummos

smoked sea salt, pepper and five spice and throw them on a hot grill...  dont burn em but get a good sear and flip...   dont over cook lamb.  this good cut needs to be med rare and the fat needs to cook to get melty yummy.

I like a tabouli with tons chopped parsley and mint.  cubes of cucumber and tomato in a lemon, olive oil and salt dressing.  that's it

Hummus I like lemony...  so I make sure there is plenty of that.  you can discover your own blend of good olive oil, cooked chick peas, garlic, salt (smoked is outrageous in this) tahini, and lemon.  blend in your cuisine art for perfect creamy hummus.  I like a healthy amount of garlic too.  not too much but I like to know it's there and mid level of tahini...  keep adding to get the flavor you like.  and keep tabs of how much so you know how to make it perfect for your taste buds every time.

that is all for now.  I'll be back with much more soon as I have discovered how to download my pics from my new phone.

i got an iphone

and my computer is not being friendly with the camera.  I have been cooking up a storm and will blog about the month in one afternoon.   sorry for the delay.  but folks need pictures.