Kimchi Trials

From left to right: Attempt 2, Attempt 1, Store Bought

In hindsight it was more than a little ridiculous to make not one but two batches of kimchi having eaten it like once a few years ago. I have never been one for sensical decisions though. See: Taking on an entire CSA share by my lonesome.

But onto taste. 

The best- unsurprisingly- was the store bought. It was the mildest flavor-wise. Definitely the least spicy- which isn't necessarily the best for me. It's the one I could see myself eating the most. 

2nd favorite was Attempt 2. A bit more heat, a decent bit more fishy. I liked the carrots. The Chinese cabbage variety I used gave a bit more bitterness than the store bought's. 

Least favorite: Attempt 1. Way too strong. The red pepper powder was essentially a paste. Very salty and fishy. Hate to say it but couldn't actually swallow it. 

So where did mine go wrong? 

• The fish sauce was too strong. It's a very distinct flavor, and if you're not used to it, off-putting. 
• I didn't have a scale. You can wing a recipe you know to a degree, but being this blind is just asking for disaster.
• The store bought was wetter? I'm not sure if the cabbage variety made that difference, but I could see more moisture being an asset here.
• Store bought had more sweetness- ingredients like apples and pears

I'm happy I improved between Attempts 1 and 2. Not sure I'll get another head of Chinese Cabbage, and if I did I doubt I'd try this yet again. But I'm happy I tried it once. Well, twice. I may even pick up an apple and tweak Attempt 2 to make it more palatable.

Dish 11: Kimchi Take II

I'd set up my cabbage Tuesday night, so Wednesday was kimchi day. It didn't really matter if I'd needed to run to home depot to exchange some things* and then do an epic load of laundry. Or that I had no real desire to cook, having picked up a burger from a local semi faux front bar.

Wasn't very good. Always good to try new things tho. 

I didn't want to make this kimchi wait, so apologies roomies for chopping up carrots and daikon at 11pm. You can have some when it's done.

I used the same recipe as before, but despite the crazy size of this cabbage, only had an additional cup at most. 

I scaled back the red pepper powder and fish sauce only to discover with the additional cup of cabbage and those extra carrots (which I just kinda felt like throwing in) I was close to appropriate volume. So back up the amount went. 

I feel a lot better about this batch. The first one had way too much red pepper powder- maybe I measured wrong? Regardless this seems to match the consistency of my store bought comparison.

Second Batch. Store Bought. First Batch (recontainered). 

Does that come across in pics? I feel like my camera can't handle so much red. 

Looking forward to kimchi trials in a week!

*Protip: if you move, buy tubs, use them, then return them. Before you start judging me, mine were cleaner than ones I saw in the store.**

**Extra protip: use the refund money to buy a clamp-on vice!

Delivery 2

Delivery 2 was much like Delivery 1. I'm happy there's levels of consistency and variation so I can build on prior experience but not get too stagnant- but I do wish kale had carried over. So it goes.

Here's the haul:

Bok Choi - 1 head

Chinese Cabbage - 1 head

Red Sails Lettuce -1 head

Romaine Lettuce - 1 head

Buttercrunch Lettuce - 1 head

Mustard Greens - 1 bunch

Mizuna - 1 bunch 

Sorrel - 1 bunch

Sage with Flowers - 1 bunch

Garlic Scapes - 6 scapes
 

And the highlights:

Sorrel: I had no strong feelings about this guy when I saw it on the list, but then I ate a leaf...awesome! A really nice citrusy bite, especially the stems.

From Wikipedia: "The plant's sharp taste is due to oxalic acid, which is a poison. In small quantities sorrel is harmless; in large quantities it can be fatal." Neat!

Lots of stuff to do with this guy- there are drinks, pesto, or some kind of tart? I read the flavor mellows when it cooks, so I'm thinking the pesto.

Butter Crunch Lettuce: This is the cartoon lettuce shaped lettuce- does it come across in pics? The leaves feel nicely pliant so I may use it in a wrap situation. Like this.

Sage (with flowers): Don't get me wrong- this is very pretty- but doesn't the effort of growing flowers take some of the oomph out of the leaves? Apparently sage is good with chicken liver- which I know, gross, but I need to eat more iron and that's one of the best sources. Also- liver mousse? Nom. Here are a few choices for when I'm looking.

Garlic Scapes: The sign said take six out of the bin, so I did. Apparently they ran out of rhubarb last week- I have a feeling the shareholders showing up last minute may be scapeless. There are interesting looking dips (apparently suuuper strong, so it's in the lead), on a pizza, or in okonomiyaki or biscuits. So- basically- all the things.

And our good friend Mr Chinese Cabbage. Obviously not new, but I got a monster-sized head. It's already been cut up for a second, appropriately spiced, batch of kimchi.

Oh and I found a little slug on my kale. He was kind of cute (no pics, sorry), but yeah, guess we know it's organic!

Dish 8: Rhubarb Tart and Making Progress on 4 & 5

Yesterday was a marathon of cooking but not eating. I came home shortly after 6 and got to work. Finished around 10. Crazy person.

First: Kimchi! I'd made a stop in Koreatown (heart nyc) during lunch to pick up the last of the ingredients. Adapted a simple recipe from chow. My main difference: less cabbage. 

I'd lost my scale in the move so while I wait for a new one I'm winging it a bit. I had hoped my cabbage was 2 lbs but I definitely didn't get the volume the recipe wanted. Ended up with about 5 cups of brined rinced drained cabbage with the (about) correct amounts of the rest.

Tip: Don't mince the ginger and garlic, grate it.

The end result was about half the expected volume so in a week I will have some crazy potent kimchi.

Second in the marathon was the Rustic Rhubarb Tart I'd mentioned last week. Big issue with this was the amount of rhubarb- the farm only gave us about a cup...and the recipe calls for 4.5. So I scaled the filling down.

Super tasty, though I was also winging this. They were looking for a jam-like consistancy, and I have enough experience with that. The dough would've been a pain so I made a full batch of that.

It felt a little dry but I went with it. Rolled out and filled up what I could...

...and ended up with two tarts. Here they are in their super rustic (i.e. crummy looking) pre-freezer glory. The dough definitely looks a ton dryer than Smitten Kitchen's.

If I had some of my jam (still somehow at the old place) I would've just filled the rest with that, but as it was it reminded me of scone dough so I baked it off as is. It was dry, but good with a little butter. Also I realized I'd forgotten the salt. Whoops. I'll sprinkle a little on the tarts when I bake them?

Finally (finally!) I moved on to Dumplings. Part of me wanted this for dinner but as it was past 9...yeah. I'd already made do with the leftover egg whites from the tart dough- a quick scramble with oregano.

As it was I just filled and shaped these guys. Found a few tutorials online. It was my first time doing it but I got pretty decent! ...one would hope I'd make progress doing like 40 of them in a row, ha!

Also- I understand why these are so so cheap- you can barely put any filling in! Here's hoping my flavors are strong enough. These went with the tarts in the freezer for a future meal. Maybe tonight.

Though I do have another delivery to pick up...I may be in a little over my head here.

Dishes 4 and 5: To Be Continueds

After spending about 12 hours in a professional kitchen Saturdays you'd think I wouldn't be in the mood to cook. But there are projects to start! And this girl can't resist a good project. Or- in this case- two.

Dish 4: Dumplings!

A thing I haven't made before. Skimmed a few recipes but gist-ing this one. We'll see how it goes. My worry is the filling may be too moist. 

I started by dicing up several leaves of bok choy- stems and all. 

I also chopped up 2/3 of the garlic chives- though on second thought they're probably overwhelmed by the other flavors going on. So it goes. 

These went into the pan with some toasted sesame oil. In went the Immune Booster dressing I made yesterday. I let it steam a bit to soften up the bok choy (some recipes mentioned blanching but I wasn't feeling it), then took off the lid to dry out the veg a bit. 

Probably still a little embarrassed by the salad I grated up another knob of ginger and clove of garlic and threw those in the pan towards the end as well. That all went in a bowl to cool. 

To fill out the dumplings a bit more- and add a little protein- I crumbled up 1/2 a brick of tofu (pressed a bit to remove excess water)-

And threw it in the pan I'd just emptied. 

I soon remembered that tofu doesn't taste like anything so I added about a tbs of soy sauce- maybe a little more- and a bit of red pepper flake. Once I was happy with it I added it to the veg. 

Late night pics aren't the best but it's tasty and super gingery. 

I went as far as I could go with this- unfortunately the only wrappers I could find were frozen so finishing will have to wait til tomorrow. 

Dish 5: Kimchi!

The barest of starting for kimchi tonight. I know my Chinese cabbage is not official standard napa- I've made peace with that fact and decided to move forward. 

It's got a bit of the structure but not the shape I'm seeing on the napa in stores. Not sure what's up with that. 

Anyway- still need to find the Korean chili powder and daikon, the first step needs to happen the day before anyway: chopping and brining the cabbage overnight. 

Sleep well little cabbage. Hopefully you don't get too salty. 

Delivery 1

Yesterday I picked up my first CSA Share! Unfortunately I didn't take a pic of everything together until they were all bagged up, but still- gorgeous:

Contents:
Rhubarb-1 bunch*

Bok Choi-1 bunch

Chinese Cabbage-1 head*

Red Leaf Lettuce-1 head

Romaine Lettuce-1 head

Spring Time Kale-1 bunch

Mustard Greens-1 bunch*

Mizuna-1 bunch*

Garlic Chives-1 bunch*

Oregano-1 bunch

* = first time using. Technically I've cooked with mustard greens before...from a bag, frozen. So I'm not counting it

There was a small part of me that hoped that I'd be able to live solely off this CSA share, but there is a lot I'll want to pick up to supplement. I may have too many ideas :)

It'll be all salad everything for the lettuce and kale most likely. But for the new guys, here are some thoughts and non-bagged pics:

Rhubarb - Tart red veggie, usually used in desserts and jams. So excited for this, I've always wanted to try it, though wish I'd gotten more. This lovely rustic tart recipe from smitten kitchen seems my speed and requires minimal ingredient investment. Also you cook them straight from the freezer so there's no pressure to eat 10 in a few days.

Chinese Cabbage - aka Napa Cabbage. Used a lot asian cuisine- I see a super tempting recipe for dumplings, but I'm thinking kimchi! Or both- there is a lot of it. Found a nice kimchi recipe on CHOW- tho will probably omit the shrimp. It's got a slightly higher ingredient investment cost- and it may take some hunting to find that chili powder.

Mizuna - Japanese green- often compared to mustard greens or arugula, though milder. Can be eaten raw or cooked- I may try it with some lettuce in a salad and/or in stir fry recipe with Bok Choy (bonus for using another CSA veg!). Speaking of which...

 

Bok Choy - so. freaking. much. I've roasted the baby version of this before and loved it. Will probably try something similar with this big guy.

Oregano - nothing is springing to mind specifically for this (a friend suggested a lot of pizza!), but I so seldom use fresh herbs. Have to use all of it.

Garlic Chives -  It's like chive with a hint of garlic. Or a mild scallion. Another Asian veggie. I could use it in the kimchi- (oh hey! there's buchu kimchi which uses this instead of the cabbage)- or to showcase it make an omlette or garlic chive pancakes.

Mustard Greens - I've had an aversion to the flavor of mustard since I was little but recently started coming around to it in a big way. Want to try it in something cooked (maybe just a simple saute) and raw.

Tonight will be my first serious night of cooking in the new place. Sooo excited!