2010-2013 Sinto Gourmet LLC

I have mentioned this dish to quite a few people.
One thing Kimchi is very good at is balancing your meal in many 
different ways such as flavor,texture, and color.
I like pairing Kimchi with richer proteins.
It's widely praised that Kimchi and pork are match made in heaven.
One very lazy Sunday evening, I was cooking salmon but didn't want
to chop up all the vegetables for salsa to pair with.
So, I just topped the fish with my White Kimchi and was pleasantly
surprised how well both are paired. 

The crunch texture and acidity of the Kimchi stayed in the middle of
the richness of the salmon and really brought the whole dish together.

Kimchi Mango Salsa
Makes about 2cups of salsa
1 cup      White Mild Kimchi drained, chopped
1/2 cup    English Cucumber chopped
1/2 cup    Mango chopped
2T         Extra Virgin Olive oil
2T         Lemon Juice

To cook salmon
2          Salmon fillet, 6-8oz each.
2T         Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

1. Add Kimchi, cucumber, mango in a bowl and mix with oil,
   and lemon juice. It will take about 30minutes for flavor to come
   together. Keep it chilled
2. Coat salmon with olive oil and sprinkle evenly with salt and
   pepper on both sides of fillets.
3. Heat a skillet or saute pan over high heat. When the pan is hot
   but not smoky, place the salmon fillets in the pan.  
   Cook for 2 minutes  before flipping each fillet over and cooking
   for an additional 2 minutes.
   (This is how I get perfect medium rare salmon but cook 1-2 minutes
    longer if you prefer more doneness.)
4. Place cooked salmon in the middle of the plate and top each
   serving with a big spoonful of Kimchi Mango Salsa. Enjoy!

Kimchi Dumpling Soup [Mandu-Guk]
Makes about 40-45 dumplings
To make wrapper
3cups		All purpose flour
1Tbsp	Kosher Salt
1Tbsp	Oil
3/4 cup	Water
1. Put flour, salt, and oil in a food processor and spin it for a few seconds.
2. Add water mixture into a food processor and process until well mixed. 
   If necessary, add a table spoon of water each time you process it.
   You want to have a firm but still soft dough.
3. Put dough in a bowl and kneed several times to make dough more smooth.
4. Take a small chunk of dough from a bowl and shape into a cylinder about
   the thickness of a cucumber. Cut it into half inch thick small medallions.
5. Using a roller or empty wine bottle, roll out each medallion on floured surface,
   make round flat wrappers in about 4 inches diameter.
* You can use ready made dumpling wrappers sold at grocery stores. 

 To make filling
1cup		Spicy Kimchi made with napa cabbage, chopped
1cup		Ground pork
½ cup		Ground beef
½ cup		Yellow Onion, fine chopped
½ cup	Firm or extra firm tofu,
water wiped out and minced using fork or side of knife blade
1tsp	Kosher salt
1Tbsp	Soy sauce
1/2tsp	Sesame Oil
1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and thoroughly mix it.
Can be made a couple of days in advance and refrigerated.

To assemble dumplings

Place about a tbsp of filling in the center of wrapper.
After moistening edge of wrapper with water, fold it in half
to make half-moon shape. 
With forefinger and thumb, pinch dumpling closed, pressing out any air pockets.
Hold half moon in your hands, bring both ends together and
glue them together using your fingers.

To cook dumplings
1. Take any type of broth (chicken usually works best) your prefer and bring it to boil.
2. When the broth starts boiling, add dumplings and cook as you would cook ravioli
3. If the water is boiling too harsh, lower the heat as dumplings can break.
4. After about 4-5 minutes, dumplings are cooked and will float in the broth.
5. If you like, add slices of rice cake together with dumplings
6. Serve dumpling soup garnished with roasted nori and sliced green onions.

Jjigae means “stew”or “soup” in Korean and I dare to say that this “Kimchi Jjigae” is the “King of Jjigae”.  The ingredients can’t be simpler and it is so easy to make.  The Kimchi itself is very well seasoned and you don’t need to do mincing, chopping, or peeling of dozens of other ingredients.

If I remember correctly, this “Kimchi Jjigae” was selected by The New York Times as the best winter soup dish a few years ago.  Perfect for the cold weather, this dish will warm you up, spice you up, and lift you up.

 Use Kimchi that is as ripe as possible. The older Kimchi has a more deep, earthy, developed flavor that will enhance the dish.  Are you a vegetarian? Use vegetable stock or dashi stock and skip the pork.  Simmer Kimchi with stock for at least for 30 minutes. I highly recommend adding some mushroom as it makes Jjigae more savory.

 INGREDIENTS

1Cup                Spicy Napa Cabbage Kimchi, drained with Kimchi  juice reserved
2/3cup            Pork butt, sliced thin, about 1”x 1”
2                        Green Onions, chopped
1 ½ cup          Water
1tsp                  Sugar
                           Salt & Pepper

 
1. Stir fry pork in a pot over high heat until about 2/3 cooked.

2. Add Kimchi and stir fry together, about 5-7 minutes

3. Add water, ¼ cup Kimchi juice, and green onion. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

4. Add sugar and season to taste with salt and pepper, if necessary.

Last saturday, I had a very interesting experince at the Fermentation Food Festival up in a beautiful small town, Freestone.
I had no idea that such a festival existed (it’s the 3rd annual).  Nor did I know that there would be so many people coming to learn, taste, and experience everything about fermented foods.

It was such a beautiful day and my husband and I really enjoyed the scenery driving into Freestone.
I have been to Sebastopol and Occidental before.  Those two towns are very well known.  But Freestone?
You have to take a day one weekend and visit this town to see what I mean.  

I didn’t expect so many people coming to try my Kimchi.  The amount of Kimchi I prepared for samples was not enough and I had to open many jars of packaged Kimchi for sale. 

This is a photo of me being interviwed. One of the questions he asked was “Is there a Fermented Foods Festival in Korea?”
Well… there might be, but growing up in Korea I had not heard of such a festival.  I guess Koreans have been eating fermented foods for centuries and it’s just a part of daily life.  There isn’t any special reason to celebrate it.  Do you like my answer?

The reason I liked the festival so much is because not only were there plenty of fermented foods to sample and purchase, but also,there were so many educational programs.  A kimchi making class (above) was one of them.

No festival is complete without music and dancing.  It is too bad that I was so busy and didn’t have time to look around.  According to the photo taken by my husband, there seems to be a lot I missed.  Next year, I am going to prepare well in advance and find time to interact with the other vendors and the programs.

Today, I delivered the first batch of Kimchi to the Rainbow Grocery. My kitchen is so close to the store that I just walked 4 blocks carrying an ice cooler containing 2 cases of Kimchi. I am very excited and nervoused.Will people like my Kimchi?
Well, I will soon find out.

Stir-fried kimchi rice is the quintessential comfort food of Korea. For me, this dish has so many memories and people associated with it.  I usually make it when there is not much left to cook anything with or I get lazy and just want to cook some simple food. When I make it, I use the biggest pan I have in my kitchen, a 14 inch nonstick pan because my husband almost always heads back to the kitchen with his emptied bowl for the second refill saying “man…this is so good. Can I take it to the office for lunch tomorrow?”.

Nobody knows who came up with this idea of stir frying left over cold rice and over ripened Kimchi but, in some ways, the two ingredients make perfect sense. Both are in the kitchen 24/7, steamed rice in an electric rice cooker with “keep warm” mode and Kimchi in the refrigerator. 

As a typical Korean, my refrigerator is always filled with 2or 3 different types of Kimchi.  In fact, I have a small refrigerator salvaged from an office closing down and that is my Kimchi refrigerator.  It’s a perfect way to use up leftover food and create homey comfort food.

There are two more ingredients I always cook this dish with and they are bacon and butter. Pungent acidic flavor with a crunchy texture of Kimchi goes very well with pork.  You can find a lot of Korean foods made with Kimchi also have pork belly, pork butt, bacon, or pork sausage.  Butter is the ingredient I add to the dish as a finishing touch.  It makes the rice look as shiny as your grandma’s silk hanbok and tastes..ummm..everything that butter is supposed to. (I am sure you know what I mean..)

If you’re a vegetarian, skip the bacon and use tofu instead.  Stir fry small pieces of tofu and rice with any type of oil you like. You may want to add other vegetables as well.  Peppers, mushrooms, carrots, asparagus, zucchini, or peas are good choices. 

Ingredients  (2 portions)

3 strips            Bacon, cut into strips about ¼ inch lengths.
1/3 cup            Yellow onion, chopped
1 cup                Red Napa cabbage Kimchi, drained and chopped with juice saved.
2 cups              Steamed white short grain rice, chilled in refrigerator
2 Tbsp             Canola or vegetable oil
                          Salt and pepper
½ Tbsp            Butter
2                        Eggs cooked sunny side up(Optional)
2 Tbsp              Green onion, sliced thin (Optional)

1. Cook bacon in a 12 inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes until  golden brown.   Take out bacon from the pan and set aside on a paper towel but leave bacon fat in the pan. 
2. In the same pan with bacon fat in it, add the yellow onion and Kimchi.
   Sauté until the onion becomes translucent and Kimchi is somewhat sweated out for about 3-4 minutes.
3. Add rice in the pan and try to break the lump of rice with an up and down motion using a flat wooden spoon or spatula then stir for about 5 minutes.  If the pan gets too dry from rice soaking up the oil, add canola oil or vegetable oil about one tablespoon at a time as you stir fry the mixture of rice, yellow onion, and Kimchi. If you like a stronger Kimchi flavor, add Kimchi juice a tablespoon at a time as you continue to stir fry.
4. Take pan off the heat, add bacon and butter, and mix well
5. Transfer rice to a serving platter, put a cooked egg on top, and sprinkle with green onion before serving.

 IMPORTANT  Don’t try to make this dish with hot or warm rice. It will turn out incredibly mushy. Use only cold or at least slightly chilled rice.

Another small batch of Kimchi made at home for tasting.  I make Kimchi a lot nowadays and adjust recipes over and over again. Hope people like my Kimchi sold at stores.

This batch was made about 2 weeks ago. The weather was very cold so it took a couple of more days to ferment.

After about another week or so, this Kimchi will be fully matured and taste great.

Last week,my Kimchi jars arrived at my condo.. I had to carry 210 boxes of jars all by myself into the storage… wish I had taken a photo of my self carrying 24 boxes at a time in misty weather. Couldn’t not fit all of them in my basement storage so about 100 boxes are sitting right behind of me in a study room. Once I receive a nutrition fact table, my Kimchi will be ready to hit the market!!!