I am blessed to work and play with a number of inspiring cooks. Portland is such a mecca of good food, you can't throw a stick without hitting a foodie.
But I have a number of stoopid good cooks in my life. They are colleagues, friends, and lovers (one in particular). But also good aquaintences like the people who run the Portland Farmers Market. Their passion for local & farm-fresh ingredients fires their (collective) love of cooking
Jared and Joe -- in particular -- put culinary 'bugs in my ears' on a regular basis.
My sauerkraut recipe came directly from Jared and Joe inspired my recent cooking/fun with pork belly.
Joe strikes again with his accidental one-year kimchi. He made it, put it in a plastic (!) tub, set it on his desk at home, and forgot about it. For a year. Apparently, it's quite delicious.
I appreciate a long-term project so I'm going to try a one-year kimchi.
Instead of a plastic or glass container, I will be using a Fancy (plastic) Pickle Press:**
Here's my adptation of Joe's recipe, x 2:
One Year Kimchi
2 heads Napa cabbage (cut into equal-by-volume pieces*)
4 scallions, cross cut
4 cloves garlic, Joe grates it on a microplane, I chopped it finely
1 two-inch piece of ginger, frozen, grated on a microplane and rough chopped
1/2+ cup Korean pepper flakes
4 Tbsps salt
Chop and salt cabbage, set with a plate on top, for one hour.
The cabbage should taste pleasantly salty.
After tasting the salted Napa, combine all ingredients and place in pic kle press, adding enough pressure to
subm erge the product. OR place in a super clean container and top with a piece of plastic. I affix a piece of cheese cloth or a tea towel over the top of the container with a rubber band, keeping out beasties like fruit flies.
The pickle press is somewhat sealed so I'm going to let it rip as is.
And now, we wait.
The kimchi currently resides in my Fermentation Room, aka the bedroom. It shares a table with olives, some leftover syrup from last years pickled watermelon rind, and two batches of kombucha.
Soon I'll start more sauerkraut.
Fermentation + love = health
* What I mean is that the thick pieces will be smaller than the leafy bits.
** Props to Kim McCollum for giving me the pickle press.
