BUSY BUSY!!!!

Unfortunately, with the COVID restrictions and trying to figure out our next steps at the farm I have not been as active as i should. I have been unable to meet with clients and haven't had much luck planning for the Supper Club Concept at Sharma Farm. We had to cancel multiple trips etc, our wedding in Italy this summer had to be rescheduled to next year.

But we are lucky that the pandemic has not affected our health, friends and family, nor our way of life. Things could be a lot worse and are for other people.

During the quarantine period I had extra time to learn some new recipes; mainly Korean food from the self taught chef named Maangchi. The biggest one that I use in almost all my cooking is Kimchi, a spicy fermented cabbage mix. I will share her video tutorial on homemade Kimchi at the bottom of this blog.

Here we go!

I was at first intimidated at the thought of making this but it turned out be quite fun and not impossible; now my kimchi is making its way into a lot of my staple recipes... i might try to make shakshuka with it!

You start with soaking your nappa cabbage (i only had bok choy but it also seemed to have worked) in water and kosher salt for up to 3 hours. The leaves either have to be completely submerged or you have to turn them over every 30 min. 

While the cabbage/bok choy is sitting in the water you can start to prep your other veggies.

I used 2 carrots, 5 green onion stalk, 200 grams of radish (couldn't find Korean radish, so i used the ones available), koriander, chives (again couldn't find ones from her recipe but what i had) and roasted white sesame seeds.

There was a lot of different elements for this recipe so I had to make sure my station was clean and shit wasn't all over the place.

Bert got in on the action... loves anything that is spicy. We had to make the porridge next. You combine water, flour and brown sugar in a pot over the stove. When it come to a boil, you can then add minced onion, garlic and ginger... then a couple cups of red chili pepper/chili flakes.

Once you have blended all of that, it should have a paste texture and can be added to your cut vegetables. Mix well until everything has been evenly mixed.

After that you can drain and wash the cabbage, you can start to coat it in the kimchi mix. You have to open each leaf and put the "porridge" inside until the whole is covered in red paste. Once that is done you should place the cabbages into sealable jars or tupperware. Before closing the lid, it's important to push down on the leaves to get all the air out. You can then leave it for 36 hours unrefrigerated before trying it then it will be ready for a second fermentation when moved to the fridge.

I really enjoyed making this and if you would like to try it, here is a link to the recipe I used!

Maangchi's Traditional Kimchi