Seoul Food

This morning I made a bucketful of kimchi[1] or I hope I did. My first attempt at making sauerkraut was not too successful - not enough salt perhaps - but later batches were excellent. Much better than anything I’ve bought.

I read about kimchi years ago - probably on the Korea Foods website - and bought a small pack. I don’t remember being particularly enamoured of the experience, my abiding memory is of its incendiary nature.

Kimchi was on my shopping list when we visited the new Mitcham branch of Korea Foods, determined to give this legendary food another try. We were cruising the aisles when Marie pointed to a gallon sized clear plastic bucket containing what appeared to be anatomy. “What’s that?” she grimaced. “Just what I’m looking for!” I grinned, “Kimchi, the national food of Korea”. I picked up a smaller jar, just in case.

I don’t know what the last lot was but this was delicious, the rate it disappeared at was ample evidence. We both declared it addictive.

I had an infobinge on The WelkinReticulum[2] for recipes and discovered a few gems. Koreans have the same attitude to buying kimchi that I have to mayonnaise and humous (amongst other things) “You don’t buy it, you make it. The stuff in the shops isn’t even what it says on the tin!”. I’ve read every recipe and watched countless YouTube videos and I’ve assimilated the general process - resistance is futile!

Kimchi recipes vary from region to region and even from family to family. Everyone has their own particular wrinkle or ‘secret’ ingredient. I found that the jar I bought was Mat Kimchi, or easy kimchi. The cabbage was ready chopped into bite sized chunks for easy making and eating. Poggi kimchi is the more traditional form which uses quartered cabbage formed into little parcels. This is the method I chose.

I trundled along to Korea Foods again on Tuesday to buy the ingredients:

• Napa Cabbage (a.k.a. Chinese leaf)
• Solar salt (a.k.a. coarse sea salt)
• more chilli powder than I’ve ever bought in one go
• green onions (a.k.a. scallions or spring onions)
• daikon radish - I was hoping for real Korean radish which is halfway between a daikon radish and a white turnip.

Once home and the booty disgorged I realised that I didn’t have receptacles large enough to deal with this quantity of stuff so I shoved the cabbages into the washing machine - there was nowhere else to put them - and postponed the project.

The next day I went to the place I felt sure would provide what I needed, big plastic mixing bowls and large glass jars. Destination Upper Tooting Road! There are so many diverse ethnic shops there, one of them must have what I was after. An Indian catering supplier had both.

The large plastic mixing bowls I’d seen people using on YouTube turned out to be dough bowls, and came with a bonus lid. They also had a goodly range of glass jars but what caught my eye was a large stainless steel milk churn, it was only two quid more than the largest glass jar and I couldn’t resist it.

I won’t bore you with the procedure (yet) as there’s so much on The WelkinReticulum. Here are a couple of the more interesting links I’ve come across:

• Interesting documentary on Korean national telly about the annual winter kimchi making - Gimjang - which was given UNESCO World cultural heritage status recently. This is a lovely insight into Korean culture, wonderful people and some stunning imagery. Watch out for the Buddhist monastery in the snow, and the pots, gorgeous pots! The Culinary Art of Kimchi
• This woman seems very popular on YouTube - 2 million viewers and counting - she made me smile. Traditional recipe

---

1. Korean pickled cabbage made using a lacto-fermentation process just like sauerkraut.  ↩
   
2. The Internet - literally SkyNet (“I’ll be back” - oh, looks like you are Arnie!) I reckon if I use this term often enough others might pick it up and use it too, not as catchy as The InnerChoobs (one of Awa Nick’s) but hey.  ↩
   

Stinky Town Curry Recipe

Background

The inspiration for this curry came from Linda Hainsby’s hilarious illustrated book Stinky Town, in which a flatulent bear and a shopkeeper foil a royal robbery by means of the bear’s ‘special powers’. The bear's diet consists of copious quantities of beans, Brussels sprouts, nuts and chillies. The consequences of this diet are a central theme in the story.
Linda debuted her book during a show and tell session at the Putney School of Art and Design Children's Book Illustration class. When we'd all recovered our composure, wiped away the tears and could breath normally, that part of my brain that looks in the fridge and sees a menu said "That would make a really nice curry".
I tested it on my partner, Marie, who declared it to be "very nice". No further encouragement needed, I made another batch to take to the next class. That disappeared with even more complementary noises.
That's what I love about the Putney Illustration class. The inspiration I get from a room full of creative people throwing ideas around. I never know what fragment of someone else's idea will trigger a cascade of connections in my head, and what will come out the other end. Could have rephrased that one Awa Rich!
This is just a starting point, you don’t have to follow it slavishly. If there’s an ingredient you don’t have, leave it out or use something else. Feel free to vary the amounts too. Experiment, play around with it, make it your own.
An illuminated version will be available soon. Don't hold your breath. Enough with the puns already Awa Rich!

Download a PDF version of this recipe

Ingredients

Curry paste

• Chillies
• 2 or 3 cloves Garlic
• A thumb sized piece of fresh root Ginger
• 2 tablespoons Coriander seeds
• 3 tablespoons Cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon whole Black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Everything else

• 1 kg. Onions
• 250g. dried Black Eyed Beans
• 500g. Brussels Sprouts
• 100g. Blanched almonds
• 100 ml. Oil
• Water
• Salt

Fresh herbs

• A bunch of coriander leaves
• 2 or 3 sprigs of mint leaves

Preparation

If you are using dried beans, soak them overnight then boil them in 3 to 4 times their volume of water until they are soft. How long the beans take to cook depends on what type you’re using. Black eyed beans cook fairly quickly, about half an hour. Chick peas take much longer, an hour maybe more. Test one by squishing it with a fork, it should crush easily, but you don’t want mush.
I usually cook a big pan of beans then freeze what I don’t use.
Top, tail and peel, then chop the onions. You don’t have to be to precise as they will break up when you cook them. A kilo of onions may seem like a lot but they cook down to a fraction of their original volume.
Cut the bottoms off the sprouts, remove any manky outer leaves and cut them in half from top to bottom.
Roughly chop the almonds or put them in a plastic bag and beat the living daylights out of them with a rolling pin or some other blunt instrument.

Making the curry paste

You can use ready ground spices but you don’t need to roast them. If you’re feeling really lazy you could use a ready made curry paste.
Roast the whole dry spices in a small frying pan over a medium to high heat to bring out the flavours. Keep them moving around so they don’t burn. They’re done when you hear them snap crackle and pop. Take a moment to enjoy the aroma. Tip them into a dish to cool then grind them.
The fastest, easiest way to make the paste is to put all the ingredients in a liquidiser with some oil and whizz until you have a smooth paste. Add more oil if it gets too lumpy.
I like to use a pestle and mortar as it’s the best kind of aromatherapy.
Don’t worry if you make too much, put what you don’t use in a jar for another time.

Cooking

Put your biggest heaviest pan on a low to medium heat, pour in about 100 ml. of oil and gently fry the onions for 45 minutes to an hour. Keep them moving around and adjust the heat if they look like they’re browning. Your nose will tell you if they are.
You’ll be surprised how little there is left once they are cooked. The concentrated onions give the background flavour and texture to the curry.
When the onions are cooked, add about 2/3 of the spice paste and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Keep stirring.
You need a lot of oil to cook the onions and to make the paste but if there’s too much oil in the pan, pour some out. You could keep it in a jar for the next time you cook curry.
Now add the cooked beans and almonds and give everything a good stir. Pour in 250 ml. of water and put the lid on the pot. Simmer it for about half an hour to let the flavours mingle. Check occasionally to make sure it’s not drying out, add more water if it is.
Add the sprouts and cook for 10 minutes or so, they should be cooked through but still have some bite. Fish one out and taste it now and again to check if it needs more cooking. Overcooked sprouts are disgusting, mushy and bitter.
Add some salt, give it a stir and taste it. If it needs more, repeat. If you think it needs more spice then add some. Adding a bit of spice paste towards the end of cooking gives it a fresh zing.
Finally, chop the mint and coriander leaves and stir them in.
Serve it with chapatis, nan, paratha or rice. you can include this as part of a larger meal or as a meal in itself.

Notes

Did you notice that no bears or any other animals were harmed or exploited in the making of this curry?
Onions Red onions are more traditional in India but use whatever you can get. Small onions have more flavour and pungency, large onions are sweeter.
Chillies Just like onions, dogs and people, the smaller ones are more fierce. Remember, you can put them in but you can’t take them out. Avoid Dutch hothouse chillies as they are impostors and couldn’t punch their way out of a wet paper bag.
Beans Black eyed beans are used a lot in indian cooking but you can use any kind you like. Chick peas have good flavour and texture but they take a lot of cooking. use whatever you have.
If you can’t be bothered with the soaking and boiling palaver, use canned. Rinse them thoroughly before you add them to the pot. That goes double for Heinz.
Sprouts If sprouts aren’t in season then use any of their cousins. Broccoli, cauliflower or shredded cabbage will work fine. Fresh is best but frozen is good too, and it cuts down on the preparation. Just heave them straight into the pot.
Almonds Ready blanched and sliced almonds are available but it’s cheaper to make your own. Asian shops sell large packs of almonds for a fraction of the price you’d pay in a supermarket (same goes for spices).
Boil a pan of water, chuck in a cup of almonds and bring back to the boil. Cook for 1 minute only then drain them. Rinse with cold water and leave for about 10 minutes.
Now for the fun part. Remove the skins by holding a nut between your thumb and the first knuckle of your forefinger and squeeze. The almond will pop out easily, often too easily. Squeeze them into the palm of your other hand to stop them shooting across the room.