Thursday, July 28, 2011

Napa Cabbage Kimchi


At last, I mastered the art of making napa cabbage kimchi!  Or something like that.  For years, I've tried to make my own kimchi at home and it always turned out mediocre.  Then I finally found a recipe that sounds close to the real deal and I tried making it.  I was really happy with the results.  Now I'll never have to buy expensive kimchi and I can make extra to share with family and friends!

This recipe uses the whole cabbage fermenting method.  I wanted to make it easier to serve and mix with the kimchi paste so I cut the cabbage into bite-sized pieces before brining it.  I skipped the first five steps and followed the instructions from her Easy Napa Cabbage Kimchi recipe instead.

Napa Cabbage Kimchi
From Aeri's Kitchen

Main Ingredients:
1 large napa cabbage (4 lb)
2 cups Korean radish
1 cup garlic chives
5 green onions
3/4 onion
2 hot peppers

Brine Ingredients:
10 cups Water
½ cup coarse sea salt (for salt water)
⅔ cup coarse sea salt (for sprinkling)

Sauce Ingredients:
2 cups water + (3 T water and 3 T sweet rice flour)
¼ sweet apple + ¼ onion
1¼ cup coarse red pepper powder
1 - 2 T sugar
¼ - ⅓ cup fish sauce
3 T garlic, minced
½ T ginger, minced
½ T salt
2 T sesame seeds

Directions:
  1. Remove any bad parts from the napa cabbage.
  2. Divide the napa cabbage into 4 pieces. 
  3. In a huge bowl, combine 10 cups of water and ½ cup coarse sea salt to make salt water. Stir until the salt is dissolved.
  4. Prepare ⅔ cup coarse sea salt. Divide the salt evenly for 4 pieces of cabbage. Sprinkle the salt inside each leaf. Put more salt on the thicker parts than the thinner parts. This step is important to make kimchi. The right amount of salt and time to marinate the cabbage will change the results of your kimchi.
  5. Dip the cabbage in the salt water. Put something heavy (like a big pan full of water) on top of the cabbage to keep them under the brine. That will help the cabbage to get salted better. Leave it for 4 to 5 hours until the cabbage leaves become a little soft.
  6. Rinse the salted cabbage twice in water.
  7. Drain the water, and set it aside for about 2 hours until more of the water drips out or you can squeeze the water out.
  8. Mix 3 T of sweet rice flour and 3 T of water.
  9. In a pan add the mixture and 2 cups of water. Boil it until it makes bubbles on medium. Keep stirring it so that it will not stick to the bottom.
  10. Cut the radish very thinly into 2-inch lengths.
  11. Cut 5 green onions the same length as the radish.
  12. Cut the garlic chives into 1½-inch pieces.
  13. Cut 2 hot peppers thinly and slice ¾ of an onion thinly.
  14. Grind ¼ of an onion and ¼ of a sweet apple.
  15. In a big bowl, add the rice flour mixture, 1¼ cup of red pepper powder, and 2 cups of radish. Mix everything together.
  16. Add the rest of the ingredients: chopped onion, hot peppers, garlic chives, green onion, onion & apple mixture, 1-2 T sugar, ¼ - ⅓ cups fish sauce, 3 T minced garlic, ½ T minced ginger, and 2 T sesame seeds. Mix all of the ingredients well. Taste it and adjust taste, adding more salt if needed.
  17. Spread some of the mixture into each leaf of the cabbage. Make sure all of the surfaces get covered in the sauce.
  18. Put the kimchi in a glass jar or container. Keep the kimchi at room temperature for about a day, then put it in the refrigerator. It will take several days to a week until it is properly fermented depending on your refrigerator’s temperature.
Eat your kimchi with rice or as a side.  I made kimchi fried rice because it's so easy and simple to make.  All you need is chopped kimchi, overnight rice, green onions, kochujang, sesame oil, and a fried egg.  Sometimes I like to add spam to my kimchi fried rice.  So ono!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Honey Roasted Almonds


Lately we've been obsessing over almonds.  They are cholesterol-free and low in saturated fats and provide lots of fiber and protein to give you that "full" feeling and keep your energy up.  I even recommended this to my mom because she was complaining of feeling tired all the time.  I wonder if it's helping.

I like to buy raw almonds in bulk and roast it myself.  Saves money and you can control the amount of salt, sugar, or whatever ingredients you like to turn this into a heart healthy snack.  I found this recipe on cooks.com and it's super easy to make.

Roasted Honey Almonds

2 cups raw almonds
2 T honey
2 T water
2 T oil (I used canola)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake the almonds on a baking sheet lined with foil, for about 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally so they don't burn. Set aside and let cool.  In a small bowl, mix the sugar and salt together.  In a medium sized sauce pan, add honey, water and oil, mix and bring to a boil. Stir in the almonds until all of the liquid is absorbed. Transfer the nuts into a medium bowl and toss with the sugar mixture.  Spread back on to the aluminum lined baking sheet and let cool.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Green Curry Chicken


Coconut milk finally went on sale at Uwajimaya several weeks ago so I made green curry chicken for dinner.  I usually make red or yellow curry since I usually have ingredients for those dishes on hand.  I switched it up and used green curry instead. I found a small 4 oz. can of green curry paste to experiment with and it was enough to cook for two 4 serving meals. Most recipes call for kaffir lime leaves but I couldn't find it anywhere so I substituted with lime zest instead.  

Green Curry Chicken (serves 4)
Recipe adapted from here and there

Ingredients:

1 lb. chicken thighs or breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 T green curry paste
1 can coconut milk
3 kaffir lime leaves (I used zest of one lime)
1 cup bamboo shoots
1/2 cup frozen peas*
1/4 cup Thai basil
1-2 T fish sauce
1 T palm sugar
1 T vegetable or canola oil
crushed peanuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Saute the green curry paste with oil over medium heat until fragrant, mix in half of the coconut milk and let simmer for about 2-3 minutes.
2. Add the chicken and continue cooking until chicken is almost done.
3. Add the remaining coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, palm sugar and fish sauce, and bring to a boil.
4. Add the bamboo shoots and frozen peas and cook for 4-5 minutes or until the bamboo shoots are softened.
5. Stir in the basil and remove from the heat. Serve over rice and top with crushed peanuts if desired.

*I also made this dish using eggplants instead of peas which I think goes very well with green curry.  It just took a little longer to prepare because you need to cook the eggplants first until they soften before adding to the curry.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

4th of July

Lucky me, hubby had a day off on freedom day.  We took this opportunity to pig out in Seattle and enjoyed the sunshine.  First things first, breakfast.

Breakfast Menu
We went to Toulouse Petite in Queen Anne for breakfast happy hour. Most dishes on their breakfast menu were priced at $7.50 between 8am-11am.  We ordered the Rustic Duck and Pistachio Terrine and Cured Pork Cheeks Confit Hash.  Apparently, the confit hash was featured on The Foot Network's fall season premier of 'The Best Thing I Ever Ate' and I have to agree, it was delicious!

Rustic Duck and Pistachio Terrine
Cured Pork Cheeks Confit Hash
After breakfast, we headed over to West Seattle and picked up my favorite, Twice Baked Almond Croissant, from Bakery Nouveau.


It's a very crunchy pastry filled with almond cream and topped with sliced almonds.  Since we've come such a long way, it would've been a waste not to try another item from their mouthwatering showcase.  So, hubby got the Chocolate Hazelnut Croissant.  It tasted like Nutella!  


Even though we were full, we couldn't resist.  We took our pastry and drove down to nearby Alki Beach to enjoy.   It's amazing how much we can eat!  

Twice Baked Almond Croissant
Chocolate Hazelnut Croissant


We later took a nice stroll along the beach to burn off some calories (yeah right).  I've never seen the beach as crowded as it was.  Mother Nature was good to us on this day and I thank her.
After getting our dose of Vitamin D, we headed back into town and did a little bit of shopping around Downtown Seattle and Pike Place Market.  Might as well take advantage of the free holiday parking, right?  Hubby would have never agreed to go shopping if it wasn't for my birthday the next day.  

We needed to recharge after all that walking and ended up back in Queen Anne for some frozen yogurt. Hubby had Menchie's when he visited Hawaii in 2009 and really liked their fro-yo.  Menchie's finally popped up in Seattle so we decided to head there for our final destination before heading home.


They had about a dozen different flavors and sample cups were available to try before you buy.  The yogurt and toppings bar was all self-serve so you can mix and match and fill up your cup with as much or as little as you like and you pay by weight.  I think it was 42 cents per ounce.



I can't remember what flavors we had but one of it I remembered was mango whip.  It was creamy and melt in your mouth wonderful and kudos to them for their colorful mochi toppings!


Say "hi" to Mr. Menchie!
The day didn't just end there.  We went home, relaxed for about 2 hours, and headed back out to meet my family for dinner at Cheesecake Factory to celebrate my turning of age.  Holy crap, it was happening, and now I am officially old.  My co-worker told me not to worry because my 30's will be my best years ever.  I'm not too optimistic about that but I'm not ruling it out either.  Hopefully, she's right.

Finally, to top off my weekend of indulgence, hubby surprised me with cupcakes from Cupcake Royale on my birthday the following day.


Triple Threat, Strawberry Velvet, Strawberry Dipped Chocolate,
Salted Caramel, Strawberry 66, Strawberry Shortcake
I love my birthday month because it's strawberry season and Cupcake Royale was featuring strawberry themed cupcakes!  My favorite was the Strawberry Shortcake with fresh strawberries baked into the cake topped with strawberry whipped frosting.  

Hungry yet? ;)