Thank you to Sarah Bates of The Chef Next Door for hosting today's Hot and Spicy #SundaySupper event! Have you heard of the 10,000-hour rule? Author Malcolm Gladwell theorizes that to truly master something, you will have had to log in at least 10,000 hours of practice. This theory was based on a study by Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson. So what does this have to do with kimchi? Well, I feel like kimchi-making requires some level of practice to get to a point where it's easy to make and, most importantly, it consistently tastes awesome. When I first posted a recipe for this same dish, I had only made it a few times and it turned out a decent kimchi...50 percent of the time. Now 5 years later, I've made this particular kimchi a little less than 100 times. And if we're following the 10,000-hour rule, I've got about 9,900 hours become an expert kimchi maker. But I feel like after 5 years or about 100 hours, I've got this dish down. I've gotten rid of a couple of steps, streamlined ...
Perilla Pancakes
Originally published September 11, 2011. I thought I'd revive this recipe for Chuseok! Happy Chuseok! The cool fall weather is here to stay and school is in full swing. It is also the end of the season for kaenip (perilla) and the leaves are fading into a yellowish light green hue. The other weekend, I plucked the remaining leaves and decided to do a few experiments after speaking with my mom. She mentioned that the older leaves tend to be a less tender and a little tougher. Sometimes she steams a bunch of leaves and makes ssam (wraps) or chops them up and makes jun (pancakes) or jang dduk, a special recipe that my mom culled from her mother that sounded really hearty and quite simply, yummy. The recipe incorporates a spoonful of dwaen jang into the batter. (I know, dwaen jang!) I've never actually had the dish before or even heard of such a thing, but the combination of the pungent salty, nutty dwaen jang, and the strong peppery, minty kaenip sounded enticing. If you ...
Some Korean Flavor…
Quick Kimchi (Geotjori)
The fresh and crunchy Baby Shanghai Bok Choy by Jade Asian Greens are perfect for quick kimchi or geotjori! Geotjori, or what I like to call “quick kimchi“, is a quick and easy side dish that goes amazingly well with Korean BBQ – grilled galbior bulgogi. But why stop there? Serve geotjori alongside any grilled…
I Heart Kimchi Jigae
Continuing with the theme of “The Nine Lives of Kimchi”… I actually saved the same jar of percolating kimchi that I used last time. Surprisingly enough, it was still usable and it had actually reached perfect sourness for kimchi jigae. Awesome. I have made various versions of kimchi jigae in the past 20 or so years of my…
Sing it with me…SEOLLANGTANG!
Way back when, seollangtang was the perfect antidote after an evening of one too many martinis and one too many “Livin’ on a Prayers” at Toto. At the time, the best seollangtang was at Gahm Mi Oak on 32nd Street and it would be packed at 3 a.m. on any night of the week. (As a side note…
My 7 Links – Ever Evolving
Marie Asselin of Food Nouveau nominated me to take part in Tripbase’s 7 Links Project. The goal of the project is to “unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.”…