On 2/25/2013 11:28 AM, Silvar Beitel wrote:
> I realized I hadn't made any since running out of the "good" red
> pepper flakes my Korean friend used to get shipped to her from her
> mother in Korea. She always disdained the stuff she could get here
> (US) but mom is gone, friend is back in Seoul and incommunicado, and I
> had a hankerin', so off to the local Korean store for some of theirs
> (1 lb. bag $3.99. 5 lb. bag $16. Do you know how much red pepper 5
> pounds is?? :-) ). I had everything else I needed in house.

Those big bags of Korean pepper blew my mind when I first saw it. I
chickened out and just got the 1 lb bag. For a while, I was using it in
everything - like coating loaves of bread and meatloaf. That was some
goofy looking food.

My wife likes that real Korean kimchee. I like the lighter Hawaiian
style i.e., "the sissy stuff." Anyway, she's on a diet and can't eat
very many things but my guess is that she could eat all the kimchee she
wants. Hopefully, I can make a small batch of it. She likes it fresh,
not fermented.

>
> I decided to try a version that used a rice "pudding" to bind things
> together and settled on this:
>
> http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/easy-kimchi
>
> albeit without the salted squid (I've had a tough time with the smell
> of old squid ever since my Japanese-Hawaiian college roommate
> regularly snacked on the stuff around me :-) )

My mother-in-law would dump in raw oysters - holy smokes!

>
> Anyway, made it yesterday. The bulk of it is sitting the the fridge,
> but I left some in a container out on the counter overnight to
> expedite the fermentation and tried it out this afternoon.
>
> Still has a ways to go, but it is awesome. Not too hot, balance of
> flavors is just right. I have to remember to keep this stuff around,
> as a snack, a condiment, a side, or ingredient for other dishes.
>
> --
> Silvar Beitel
>