Zucchini Kimchee and Fried Rice

If you have a vegetable garden you know what this time of year is. Yes, zucchini overload! Now, there are tons of recipes out there for zucchini that are terrific. But I thought, why not do something a little bit different? I love Korean food and kimchee in particular. So, why not try using this wonderful summer squash in a spicy Korean relish? I looked around and there are few examples out there of zucchini kimchi but I do know that in Korea they make spicy pickles from all kinds of vegetables including summer squashes. What can be wrong with fresh vegetables, garlic, ginger and spicy red pepper? Nothing! I am happy to say my little experiment worked.

I started with about 4 cups of zucchini sliced into 1/4 inch rounds. If the zucchini was too big around I split it into smaller pieces before slicing. The zucchini was sprinkled liberally with salt and left to stand for about an hour after which I rinsed the squash and drained it well. To make the kimchee sauce I used about 1/2 cup of Korean red pepper flakes 8 large cloves of garlic, 1 inch of ginger, minced, a tbps of sugar and about 2 tbsp of fish sauce. Green onions would have been best but I didn't have any so I slivered up about one half of a large yellow onion into this as well. The pepper mixture was mixed well with the squash and it was placed in a jar to ferment for about 24 hours. I put it in the fridge after one day. This kimchee is not sour at all and I think I like it best freshly made. I used an Italian Costa Romanesca variety of squash that is my favorite. It has a great mild flavor when raw that matches well with the kimchee.

One of the things I like to do with kimchee is to make kimchi fried rice. I had this for breakfast this morning. I just sautéed some of the kimchee in a bit of sesame oil, added some pieces of cooked chicken meat and then fried some leftover white rice with the whole mix. A breakfast only an Asian (and I) could love.

Cellophane noodle salad with Thai peanut sauce

This noodle salad was perfect to take to a party this evening. Inspired by Thai cuisine, this dish used Korean mung bean cellophane noodles. These are usually used in the Korean dish called chop chae but instead I made a Thai style salad. I cooked the noodles until tender and cooled them under running cold water. The salad contained grated carrot, cucumber and green onions. The Thai peanut dressing was made from 3 tbsp natural creamy peanut butter, 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp fish sauce, 4 cloves garlic, and 1 Thai chili pepper. The sauce was pureed in the blender until good and smooth. This was tossed with the noodles and vegetables. It was quite a hit at the party!

Daikon Kimchee

Kimchee is a Korean staple and I really love the crunch of the vegetables and the sweet spice of the Korean red chili. Quite some time ago I posted a kimchee tutorial for making the classic fermented napa cabbage. There are many kinds of kimchee in Korea and daikon is another favorite vegetable for pickling in this way. I really enjoy the Korean daikon, which is more round and shorter than the typical daikon you find in most grocery stores. But you can use either for this dish. I actually used one large regular long daikon to make a batch. Two Korean bulbs would be about the same amount.

The process I used to make this is similar to the cabbage variant. I diced the radish, salted it and let it sit for about an hour. After a good rinsing the diakon was tossed with one bunch of green onions, sliced; 5 cloves of garlic, chopped, 1 inch of fresh ginger, minced; about half a cup of Korean red chili flakes, and about a tablespoon of nuöc mam fish sauce. I prefer the Three Crabs brand. You don't want to know how this is made! But it isn't kimchee without some fermented fish. Traditionally, kimchee is prepared with chopped fish or fermented shrimp. This sauce makes it much easier to add that hint of fish. I also added a pinch of sugar. Mix everything well and let it sit out for at least a day then store it in the fridge. Unlike the napa cabbage kimchee, which I like well fermented and sour, I prefer my diakon kimchee fresh and sweet.

Bibimbap - Korean Comfort Food

Bibimbap literally means 'mixed up rice' and is a traditional comfort food in Korea usually served in a warm stone bowl. I first tasted this delicacy many years ago at a Korean restaurant in Santa Clara, CA. I fell in love with the dish.

It starts, of course, with warm rice. I use Korean rice as it always cooks to the perfect sticky texture.

There are many varieties of bibimbap and when made at home it usually includes whatever vegetables that are on hand at the moment. It also includes some grilled marinated beef. Our sirloin was marinated with soy, sesame oil, vinegar and a little sugar before grilling. Most of the vegies here are quickly sautéed and some are raw. We have cucumbers (raw), zucchini, red onions, carrots, spinach and garlic, and shitake mushrooms.

The vegetables were carefully placed on top of the rice putting complimentary colors next to each other to show off the variety of foods. The beef was placed on top.

I like the traditional way of seving a fried egg on top with a runny yolk, of course.

The dish was garnished with green onion. It is also served with sesame seeds and a spicy chili sauce made from gochujang paste, soy, sesame oil, vingegar and sugar.

That's it! Mix it all up together and eat.

Bi Bim Bap (sans meat)

Bap (or bop) in Korean means rice. Bi bim means to 'mix up'. Bi bim bap means to mix up stuff with rice. Traditionally in Korea this usually includes bulgogi style beef, various vegetables including bean sprouts, spinach, carrots, mushrooms, cucumbers among others, and always with a fried egg on top. This is mixed up with a spicy sauce and flavored with sesame oil and sesame seeds. Some of the vegetables are raw and some are cooked and marinated with sesame oil, garlic and soy. It is also traditionally served in a heated stone bowl. My take on it this time is hardly traditional on may fronts. I probably have vegetables that are not used commonly, I don't have a special stone bowl to put on the fire, and after last evening's t-bones I left out the beef. The flavor, however, is still quite good.

I began preparing this dish early in the day. I steamed some mung bean sprouts just until tender. I did the same with baby spinach leaves; steamed just until they were wilted. These were marinated with a mixture of chopped garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil. I didn't measure anything, so bear with me. I just splashed some together. I also hydrated some dried shitake mushrooms by boiling in a bit of water for about an hour. These were cooled and sliced. Other vegetables included raw carrots, raw green peppers and sliced romaine lettuce. These were all assembled on top of a bed of sticky Thai brown rice. An egg fried in sesame oil was placed on top.

Before mixing this all up I added some sesame oil, sesame seeds and a spicy sauce. The sauce was made with gochujang paste (about 2 tbsp), rice vinegar (about 1/4 cup), soy sauce (about 1/4 cup), water (about 2 tbsp) and sesame oil (about 2 tbsp). Just mix everything together well and enjoy.

A Kimchee Tutorial

I don't know that there is a more versatile condiment than kimchee. This staple of the Korean diet is made from napa cabbage that is allowed to ferment with red pepper. You can eat it with rice. You can eat it in soups. You can fry it up in a savory pancake batter. Anyway you like your kimchee, its sweet, spicy, and sour flavors will add to nearly any dish. Kimchee is actually easy to make and there is no substitute for fresh homemade stuff. There are as many ways to make kimchee as there are homes in Korea. Everyone has their own family recipe so you really can't go wrong. I have a dear friend from Korea who taught me this simple way to make kimchee using fresh ingredients.

For my batch of kimchee I will be using the following:

2 large heads of napa cabbage
1 cup of salt
2 bunches of green onions
2 heads of garlic
about 2 inches of fresh ginger
about 2 cups of Korean red chili flakes
about 1/4 cup of Vietnamese nuoc mam fish sauce.

I would say the most important ingredient for getting the right flavor is the Korean red pepper. I have tried other red pepper powders but nothing else will give you that authentic taste. My kimchee uses a lot (2-3 large fistfulls). It is spicy but not really that spicy. Korean red pepper has a wonderfully sweet fruity taste that accompanies the spice. It is no where near as hot as a cayenne pepper. So don't be shy about using this much. I buy it in large bags from my local Asian grocery.

To prepare the cabbages I first cut them into quarters so I can easily wash and drain them. They are then cut into pieces. You can cut them whatever size you want. I prefer them about 2 inches or so. I layer the cabbage pieces salting the layers liberally. This is allowed to sit for a couple of hours. The cabbage will drain off some of its water and will shrink in volume by about 1/3. The cabbage should be rinsed very well with cold water to remove as much salt as possible and drained.

Chop the garlic finely and mince the ginger. The onions should be cut on a bias. I prefer them about 1/2 inch in size but you can cut them larger or smaller to your liking. Mix all the rest of the ingredients together well. I find that my hands work best for mixing all the ingredients. Kimchee recipes usually have some kind of fish flavor. Some call for the addition of raw oysters. Some for the brine from fermented shrimp. I find that the Vietnamese nuoc mam sauce does a great job of imparting that subtle but not overpowering flavor of the fish. The sauce smells awful on its own but you will not taste it in the kimchee. Trust me. The kimchee will not be right without it. You can use more or less to taste. If I have it I usually add a splash of the juice from my last batch of kimchee to make sure the good souring bacteria are present.

Pack the kimchee tightly into a large jar or any non-reactive container you have loosely covered. Leave this sit at room temperature for 2-3 days and then store in the refrigerator. Be careful that your container has enough room at the top to allow the gases to escape. My jar shown above is probably too full and likely to spill kimchee liquid out of the top as it ferments. Kimchee will slowly ferment in the fridge. You can eat it as soon as you like. The younger it is the sweeter the cabbage tastes. If you like it more sour just let it sit longer. Actually you should try tasting it at different stages to see how it changes. In Korea they eat fresh kimchee as well as fermented kimchee. I like to let some kimchee stay in my fridge for months so I have some really sour stuff to cook with.