Last night, I made a celery and cilantro pesto to go with our mozarella-on-tomato dinner. It was yum, and there is a pretty recycled honey jar full of pesto lurking in the fridge. I also made a very small batch of experimental kimchee, which is the first cabbage pickle I've attempted to make in a while. Wasn't following a recipe, more like a basic premise, which was: you take perfectly good cabbage, chop it and salt it for 2 hours, rinse out the majority of the salt, then throw the cabbage in a jar with chopped scallions, ginger, garlic, chilli flakes, fish sauce and the first residual liquid from washing rice before cooking it. After a day or so of fermenting it outside, you then store it in the fridge and wait about 4 days before consuming it. So far, the kimchee is on day 3 of the process. It smells about right -- pungent and quite rich, but I wonder if I wilted the cabbage enough during the initial salting, and if I added too much ginger.
I've seen an alternative recipe that involves a much thicker kimchee paste by boiling up glutinous rice flour with the sauce ingredients. This would also be interesting to try at some point. Since the husband and I have both been developing colds and coughs again, some chicken congee, pickles and a tin of grilled eel with black bean paste I've seen saving at the back of the pantry might be nice.
I miss Chinese-style salted cabbage as well, and need to get around to making it. I love the textural crunch and hit of salt, really. It's also a nice soup ingredient with a spot of tofu.
One of these days, I will amass more small saucers and bowls, or even a couple of bento boxes, so that I can serve up all manner of tiny pickled objects with lunch. Arranging them in a bowl is nice and all, but there's only so much room on the bowls we have. Also, a couple of noodle bowls, at least, so ramen can be properly slurped and topped.
Mmmm, tofu, carrot and seaweed pickle!
Otherwise, work has been insistent, but actually quite intellectually stimulating. I feel like I was able to get a lot done these past two weeks, and I have begun writing again. I so badly want to finish writing Finches, it's bizarre.
I've seen an alternative recipe that involves a much thicker kimchee paste by boiling up glutinous rice flour with the sauce ingredients. This would also be interesting to try at some point. Since the husband and I have both been developing colds and coughs again, some chicken congee, pickles and a tin of grilled eel with black bean paste I've seen saving at the back of the pantry might be nice.
I miss Chinese-style salted cabbage as well, and need to get around to making it. I love the textural crunch and hit of salt, really. It's also a nice soup ingredient with a spot of tofu.
One of these days, I will amass more small saucers and bowls, or even a couple of bento boxes, so that I can serve up all manner of tiny pickled objects with lunch. Arranging them in a bowl is nice and all, but there's only so much room on the bowls we have. Also, a couple of noodle bowls, at least, so ramen can be properly slurped and topped.
Mmmm, tofu, carrot and seaweed pickle!
Otherwise, work has been insistent, but actually quite intellectually stimulating. I feel like I was able to get a lot done these past two weeks, and I have begun writing again. I so badly want to finish writing Finches, it's bizarre.
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