I am finally working on another one of my cooking goals for 2010. I have already made cheese and butter which were on my to-do list, and now I am making the pickled Korean cabbage called kimchi.
So far I have tried a recipe for quick kimchi that was in the late-great Gourmet magazine and featured in March of 2009. I am not trying to take the easy way out with something quick; it just worked out better with my schedule to start off with this recipe.
The kimchi I made was relatively quick at 3.5 hours preparation time, while other recipes call for days of pickling. With that said, I still don’t consider that I have made kimchi until I have tried at least one more recipe to compare it to, but it was a good start and I was very satisfied with the result.
Now for full disclosure: I really love kimchi but I absolutely hate the smell of Asian fish sauce, and I had my concerns about this dish from the second I opened that bottle. The result, however, was extremely good. Once mixed, the aroma of fish sauce blended, faded, and infused the Napa cabbage in a wonderful way — kind of like using anchovies.
After that, I also made kimchi quesadillas which was also a recipe featured in Gourmet last year, and now I am thinking of using it in some fish tacos. It is really amazing how useful it is to have kimchi around to add crunch and spice to dishes.
Anyhow, next week I intend to make my second round of kimchi, and it will be interesting to see how it compares. Regardless, I expect that I will be making more more of this spicy dish in the future. It takes a little bit of time to let the flavors come together, but it is still a really easy dish to make.
