February, 2023 ~ Let's get cooking!

bethk wrote:Hey, Norm.....help me out!

I was watching Sara Moulton on PBS.  She was featuring ginger in her meals and made what she was calling a Korean Burger with Quick Kim Chi.

The burger wasn't anything that I would think of as a 'Korean Burger'.....she ground her own beef chuck in a food processor, added green onions, microplaned ginger, soy, brown sugar & sesame oil.  OK, so she had some of the same ingredients used in your kalbi or bulgogi but I just thought it was kind of a loose interpretation of a 'Korean Burger'......oh and she topped it with her 'Quick Kim Chi'

I think that's where I was really confused.  She cut up a Napa Cabbage into like 2" cubes and added 1/3 c. salt to be weighted down and sit for 30 minutes before she rinsed & dried.  Meanwhile she made what I would consider a salad dressing with rice vinegar, sugar, ginger, paprika & cayenne....gosh, I don't remember what all.  But my confusion is that I thought Kim Chi was fermented.  She was making a pickled salad.  Fermentation doesn't have any vinegar in it, does it?  

The few times I've tried kimchi I thought it was more like a thick sauerkraut with some pretty spicy red pepper flakes.

Does the kimchi YOU buy have vinegar in it?  Or was she simply making a pickled cabbage salad?

My inquiring mind wants to know!  LOL

NormM wrote:
There is a quick kimchi but it does not have any vinegar in it.  I like it so asked a friend if she could teach me how to make it.  She came over and started to assemble the ingredients, then pulled seasonings inaa mixture wrapped up in saran wrap and wouldn't say what they all were.  Most of the "Korean" foods made by non-native Koreans does not measure up to the real thing. I recently tried a recipe from a Korean chef who never lived in Korea and was just recently getting into Korean food. Charlie and I could tell right away that he was missing the mark somehow.  i once had a main dish in an nice restaurant that said it was Korean.  It had pineapple in it.

bethk wrote:

NormM wrote:
There is a quick kimchi but it does not have any vinegar in it.  I like it so asked a friend if she could teach me how to make it.  She came over and started to assemble the ingredients, then pulled seasonings inaa mixture wrapped up in saran wrap and wouldn't say what they all were.  Most of the "Korean" foods made by non-native Koreans does not measure up to the real thing. I recently tried a recipe from a Korean chef who never lived in Korea and was just recently getting into Korean food. Charlie and I could tell right away that he was missing the mark somehow.  i once had a main dish in an nice restaurant that said it was Korean.  It had pineapple in it.

Why do some people do that? You ask to be taught how to make something and they think keeping ingredients 'secret' or (worse yet) omitting something altogether is acceptable behavior ~ I've always thought it was such an honor to teach someone how to make a recipe of mine they enjoyed.  

After going to the (reportedly excellent & recommended) Korean BBQ in Atlanta, I do think the majority of Korean foods are too spicy for me.  Heck, I grew up in Ohio.  The spiciest thing we had was fresh horseradish ~ and that was used VERY sparingly!

I did try to get a small package of Korean pepper flakes when I was at the Oriental Market in Orlando ~ but the only size they had available was like a 2 Quart size bag.  All I wanted to do was get like 1 - cup to have and try (in very small amounts) to get a taste of.  The kimchi I bought from there in the refrigerated section (sold in 16 oz. deli containers) was too spicy for my palate....but I did try it with a couple things.  If mixed with enough PLAIN WHITE RICE one can eat the spicy things.

I'm such a wimp!



LOL

Cookin Lore wrote:I was on a diet (very successful) a few years ago.  I measured/weighed everything.  The one very interesting part was that I had to have a protein at every meal, NEVER two proteins at the same meal.  So, bacon/eggs/cheese in an omelet was a definite no no.  I still have all the info and keep telling myself that I will get back on it.  THe weight just about melted off me.  SIGH.