The kimchi that I had made was coming up on three weeks old. Much to my surprise, it still smelled as fresh as when it first went into the fridge, even though it had acquired a slight fizz from CO₂ buildup. I wanted to use it in one more dish before disposing of it, and I wanted that dish to be as quick and simple as the bo ssäm had been slow and complicated. Once again, Momofuku came to the rescue with this simple recipe for Fuji Apple Salad (with kimchi, smoked jowl, and maple labne).

I assembled the ingredients, making adjustments to feed only three instead of four: three Fuji apples (scaled down from four), a half cup of pureed napa cabbage kimchi, a half cup of labne (thick middle eastern yogurt), a quarter cup of maple syrup (Vermont dark grade B), a cup of loosely packed arugula, and three quarters of a pound of thick-cut bacon (scaled down from a full pound). The recipe calls for sliced smoked country jowl, but allows bacon to be substituted.

I put the sheet pan with the bacon into a 35o°F oven and let it cook until just crisped, about twenty five minutes. While it cooked, I whisked the labne and maple syrup together until the mixture was smooth.

I peeled the apples, cut them into slices about a quarter of an inch thick, then tossed them in a bowl with the kimchi puree.

By this time the bacon was ready, so I drained it on paper towels.

I tossed the arugula in about two tablespoons of olive oil and some salt and pepper. To assemble the dish, I smeared about two tablespoons of the sweetened labne on a plate and topped it with a stack of the kimchi apples. I cut the bacon slices into thirds and leaned the pieces agains the pile of apples. I placed a small handful of the arugula over the bacon, then dressed the plate with a few grinds of black pepper.

For a dish with so few components, there was a lot going on. The kimchi apples were sweet and spicy and crunchy all at once, the peppery arugula added a bitter note, and the maple labne kept the kimchi heat from becoming overwhelming, as well as providing a classic complement to the bacon (bacon & maple: a classic combination). She Who Must Be Obeyed demanded that I keep the extra labne to use as a topping for sliced apples as a snack.

I want to make this again, but I’ll have to start with a new batch of kimchi and a few more recipes in which to use it. I’m still acquiring a taste for fermented cabbage, so it may be a while before we see this dish again.

Sources:

Fuji apples, labne, arugula: Whole Foods
Bacon: Savenor’s Market
Maple syrup: Merton’s Maple Syrup
Kimchi puree: Belm Utility Research Kitchen

I have managed to overcome many culinary aversions, from pickles to tripe to testicles (a story for another post), but kimchi was something that I refused to eat. I was first exposed to the stuff seventeen years ago, and it was not a pleasant experience.

I was working at what would be my last biotech job (also a story for another post), a drug discovery startup that had organic chemists synthesizing drug variations on one side of the building, biochemists (like me) testing the new versions in different in vivo systems (cell culture, mice, rats), and the mouse facility in the middle. We were all used to mice dying on us over weekends while we were away – it happens, mice don’t live very long. Consequently, the biochemists all became inured to the smell of dead mouse, which we occasionally smelled when the lab doors were opened into the main hallway.

One day the smell was particularly overpowering, as if deceased mice had been neglected for more than a week. I asked “What the hell died in here, and why hasn’t it been dealt with?” I was informed that no mice had died.

“Then what is that horrible rotting smell?”

“It lunch time. Hyo’s eating kimchi in his office.”

Hyo was one of the chemists; I learned that he ate kimchi with his lunch at least once a week. I have never been able to dissociate that smell from the food, but had managed to avoid the stuff all this time. Last week, in order to make a much more elaborate recipe from Momofuku, I was forced to face my fear. And if I had to use it, I would go all out and make my own rather than buying a jar from among the myriad varieties ranked along an entire wall of my local Asian market.

The recipe is simple. I started with a medium head of Napa cabbage, two tablespoons of kosher salt, and two tablespoons of sugar.

I cut the cabbage in half lengthwise, then cut the halves crosswise into one-inch pieces.

I tossed the cabbage with the salt and sugar, then let it sit overnight in the fridge. The next day I drained the excess liquid from the cabbage and returned it to its bowl.

Kimchi is a fermented pickle, so the next step is to make a brine. I assembled a half cup of sugar, twenty minced garlic cloves, twenty minced slices of peeled fresh ginger, a half cup of kochukaru (Korean chile powder), a quarter cup of fish sauce, a quarter cup of light soy sauce, two teaspoons of salted shrimp (found in jars in Asian markets), a half cup of scallions cut into one-inch pieces, and a half cup of julienned carrots.

I mixed everything together, forming a thick sludge which I diluted with a third of a cup of water.

I added the brine to the cabbage, along with the scallions and carrots, and tossed to coat.

Before covering the container and placing it in the fridge, I gave it a taste. Fresh kimchi tastes like very spicy newly-pickled vegetables, not at all what I had expected. Of course, the fermentation would begin in a few days, reaching its peak in about two weeks when the bacteria started generating CO₂. Until then I had something I could work with in six days. Until then, like Cthulhu, the kimchi waited, fermenting.

Sources:

Napa cabbage, kochukaru, fish sauce, soy sauce, salted shrimp, ginger: Relaible Market

Not everything I do or read about merits a full post, so here are a few items that were in my “worth a mention” pile:

I have a theory about the McRib sandwich, which has recently been re-introduced for a limited time. It’s not good enough to be a permanent menu item, so they bring it back every now and then and wait for nostalgia to be overtaken by “hey this kinda sucks.” At that point the sandwich disappears, Brigadoon-like, to reappear after everyone has forgotten about it.

Ryan Adams, of the awesome Nose to Tail at Home blog, had a better idea: rather than eat faux pork (or whatever the McRib’s “meat” may be), why not try the real thing? He reverse engineered a McRib (photo above) and published the recipe. I might just give it a try soon, if only to stop He Who Will Not Be Ignored’s pleas for the McDonald’s version.

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Harvard University has finally caught up and posted most of the videos from the Science and Coking Public Lectures on their YouTube page. I have added the full lecture videos to my posts about the lectures by Grant Achatz and Jose Adrés, but you can watch the rest of the series, including the introductory lecture featuring Ferran Adrià and Harold McGee.

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I mentioned it last year, but it’s worth repeating: Mark Bittman has an exhaustive list of things to prepare before the turkey goes in the oven, worth checking out if you’re hosting a big dinner next week.

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Having failed at various cooking projects, there are some foods whose preparation I am happy to leave to the pros: baguettes, croissants, ramen noodles, and pumpkin pie, among others. If you haven’t read it before, I urge you to read my pumpkin pie post, if for no other reason than as an object lesson in good intentions gone bad. As for me, I placed my pie order at Petsi’s weeks ago.