Are we less creative with all the options we have available to us?
Horseradish Kimchi
I watched a webinar with Peter Barrett called Maximum Flavour, Minimum effort @koji.con, he delivered an amazing message that really impacted me. You don’t need much to make some flavours and to create interesting delicious foods with very little.
He talked about how much more creative we are when we have less choice than limitless choice. We could put that to food. Are we less creative with all the options we have available to us? Do we default to the usual?
When things are tight, the times when we are using what we have in our cupboards can be the most inventive. I am trying to use more of what I have available to me and not run 20 mins drive to the nearest decent shop, but use what we can, what we can grow and what we can forage.
This kimchi is a bit like that. I had left over outer cabbage from the workshop on Sunday, we have a huge abundance of horseradish up the road and then what I have available in the house.
I picked as young a leaves as I could for the horseradish and pulled the stalks up by the root. I didn’t dig up any root. The leaves will be pungent enough. And if you read Korean and Japanese history pungent strong vegetables like mustards, radishes were traditionally used in ferments. “Eating Wild Japan” by Winifred Bird is a wonderful book to read if this intrigues you.
I salted both washed and chopped into strips cabbage and horseradish leaves and stalks. Then I rinse the salt off, until you can taste the greens and they don’t taste overwhelmingly salty, drained them off and then I chopped two onions in thin slices and dropped them in.
The paste was made with apples that needed eating, cored. To add a little sweetness to the paste. I had an orange and zested that, added a large tbsp 3 year old red soy miso I made, 1 tbsp grated ginger and 8 small cloves of garlic and 2 tbsp of Korean chilli flakes. These flakes seem hotter than usual so I am using less of them (I admit I always keep these chilli flakes in the fridge) I added 2 tbsp of crystallised ginger for sweetness, no idea where I put the sugar!
I mixed the paste with the leaves and massaged. I think this is going to be quite strong flavoured and more of a winter kimchi.
I will leave this for a few days and then let’s see how the flavours develop, Let’s see!
