.: evil jungle prince :.

I'm always on the lookout for the perfect cabbage kimchi recipe, and this one's the best so far. It's taken from "The Book of KImchi," published in Korea. I recommend it to anybody seeking out a kimchi recipe that produces restaurant quality kimchi.

Deconstructed, here's how kimchi breaks down:

sea salt, dried chili pepper flakes, sugar, ginger, garlic

watercress

green onion

julienned radish

napa cabbage after being soaked in a sea salt brine for at least 6 hours

1. Start by selecting a good napa cabbage that is heavy and firm. Remove the outer leaves and reserve. Cut the cabbage with knife 1/3 of the way into the base. Use hands to tear the remainder of the cabbage into two pieces. Sprinkle sea salt into the inner leaves.

2. Create a salt brine by mixing three handfuls of sea salt with water (I used filtered) in a ceramic or glass (not metal) bowl large enough hold the submerged halves. Mix the salt in thoroughly with clean hands. Submerge the two cabbage halves. Place the outer leaves on top. (If necessary, place a plate on top of them and weigh the plate so that the entire cabbage is submerged.) Allow to sit in the brine for at least 6 hours in a cool place. Overnight is convenient. (Never use a metal bowl as it'll react with the salt.)

3. Rinse the cabbage halves in cold water and drain thoroughly. Now it's time to measure out the basic seasoning ingredients. I have struggled with recipes that call for "x" number of grams of this and "x" number of oz. of that. Dispense with this nonsense. Instead use a breakdown of ingredients by percentage. Using the weight of the cabbage as a "100" value, counterpoint seasoning ingredients as such: 20% julienned daikon radish, 3% green onion, 3% watercress, 2-3% chili pepper flakes, 1.5% garlic, 0.7% ginger, 3-5% fish sauce, 2-3% salt. This is the standard breakdown for a basic cabbage kimchi. (In other words, if you have a 100 lb cabbage (haha) you would use 20 lbs of green onions in your seasoning. Make sense? Note that not all the salt is used in the seasoning -- most is used in the brine. In the case of a one-cabbage kimchi, you would only used about 1 tsp sea salt in your seasoning. The reason is the fish sauce is already very salty.)

4. Combine 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, chili pepper flakes (see above), 1 tsp pine nuts, fresh ginger (see above), fresh garlic (see above), anchovy sauce (see above -- this is my preference for fish sauce but you can use others), watercress (see above), green onions (see above), julienned daikon radish (see above). Clean hands thoroughout and mix with your fingers.

5. Now you will need to cut out the hard base of the cabbage halves with a knife. This is done because it will go bad if not cut out. Now pack the reasoning between each leaf of the cabbage halves. With done, wrap one outer leave around the exposed interior portion tightly. Place into a sealed, ceramic cannister. Repeat. With the removed, exterior leaves, use these to cover the cabbage halves. Sprinkle a little sea salt over them and add just a bit of fish sauce as well.

6. And now for kimchi's "big secret." Have you ever noticed that kimchis made at home never, ever taste as yummy and savory as restaurant or store-bought kimchi? The secret is pre-refrigeration fermentation. Before the seasoned cabbages are placed into a refrigerator, they are allowed to ferment for 40 hours before being refrigerated. This "activates" the fermentation which is what makes kimchi special. Place in a cool spot for 40 hours and then place into the refrigerator. You can enjoy your kimchi in just a matter of days, depending how "fresh" or "sour" you like it.

Additional Tips

Most people don't have a Korean store immediately available in their neighborhood, so if you're interested in making kimchi, I suggest Kgrocer.com. I've received nothing but superior service from them and they have everything you'll need, minus fresh ingredients.

If you're shopping for kimchi ingredients in a real store but you don't know what to look for, print out the following products:

I don't recommend using Thai fish sauce as its very sweet and the taste of the final kimchi will never be "right." But there are lots of Korean options to anchovy sauce, including croaker and baby shrimps.

chili flakes

I really don't like Wang brand, so try to find a Korean brand instead. The color of the chili flakes should be a bright red. Also, don't be confused by the packaging. Look for packages of flakes regardless of what the packaging indicates. Chili powder is available in Korean markets but this is used in stews generally.

Another tip for great kimchi is the use of an air-tight ceramic cannister. These can be purchased at a Korean market but I have yet to see any available online. The plastic top creates an air-tight seal, perfect for the fermentation process and also good for keeping smells at bay.

Good and luck and happy kimchi-making!

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)

It's citrus season here in California. All of sudden, all the lemons and grapefruits have all turned ripe and we're now faced with the same yearly question: what to do with hundreds upon hundres of ripe lemons?! A small solution to a larger problem is today's lunch, kabak mücveri (Turkish zucchini fritters) with garlic yogurt sauce (which is made with lemon juice).

1. Start by grating two zucchinis -- place them into a colander and sprinkle them with salt. Allow to drain for 15 mins. Squeeze out excess water.

2. Mix the zucchini in a large bowl with a couple of scallions (finely chopped), 2 tsp dill (fresh ideally but dry is ok), 2 tsp chopped Italian parsley, 1 tsp paprika, 2 egg whites, and about 1/2 cup of feta cheese. Add a little salt and pepper and mix. Then add 1 cup of flour and mix. (I used my fingers as using a fork was too awkward.)

3. Take a large tablespoon of the mixture and dust it with flour. Create a small pancake not larger than your palm and place aside. Repeat until you've used all the zucchini mix.

4. Heat olive oil on low and place three fritters on the skillet at a time. Immediately shake the pan back and forth so that the fritters don't stick. Fry for about 5 mins each, shaking periodically so that they don't stick. Place on paper towels to drain.

5. While the fritters fry, you can prepare the garlic yogurt sauce. Mix Greek yogurt with lemon juice, 1-2 cloves garlic, and salt to taste. The the sauce should be a little tart but not overly so.

The mixture of herbs in the fritters combined with the yogurt garlic sauce is like a delicious cacophony, chaotic but wholesome and exciting. I've made this dish before, but I find this recipe superior for its use of feta and paprika in the fritters. Awesome!

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 02:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Recently I've been rather addicted to feta cheese; not crappy American supermarket fake-feta made with cow's milk, but the real stuff from abroad made with 100% sheep's milk. So very tangy and delicious, especially when prepared with a little olive oil and dried herbs. YUM.

This dish is beyaz peynir ezmesi, or spicy Turkish feta puree. Personally I wouldn't say it's spicy at all, but it gets its name from a liberal use of hot pepper powder. Served with some fresh tomatoes, olives, and pita bread, this was such a great snack. The use of dried mint is what really makes the dish vibrant and special.

1. Soak a block of feta in warm water for 30 mins, changing water often. The purpose of this is to remove excess saltiness from the cheese. Otherwise, the spread's salt content will overpower the flavors.

2. Next, crumble the block of feta and puree with 4 cloves garlic, 2 tsp paprika, 2 tsp red pepper powder, 3 tsp olive oil. Process until smooth.

3. Refrigerate the cheese spread for 1/2 hour. Serve drizzled with olive oil, 2 tsp dried mint. This goes wonderfully with crispy pita, fresh tomatoes, and olives.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

"Frito-Lay announced Monday that it would, against its better judgment, roll out a new line of healthy fruit-and-vegetable-based chips next February..." [MORE]

Personally I'm most looking forward to Rutabaga Yum chips... doesn't that sound awesome?

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 05:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night's dinner was Turkish grilled peppers with garlic yogurt sauce, or kazarmis biber. I had been wanting to prepare this dish for ages but I've been hesistant to try it without the proper type of peppers, carliston peppers. But when I spotted some nice Anaheim peppers at the grocery store, I thought I'd give it a go.

Now there is food which makes you go "mmm" and then there is food which causes... foodgasm. This dish caused the latter. These sweet peppers were grilled slowly with nothing more than a dab of oil. They were then lovingly dolluped with a bit of thick Greek style yogurt mixed with garlic, salt, and lemon juice. The taste of these flavors mingling, as if at some sexy social event, was heaven; slightly charred peppers and cool, tangy yogurt are a match made by some divine force.

1. To prepare, lightly oil a grill pan and slow grill the peppers until they deflate.

2. In the meantime, prepare a yogurt sauce by mixing Greek yogurt, salt, and lemon juice to taste.

Tip: allow the peppers to cool before adding the yogurt sauce, or the sauce will become runny. Use any large, sweet pepper. I felt the Anaheims were just perfect for this. By the way, if anybody has any carliston (Turkish) pepper seeds, please get in contact! I would like to try growing these as they're impossible to find here in California.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 06:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For whatever reason -- genetics I suppose -- anxiety runs in my family and we have all dealt with various forms of it throughout our lives. For a number of years I dealt with this by taking a drug called Serzone, until one day a friend of mine let me know that Europe was pulling this product from the market because of deaths due to liver toxicity. Needless to say, I weaned myself off it as quickly as was possible. I was fortunate to be able to do this because at that same time, I was transitioning into a new career which was, and remains, about 200% less stressful than the last one. I'm happy to say I've been off of prescription antidepressants ever since.

This doesn't mean however than I'm anxiety free. Nobody is, and living without anxiety is a complicated task. One needs a sound mind, a life that is fulfilling, an exercise routine, and a healthy diet among many other factors which may contribute to the goal of anxiety reduction. I try as best I can to juggle such goals in a way that is most beneficial to me, but everybody must find their own path. And it's always an ongoing learning experience.

Recently I've begun consuming kava kava (Piper methysticum) an am enjoying it immensely. Kava has a peppery taste and has long been a part of religious, political, and cultural life throughout the Pacific. Kava has a calming effect which I'll describe in the following paragraph, similar to an antidepressant but without the strange side effects. I'm still experimenting with different preparations, but my favorite so far has been "kava chai," or Indian chai prepared with kava in place of black tea. (See EVP's chai entry for a chai recipe.) I'll mince no words: kava is nasty! But preparing it heavily spiced and sweetened with honey renders it quite tasty. By itself, it is peppery and nothing you'd want to recreationally consume.

The effects of kava are singular. With the first sip, one's tongue immediately feels numb. The mind and the body then feel progressively relaxed but without feeling sleepy. A sense of well-being follows. These effects last for an hour or so and they altogether mild. One's troubles seem to become a secondary type of reality -- removed from a satisifying, lackadaisical existence. Worries may continue to exist but they become peripheral as opposed to oppositional.

I have noticed over time that many of my worries are a regular cycle. That is, they really have less to do with the things I'm worried about than they do with my mind attaching itself to the next stressful topic. In such circumstances, I allow these worries to pass over me while I enjoy a cup of kava. They aren't worth the trouble.

Today's cup was enjoyed with some yummy, dairy free ginger bread. Good combo!

By the way, if you're interested in experimenting with kava yourself, be sure that you never use kava products which utilize stem peelings and leaves because these products can lead to liver toxicity as well. Traditional use of kava only uses the root and this has been proven safe by hundreds of years of practical use and consumption. I use Kava King which only uses root in its product.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)