Day Seven - South Korea

Annyeong (as an Arrested Development fan I was really excited about saying "hello" for this one)! Welcome to South Korea, which if 30 Rock is to be believed has way better cuisine than it's northern neighbor (Avery Jessup had to eat cigarette because it was the only thing with protein).

Today's tour stop actually started about a week ago.  One of the staples of South Korean cuisine is kimchi.  My dad said that he heard on NPR once that when interviewing a man from South Korea, the man had said that when he travels, it's not his wife that he misses, but his kimchi.  Pretty serious stuff (Elizabeth, if you are reading this, I promise to miss you more than pickled spicy cabbage when I travel for work).


Kimchi

1 head cabbage
1/4 cup kosher salt
Water
1 tablespoon grated garlic (about 6 cloves)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons gochugaru (I used sriracha sauce here because it was less expensive and on hand)
1 teaspoon sugar
8 ounces daikon, peeled and cut into matchsticks

For the kimchi, I first sliced up the cabbage into chunks about an inch wide.

Next, I poured the salt over the cut cabbage and worked it into the pieces until they softened a bit. Then, I submerged the cabbage in water.  I put a plastic plate on top of the cabbage and put a can of veggies on top to make sure the cabbage remained underwater.  I let the cabbage soak for 2 hours.

Once it soaked, I took the cabbage out and rinsed it in a colander several times and then let it set for 20 minutes. While this was going on, I went about making the sauce that would cover the cabbage.  I combined the sugar, ginger, garlic and 3 tablespoons of water and mixed until it formed a smooth paste.  I then added the sriracha sauce and mixed again.

I then chopped the daikon radish into tiny matchsticks.  If you don't know what one looks like, here you go:

A daikon, not a matchstick

I pressed any remaining water out of the cabbage and then put it in a large bowl with the daikon. I then put on latex gloves, because the sauce smelled both garlicky and very spicy and I figured getting that on my hands would be a bad idea.  I tossed the veggies in this sauce until it was all fully coated.

Next, I put the mixture (now kimchi) into two separate mason jars.

I sealed up the jars very tightly, and then put them in a cabinet in my pantry.  I put a plate underneath them just in case they bubbled and liquid got out, and then let it ferment.  This was back on Saturday (Greece day if you are keeping track).

Every day since then, I've checked on the jars and made sure that the veggies were kept below in the brine (if they weren't I pushed them down with a clean spoon). On Tuesday, I opened them up to do this again, and from three rooms away, Elizabeth shouted instantly "WHAT IS THAT SMELL?! GROSS!"

Sooooo dinner tonight should be interesting...

Turkey Tak Toritang

2 pounds turkey

2 large potatoes, cut into chunks

2 carrots, cut into inch wide pieces

1 large onions, cut into 8 pieces

1 cup chopped mushrooms

1 bunch Swiss chard, chopped

1 bunch daikon greens, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons white sugar

3 tablespoons spicy garlic sauce (the same company that makes sriracha sauce)

2 tablespoons Korean teriyaki sauce

This is another recipe where I substituted chicken for my pre-cooked turkey.  To make sure it was juicy, I let the turkey soak in chicken broth for a few minutes before cooking.

In a pot, I mixed the turkey, potatoes, onion, carrots, mushrooms, sugar, and garlic over medium heat. I then poured in the water, soy sauce, sugar, spicy garlic sauce, and teriyaki sauce. 

I brought all of this to a boil and then simmered for about 35 minutes.

While this was going on, I boiled some wild rice, and sauteed the chard and the daikon greens to serve along with the tak toritang.

And here was the result:

Now, for the first bite of kimchi...

It came out tasting like...kimchi! Not the best I'd had in the world, but certainly a valiant attempt. The flavors of the tak toritang were fantastic, and it was soon discovered that by taking a bit of the tak toritang, the kimchi, and the greens, you got a perfect bite.  Elizabeth, weary as she was about the smells coming from the jars earlier in the week, ended up enjoying the kimchi just fine (as long as it was masked by the other items).

Tonight was the first night where I cooked for someone other than Elizabeth.  Our friends, Catie and Rex Morgan, joined us on our trip to South Korea, and they ended up enjoying it! Or, at the very least, they were very sneaky at putting the food into their napkins when I wasn't looking.  If there's anyone that would like to join us for a future evening excursion, feel free to stop by!

I want to explore South Korea more because I feel like there were a lot of dishes I left off the table. For now, I've got a good start and a great recipe under my belt. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all that kimchi...