We Made Our Own Kimchee!

Tuesday night in Brooklyn, a kimchi-palooza was underway. It all began quite simply: garlic, ginger, scallions, daikon radish, and some heads of Napa cabbage that had been salted and left to sit for six hours or so.

But then brined shrimp and chili flakes joined the party, and that's when the fun really began.

This all took place at a cooking class at Brooklyn Kitchen - a kitchen goods store in Williamsburg. The class was taught by Sunny Bang, a Korean-American chef who has cooked under the likes of Tom Colicchio and Kerry Heffernan.

Sunny started out by explaining the history and health benefits of kimchi. He explained that there are many different types of kimchi and that in Korea, each family would have its own variety. This has a lot to do with what Koreans call "seon maht" or "hand taste" - a concept that holds that each person's hands impart a specific flavor to the kimchi they make.

Hands play a big part in the kimchi-making process. Once the garlic, ginger and brined shrimp are blended into a paste and the daikon is julienned they are mixed together by hand with the chili flakes and chopped scallions. This forms the "base" for the kimchee. The hard work comes in squeezing the water out of the cabbage - by hand, of course. The base is then spread on to each layer of the cabbage and after allowing a few days for lactic acid fermentation, the kimchi is ready to put up or be eaten fresh!

Our fridge is now a mini-shrine to pickled and fermented cucumber and cabbage. Yum...

Related post: Why Mr. Kimchi is so popular

Cider, Smoked Eel and Sublime Cheddar in Somerset

Hard as it is to believe, sitting here in this muggy apartment in midtown Manhattan, just seven days ago we were in the gorgeous English countryside. As a child, I devoured British children's literature -- Enid Blyton, especially. Walking through the narrow village lanes and across farmer's fields in Somerset I felt like I was right in the middle of one of her stories.

Somerset is one of Britain's main farming regions and in the short time we were there, we ate incredibly well: broad beans fresh from the garden, local beets, smoked eels from a local smokery. It's hard to put one item above the rest, but if I had to choose one it would be a wedge of Montgomery's Cheddar (I'm so predictable, aren't I?)

The Montgomery family has been making cheese in South Somerset for three generations on land that has been farmed for hundreds of years. Their cheddar is a farmstead cheese, meaning it is made from milk from their own herd of cows. They make cheese seven days a week, producing only about a dozen wheels a day.

"We're one of the few cheesemakers who still uses calf rennet, the traditional source of the enzyme, to start the curd," Jamie Montgomery says, "and possibly the only farmhouse Cheddar still using an old, slow peg mill to produce the peculiar fissuring and brittleness of the cheese."

Those thin fissures encourage blue veining after the cheese has been cut, adding to the cheese's flavour. The cheese is aged for a least a year and is at its best when not overly sharp or acidic. Find it at Artisanal or Murray's or ask for it at your local cheese shop.

Strange Eats in London's Chinatown

Here in London, Chinatown is a small, and fairly, new area in Soho that seems to exist exclusively for tourists. However, the New Loon Moon supermarket was pretty packed with Asian people shopping for fresh durian, vegetables, packaged goods and other regional delicacies. Such as:

Helping Kids Avoid Rainy-Day Blues

On rainy summer days, kids can go a little stir crazy.

Even though most modern kids have enough games and toys to keep them busy until it’s time for college, sometimes a pet project is just the thing. Baking is an excellent way to introduce kids to the joys of the kitchen -- keeping little hands busy and keeping cabin fever at bay. You can watch through the oven door together as small balls of dough grow into muffins and cookies, and at the end of it, you’ll have something tasty to share and enjoy.

But if the kids are already loaded up on sweets, try this: get them in the kitchen to make their own modeling clay. For more ideas, check out CreatiVegan.

Greening the Environment, One Burp at a Time

An article in the Times today profiles efforts to determine whether changing the diet of herds of cows can help them belch less methane, a gas that has been linked to climate change. Farmers in Vermont are experimenting with giving their cattle feed that includes more plants like alfalfa and flaxseed, which are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and more suited to a cow's digestion.

Most dairy cattle are currently fed corn and soy feed, grains that are inexpensive and plentiful but that have a different type of fatty acid structure that causes burping and flatulence in cows.

The article says that Guy Choiniere, "a third-generation dairy herder who went organic in 2003, said he had sensed that the outcome would be good even before he got the results.

"They are healthier," he said of his cows. "Their coats are shinier, and the breath is sweet."

Sweetening cow breath is a matter of some urgency, climate scientists say. Cows have digestive bacteria in their stomachs that cause them to belch methane, the second-most-significant heat-trapping emission associated with global warming after carbon dioxide. Although it is far less common in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, it has 20 times the heat-trapping ability.

Frank Mitloehner, a University of California, Davis, professor who places cows in air-tight tent enclosures and measures what he calls their “eruptions,” says the average cow expels — through burps mostly, but some flatulence — 200 to 400 pounds of methane a year.

More broadly, with worldwide production of milk and beef expected to double in the next 30 years, the United Nations has called livestock one of the most serious near-term threats to the global climate. In a 2006 report that looked at the environmental impact of cows worldwide, including forest-clearing activity to create pasture land, it estimated that cows might be more dangerous to Earth’s atmosphere than trucks and cars combined.

In the United States, where average milk production per cow has more than quadrupled since the 1950s, fewer cows are needed per gallon of milk, so the total emissions of heat-trapping gas for the American dairy industry are relatively low per gallon compared with those in less industrialized countries.

Looking At: Teapots

I'm heading to London in a few weeks for a much-needed vacation. When I think of the U.K., I think of tea and to me, a nice cuppa tastes better from a great looking pot.

This quirky number shaped like a camel may not be the most practical but it is a definite conversation starter, and a steal at just $13.99 -- it would make a great gift too.


This one from the modern art museum in San Francisco is a splurge, but how cool is it? Designed by Joey Roth and known as the "Sorapot," it brews just enough for two cups of tea.





From etsy.com comes this handmade cat teapot thrown on a potter's wheel and made with high fire stoneware clay...





... or this lovely speckled stoneware pot with a looping handle, also from etsy.






I like the shape of this pot from Ikea, but past experience has proven that they're not the most durable bits of equipment.