Cooking Praxis III:
Asian cuisine
This was the most challenging culinary endeavor of the semester. Beyond stir-frys and curries, our experience with preparing Asian cuisine is very limited - but we have certainly tried a wide variety of dishes! When visiting Montreal, Hartford, or Burlington, we often seek out small, modest Asian restaurants in hopes of trying something authentic and delicious. During one of these outings, we discovered the Korean 'hot-pot:' a unique dish of rice or noodles, vegetables and sometimes meat served in a hot stone bowl. Even though we lacked the appropriate dishware, we wanted to try our hands at recreating one of our all-time favorite meals.
At Korean restaurants (at least, all of the ones we've visited), most meals are served with several small dishes of various condiments and things like pickled carrot, marinated seaweed, beansprouts, and kimchi.
Kimchi is an essential part of the Korean eating experience - and it's so delicious that we usually eat it in restaurants before even touching our meals!
Kimchi is an essential part of the Korean eating experience - and it's so delicious that we usually eat it in restaurants before even touching our meals!
We found an incredibly quick and easy kimchi recipe on the internet. Kimchi is traditionally packed in jars and fermented underground for serveral months - obviously, this method was not an option for us. Instead, we cut a medium head of napa cabbage into 1" pieces and tossed it with lots of salt. After letting it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, the salt had drawn out much of the moisture from the cabbage. We then rinsed off the salt, squeezed out the excess water, then dressed the cabbage with fish sauce, soy sauce and rice vinegar. We then added grated ginger, minced fresh garlic, scallions and a healthy scoop of chili-garlic paste before refrigerating the mixture in a tightly-sealed container.
The next day, we gathered the rest of our ingredients and prepared the hot pot itself. Usually we order our hot pots with some kind of meat - typically shaved, grilled beef for JP (also known as bulgogi - another Korean dish worth trying!) and marinated eel for Mollie - but in this case we played the broke college student card and opted to finish our bowls with pan fried eggs. A raw egg is often cracked into Korean hot pots at the last moment; when the dish is stirred, the egg is partially cooked by heat from the stoneware bowl. This might frighten some eaters, but it's actually one of our favorite components of hot pots.
Next, we prepared the broth for our hot pots. This was a simple process of simmering fresh sliced shiitake mushrooms and slices ginger in chicken broth (any kind of broth will do) for about 30 minutes. During that time, we prepped our raw ingredients: more napa cabbage, thinly sliced radishes, grated carrot, sliced shiitake, bean sprouts, and dried seaweed. All the knifework took about 20 minutes - enough time for JP to whip up a batch of white rice.
While we waited for the broth to finish, we pulled our quick-kimchi out of the fridge to check on its progress. The cabbage was tender, fragrant, and definitely edible. Kimchi truly never fails to whet our appetites!
At this point in our journey, it is important to emphasize that we did not prepare our hot pots in the traditional manner. Instead of using the heat from the stone bowls to bring our ingredients together, we figured it would work to pour the boiling-hot broth over our rice and raw ingredients. Thankfully, we were right in the end - but nothing is quite like the real hot pot experience!
At this point in our journey, it is important to emphasize that we did not prepare our hot pots in the traditional manner. Instead of using the heat from the stone bowls to bring our ingredients together, we figured it would work to pour the boiling-hot broth over our rice and raw ingredients. Thankfully, we were right in the end - but nothing is quite like the real hot pot experience!
While Mollie prepared two bowls of rice and a bit of each vegetable, JP fried up two perfect sunny-side-up eggs. We then strained the ginger and shiitake from the broth and poured about a cup of the golden, fragrant liquid over the raw ingredients and topped the whole thing with a beautiful egg...
Served with a side of our homemade kimchi, the final result was gorgeous! Both of us garnished our dishes with scallions and (inevitably) lots of sriracha. Each of the raw ingredients was cooked to perfection by the hot broth - the veggies were still crisp and flavorful, not soft or soggy. The eggs brought a creamy richness to the dish and added a much-needed protein kick. The kimchi was a little salty for our taste; next time we might use a little less soy or fish sauce than the recipe suggested. Still, it was spicy, garlicky, and acidic - definitely a good shortcut when you don't have time to bury jars of cabbage for a few months!
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Ingredients for Quick Kimchi:
1 medium head napa cbbage
3 tbsp salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
scallions, chopped
ginger, grated
2 tbsp soy sauce
2tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp chili paste
Broth:
4 cups chicken broth
ginger, sliced
1oz (approximately) fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
Hot Pot:
white rice, cooked
napa cabbage, sliced
bean sprouts
dried seaweed
carrot, grated
radish, sliced
fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
egg, prepared to taste
4 cups chicken broth
ginger, sliced
1oz (approximately) fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
Hot Pot:
white rice, cooked
napa cabbage, sliced
bean sprouts
dried seaweed
carrot, grated
radish, sliced
fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
egg, prepared to taste