Pre-Cut Kimchi 막김치

Considering the cost of kimchi at Paldo, I've started investing the time to make our own kimchi. I made a couple of gallons of cubed radish kimchi a couple of weeks ago and Monday I made just as much cabbage kimchi.

I hadn't made kimchi in about a year so I was a little worried but the recipes I started with were apparently good. The students have eaten about 20% of the cabbage kimchi in two days with a lot of discussion between them about how good it is. At this rate there may not be any left for kimchi jjigae.

My parents picked up 6 heads of cabbage and 2 radishes (about $12) on their way over from Prosser and I already had everything else so it worked out well. I put in the usual cabbage, radish, green onion, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, red pepper and sugar. The only thing different from a lot of recipes was I used fresh shrimp (or thawed Costco shrimp in this case) instead of the salted shrimp I've used in the past. It was important to me to use Costco shrimp because it's not soaked in chemicals like a lot of other seafood.

Jeotgal 젓갈 Part 2

Seeing and eating the jeotgal reminded me of a great experience when I was in Seoul last November. Professor C and I went to Noryangjin Seafood Market노량진수산시장 to see the sights and eat some fish. The professor escorted me around while I took tons of pictures and then we got down to the business of seafood. We stopped at a live fish monger and picked out a couple of strange looking fish. They were sent to a restaurant in another part of the market to be cooked for us later. We also stopped and bought several varieties of jeotgal. I was overwhelmed by the display and the quantity. Some of the small shrimp vats were as big as barrels. My favorite from that day was the oyster jeotgal. My mouth waters just thinking about it. I was planning on bringing some back to Mount Vernon but decided that customs might have a problem with raw seafood. We ate the jeotgal little by little over the rest of my stay.

Jeotgal 젓갈 at Aurora Market

I drove down to Shoreline and Lynnwood to buy Korean groceries. The first stop was Aurora Oriental Market at 15202 Aurora Ave N in Shoreline. It's across the parking lot from Old Village Korean Restaurant. I've shopped at this market since the early 90's. I think that is why I developed a taste for jeotgal. Jeotgal is raw seafood preserved by salting and fermenting it. Aurora has a self serve case with many kinds that you use tongs to pack into plastic containers. My favorites are raw squid strips and baby octopus. I've also eaten prepared fish intestines, oysters and clams. Naturally it's all very salty and not meant to be eaten in great quantities. I think a few pieces with steamed rice is best. Aurora Market is a great place to shop and seems to have better prices than the bigger Korean stores farther north in Edmonds and Lynnwood.

Shigumchi (Spinach) Namul 시금치나물

I made Shigumchi namul today. It's a Korean side dish that both of my foreign students really like. It's basically blanched spinach that's been wrapped in a towel to dry and then cut into bite size pieces. A soy sauce / sesame oil dressing is then added. Washing the spinach is a bit of a pain but other than that it's an easy way to get tasty vegetables on the table. Sorry for the Ziploc container but that is what functions as a serving dish in my house.

Catching up

In the past week I've prepared a Korean Dinner with friends at my home, visited Racine, WI on business and there I met lots of people I've talked with on the phone for ages. It's all been good. The dinner was with my trainer, his friend and my students. I prepared an all Korean dinner. My trainer and his friend liked a lot of the food. I don' think I heard any strong dislikes. I'll post a menu later.

The trip to Racine was mostly good. It was delayed because of storms in the Chicago area. We didn't experience anything bad until after we landed and were in Wisconsin. It got so bad I was looking for hail, the precursor of a tornado. Luckily, we didn't get a funnel cloud. It was just really bad weather. That was Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were beautiful. Low humidity and moderate temperatures. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them.

On the way back we not only flew of Prosser, my hometown, but we flew directly over Mount Vernon. We were so low that I could see my street. Flying into Bellingham has its perks.

Update on Vonage

Just a quick note to say that I'm pleased with the sound quality of Vonage. So far it meets or exceeds Verizon's quality. I'm glad to have a service that my students can use to call their friends all over the US and doesn't cost extra for any of us. It should also save me some money because now I don't have to use a calling card from home. In the past, I had the long distance service disabled and used a card from Costco.

The control freak in me likes it too. I can see from the internet who has called and who has been called. It tips me off to when I should check my messages.

Cooking in Advance

I have to go on a short business trip in the near future. Because I'm a homestay host to two international students attending Skagit Valley College, I must prepare dinners in advance of the trip. I have it easy because one guy likes everything and the other guy's favorite dinner is pork ribs. Monday I roasted two slabs of ribs. One was to eat and the other to freeze. I use a spice rub recipe from Jane Butel's "Southwestern Kitchen" and then roast them for 45 minutes at 450. I like them just like that but sauce is OK too.

The dish I made tonight is a Korean chicken dish. I marinate chicken thighs in soy sauce, ginger and garlic for an hour. In the mean time I make a sauce of chopped onions, Korean pepper paste, sugar, vinegar, ketchup (?!) and hot sauce. Brown the chicken and then add the sauce. Cook until done. Not too hard but the result is wonderful. I chill, defat and then freeze. This comes from "A Korean Mother's Cooking Notes" by Chang Sun-Young. I use her recipes a lot.

I'll be happy to provide either recipe.