Sara is: Fermenting!

Hello Tuesday!

Today's adventure is Korean style!

squuuuid

Oddly enough, watching Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern this morning really worked up my appetite for Korean food, despite the fact that Andrew is the most unappetizing looking thing on television today.
So, I headed to the Asian market in town and picked up a few things with which to make kimchi!
The kimchi recipe is slightly time consuming, but only as far as chopping the cabbage and fitting it into the jar. The actual procedure isn't too terrible. If you had a spare hour you could easily finish a pretty good amount. I wont say that this is a true or authentic Korean recipe, as I am not a true or authentic Korean. I'm just a white girl from New Jersey, and this recipe is simply the way I love Kimchi. Not too, too spicy, very gingery, and very garlicky.

You will need:

equipment
2 big bowls
1 large, clean and rinsed jar with a tight fitting lid. I actually asked the nice lady at my Asian market, and she gave me an empty kimchi jar for free!
A sharp knife
A microplane or other grater
A sheetpan or other container big enough to lay out the cabbage leaves on without too much overlap.

ingredients
1 head of napa cabbage
Fresh ginger, about an inch ungrated
4 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoons fermented soybean paste
2 tablespoons molasses
Chili flakes, to taste, depending on how spicy you prefer. I added about a tablespoon
Salt
5 green onions
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

procedure

First, prep the cabbage. Cut approximately an inch off the bottom end of the cabbage, to remove the core. Take each leaf and rinse thoroughly to remove any grit or dirt. Lay between 2 and 4 leaves flat on your cutting board on top of one another. Cut twice, in the shape of a V to remove the firm rib. Repeat until you have done all of the leaves. Once finished, take the ribs and slice into 1/4 inch strips. Place these strips into one of the bowls, and set aside. Now, with the remainder of the leaves cut them in half, and then in half again, so that each leaf is quarted and cut into a square. Place all of the leaves into the bowl with the ribs and salt liberally. Set aside and make the sauce.

Salted cabbage ribs

Grate the ginger into the other bowl. If you don't have a grater you could mince it with a knife. Mince the garlic, chop the green onion and add to the same bowl along with the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine.

Rinse the cabbage well to remove the salt and press out as much of the water as you can. Dip each of the larger leaf pieces into the sauce and fold them once. Place these pieces into the bottom of the jar, layering until only rib pieces and small leaves remain. Toss these into the remaining sauce and then place them in the jar, pushing downward to fit as much as possible, as the kimchi will shrink as it ferments. In my large jar, which probably holds a quart, I just fit the entire head of cabbage. Pour any liquid left over into the jar and close the lid tightly. This technically isn't kimchi until it ferments, but it will begin fermenting within an hour or so. Usually, I have a hard time keeping it in the house, as I love this cabbage at all stages of it's production. Especially when it's just barely fermented. Within a day or two, however, you will have delicious fizzy kimchi!

Done!

Sara is: Relaxing

Lazy sunday, and I have an interesting post topic for you. Grissini! These thin, crispy Italian style breadsticks are pretty popular at work right now, and I've had a lot of requests for the recipe from friends who've tried them. The dough is relatively simple. The shaping, a little less so. I wouldn't say it's difficult, so much as just tedious if you need to make more than a few. (As is almost always my case.)
The dough itself is very versatile, and can be flavored in any number of ways, whether you like them Italian style or more plain, or even spicy, as I sometimes do. Herbs, black pepper, curry powder or paste, harissa, garlic, and some cheeses make delicious additions, as well as almost any other spice or flavoring you might be able to think of. I think it would even be fun to make a few pumpernickle by adding cocoa powder and caraway seeds, but I haven't tested that theory as of yet. They are also tender and crackery enough that they would make an interesting pocky, if you sweetened the dough and dipped it in chocolate. Though for that you may need to roll them thinner.
Anyway, on to the recipe.

Yeild: Approximately 40

Equipment wise, you will need:

A stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook.
(You probably could knead them by hand, but for optimal texture, I think I mixer is best.)
Measuring tools
A couple of cookie sheets
A pastry brush
A rolling pin
A sharp knife, or a pizza cutter

Ingredients:

1/2 cup tepid water, approximately skin temp. It should not feel too warm.
1 packet of dry yeast
1 teaspoon of honey
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup "OO" flour**
2 tablespoons fat, plus extra for brushing (Butter, olive oil, whichever you like the taste of best. If you use butter, melt it.)
1 teaspoon of salt
Flavorings, optional, and to your taste

Procedure:

In the clean bowl fitted to your mixer combine yeast, water and honey. Stir gently, and allow to sit in a warm place until the yeast foams and rises to the surface. 5 to 10 minutes. If in this time you see no yeast activity, discard it and buy fresher yeast! Then start again.
To the yeast mixture, all the flours and begin mixing with the dough hook on low speed until combined. Add salt and fat and mix on medium speed until your dough is elastic and smooth. (Perfectly mixed dough is one of my all time favourite things to touch.)
Remove the dough from the bowl and wipe it clean, rinsing if need be. Dry, and add a thin layer of oil. Return dough to the bowl, and wrap with plastic or cover with a clean moistened towel and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled.
When dough is ready, punch down and knead gently to incorporate excess oil. You may need a small amount of flour. Allow to rest for five to ten minutes to relax glutens. Using the rolling pin, roll your dough slowly, allowing it to rest now and then to keep the glutens relaxed. Roll into a large rectangle. It should be thin and stretchy, not snapping back if stretched. At this point, allow your rectangle to rest until it is slightly puffed and feels smooth and dry.

Once ready, cut your dough with a knife or pizza cutter width-wise, into half inch strips.

Like so.

Using your fingers, roll each strip gently until you've formed a stick a few inches shorter than the length of your sheet pan. I like to use three spread fingers in the center of the strip, and then roll outward. If you try to stretch them too quickly they may break. But they'll go back together.

Place each strip on your baking sheet, and brush them with your chosen fat. Sprinkle with a little salt, or a spice, if you chose to use one. And bake at 350 until lightly golden.
I know it seems like a lengthy procedure, but really, as far as breads go, it's not too bad. Try them!

mmm..

** A flour made of soft wheat available in some specialty stores. If you can't find it, you could use all AP, but the texture will be a bit firmer. No worries. :D

Sara is: Full!

Full day today. I began the new dessert menu at work, and it reads as follows:

Dark chocolate bread pudding with spiced orange coulis and salted caramel ice cream

Rustic Jam Tart with handmade blueberry jam and lemon berry frozen yoghurt

Sweet Corn Crema with black cherry compote and cornmeal doughnuts

Bread puddings

On a totally different note, I think La Mexicana in Newport, KY is the most authentic Mexican restaurant I have ever seen! I just finished eating both a huitlacoche and a tripe soft taco! The tripe was absolutely amazing.

If you don't know, huitlacoche is actually a fungus that infects corn, and makes it look black and squishy and gross, essentially. Like severely overcooked spinach. It's an ancient mexican food, but in this country it hasn't especially caught on, due to the fact that the organism was considered a blight by the government up until recently.
I had a harder time trying it than I thought I would, and I'm not sure why, really. I'm usually alright with foods that don't look especially appealing, though, I have to say: huitlacoche is on the top of my list of most disgusting looking foods. All in all, I ate it. I didn't love it, but I ate it.

Fuuuuuungus

Sara is: Blogging!

First post accomplished! This is a space for recipes, photographs, ideas and updates from my life as a pastry chef. Currently, my schedule looks insane! By September 5 I need 800 brownies, 300 chocolate chip cookies, 300 oatmeal raisin, 250 sugar cookies, 500 cupcakes, and 120 miniature pies. That is on top of my normal duties of daily bread (sourdough and foccacia),hamburger buns, and 5 different desserts for the restaurant! I will have plenty of pictures, especially of the pies, since that is a personal catering adventure with Samantha, posted in this space soon. For now, check this out:




It's a Gubana, the concept of which was taken straight from the pages of Gina DiPalma's Babbo Cookbook. I used her dough, but created my own filling. I constructed it at work for Brunch a Sunday or two ago. Essentially, it's a pastry made of handmade danish dough, which I painstaking constructed the day before (took forever), and then rolled around a filling of figs, chocolate, citrus, and nuts, cinnamon roll style. It's glazed, baked, and enjoyed! It was delicously buttery and tender with just enough sweetness. If I remember tomorrow I'll post the recipe. For now, however, it is time for bed, so I can get enough rest for an early day tomorrow. With any luck, I'll have some pictures of freshly baked breads for you!


Goodnight,

Sara