CSA Week 2 - June 13th - kimchi, dried dill, and kale chips

A conversation with Kelly on Tuesday opened my eyes to my many unexplored options for enjoying cruciferous root crops. For example, she suggested making daikon cake (which I plan to do soon). But for some reason this line of thought led me to kimchi, which I know can be made with all manner of vegetables, not just napa cabbage. On Wednesday evening I started binge-watching Maangchi videos and continued obsessing over her forums, recipes, and videos until today, when I made her kkakdugi, or radish kimchi.

This project really excited me and I embraced the process, including a trip to CAM International Market for Korean red pepper flakes (gochugaru). Jonathan and I were both very impressed by the store and he got to pick out two treats.

Making the kimchi was ridiculously easy. I think I spent longer scaling the recipe for my amount of radishes and figuring out how to adjust the amount of salt to account for salt in the gochugaru than I did actually making the kimchi.

First, I peeled the daikons, turnips, and spring radishes. Then I cubed them (smaller than Maangchi suggests, like 1/4 to 1/2-inch cubes). I tossed them with sugar and salt and let them sit for half an hour before draining the liquid.

Then I added the magical concoction of red pepper flakes, green onions, ginger, garlic, fish sauce, and a small amount of the radish brine water.

I packed the mixture into quart jars and pressed down so the brine covered the radishes. People have suggestions on how to do this with various tools, but I just used my knuckles. Two words of caution on this process: the red pepper flakes can burn your skin and make it look like you made a horrible mistake with some self-tanner.

I sealed and labeled the jars and put them in the closet with my kombucha to ferment for I don't know how long (one day? three days?). After this I will store them in the fridge where they will continue to ferment and last virtually forever, according to Maangchi. I will report back on the results and with any ways that we enjoy the kkakdugi.

In other news, I pulled the dill leaves that I started air drying last Sunday, stripped the leaves, and stored them. This kind of preservation really makes me think twice about buying $3.00 to $6.00 jars of herbs. One dill plant would give most people more dried dill weed than they need for the year.

I also made kale chips with mixed results.

Massaging the kale (a large bunch!) with 2 tablespoons canola oil and some (1/3 cup?) Parmigiano Reggiano, spreading it out on a parchment-lined baking sheet, sprinkling with salt and garlic powder, and baking at 175F for 30 minutes yielded the best results. That being said I have made lacinato kale chips (albeit with more oil) at 375F for 12 minutes. Today's kale burned big time with that treatment. I don't completely understand.

For tonight's dinner I made palak choley paneer with a massive amount of spinach that had started to bolt in our garden at work. This dish's recipe will be a story for another day, but I would like to make one note: The maturity (or possibly just sheer amount, but I think maturity) of the spinach seemed to elevate it's oxalic acid level and corresponding sourness. I counter-acted the sourness pretty effectively by adding sugar, but the oxalic mouth feel was pretty intense.

Kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi)
Adapted very slightly from here

Ingredients
3 pounds daikon radish, salad turnips, and/or spring radishes, peeled and cut into 1/4-1/2 inch cubes
1 tbsp. salt
2 1/4 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. minced garlic
3/4 tsp. minced ginger
4 green onions/scallions, chopped
3 tbsp. fish sauce
3/8 cup Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru) (Notes: If your flakes have more or less sodium than mine I recommend scaling the amount of salt you use accordingly. For example, the salt I used had 590 mg sodium per 1/4 tsp and the flakes had 40.8 mg sodium per 1/4 tsp. Therefore the 3/8 cup flakes had just under 3000 mg sodium. The original salt called for (proportionally to the amount of radish) was 1 1/2 tbsp, which has 10,620 mg sodium. Take 3000 mg out and you end up with 7620 mg sodium needed, which is about 3.25 tsp. I knocked it down to 3 tsp., or 1 tbsp. Hot pepper flakes will also vary in spiciness, but I don't know how to help you there!)

Directions
Combine radishes with salt and sugar and mix well. Set aside for 30 minutes.
Drain the juice from the radish into a bowl.
Add garlic, ginger, green onions, fish sauce, hot pepper flakes, and 1/4 cup juice from the radish.
Mix well until the seasonings coat the radishes evenly.
Put the kkakdugi into a glass jar and press down on the top to remove any air from between the radishes.
Allow to ferment at room temperature (75 F) for two days before storing in the refrigerator. Be sure to push the radishes under the brine after digging in.