i rarely shop now since it was incredibly tedious to clear out my belongings in the last years. as to the wardrobe i want to have a light, versatile one that fits into several suitcases! that will be a great day to come. meanwhile, like any serious foodie, i encourage food gifts for christmas because they will never end up as rubbish :)
whew, having said that i introduce a shop today. i have been strolling around in seoul which i think is the greatest shopping city in the world - compared to other popular capitals prices are still low and for every class of goods there are so many co-existing price levels that one will always meet one's budget. the only place with horrifying price tags are the department stores. it makes gasp to see how many items can break the 1 million mark that seem to be sold to people who don't look like millionaires (we are talking about wons but still...). however, there are serious alternatives in this city!
when passing the lovely window of mee ori that describes itself as a "multi-brand fashion shop" in the historical neighborhood of samcheong dong, i couldn't help but enter. jeong seo kim is the owner and offers selected as well as self-designed apparel together with dazzling accessories (footwear unfortunately for the last time now). ms. kim describes her style as "lovely avantgarde" :) and as far as i can judge, every single item met the requirements of being up-to-date, ravishing and comfy. (it's worth mentioning that being edgy seems not to be a virtue among the fashionistas here. the great majority of the street-looks is demure.)
and she really has the talent for making you think that she worries about your appearance without haunting you.
"your coat is NOT CASHMERE!! how could that happen??? you should change that!!!! " (until that pitiful statement of hers i took much pride in the coat as being my best one - jil sander for uniqlo, fall/winter 2010... so that came as a shock.)
"elsewhere you can get this kind of coat only at max mara, i assure you." (sounds good to me and i want to believe she is right.)
"in abgucheong dong it is already sold out" (sounds even better - for korean women it still is the reference area for elegance...).
"do you know alexander wang?? this one is inspired by his coat..." (i have no idea. but isn't alexander wang always supposed to be black?)
seeing the price tag was another shock.
but when taking into consideration how these items are made it is comprehensible that it must cost significantly more than the average zara-duplicate: ms. kim constantly watches international designers (other names dropped were marc jacobs and maison martin margiela) and personally reinterprets their works - influenced by the colors and history in her neighborhood and by the requirement of suitability for daily use. the fine fabrics are carefully selected, often they are bought on inspirational travels in bali and thailand. and she has a soft spot for the patterns of japanese producers.
i tried to bargain (which is a must at retailers in korea, especially when you buy more then two items):
"eonnie! i know you want me to have this and me too but simply i can't afford... pleeeease give me further reductions... btw, i am from busan, too!"
- "where have you been to high school??"
- "dongnae..."
- "i am from haeundae! do you (at least) live there?"
- "nope..."(that marked the end of our similarities because for koreans not only your hometown but also your home district and your school, that is called "motherschool", are crucial.)
in the end i still got a further reduction on the sale and took away a new coat and a white blouse with bliss. i am done with shopping for this season and hopefully for the next winter to come (check this post again then for a long-term review :) ).
get interesting fashion insights of ms. kim in a magazine interview here.
mee ori
opens daily from 11 am - 7:30 pm
Chongno Gu,
Yunboseon Gil 65.
Anguk Station, Subway Line No. 3
phone: 02 722 7660
I. kimchi and holidays
does kimchi come in handy during christmas season? absolutely!
whenever you suffer a butter and sugar overkill nosh some tangy, crisp and juicy kimchi and you will be fully revived for the christmas cookies, stollen and ginger bread front again :) i was amused to read that in these precarious situations of craving for sweets yet being overfull with them, germans tend to eat a cheese sandwich.
well kimchi would be an equally effective, less filling alternative :)
it is also great to have between opulent holidays because the secret behind is: the more kimchi you eat, the lighter you will feel afterward...
II. kimchi at any time
this could be the reason why koreans have the urge to eat kimchi all the time - like the swabian sauce it makes it easier to devour any other component of a dish when eaten together with kimchi. the younger generations might be different but for the older korean people this is still valid.
i once accompanied some korean businessmen in the rhine-main-region and whenever we visited a non-korean eatery they asked the waiter if it would be ok to unpack their kimchi they had brought with. it was not because they were too narrow-minded to
try the different cuisine on its own. but without kimchi and any other "fresh" component they hardly could swallow more than a bite of the plate that oozed with butter and heavy cream.
once we went to a restaurant that was too chic to ask for the allowance and guess what, the evening ended up with leaving the plates mostly full. the only person who could eat the whole serving was me :)
III. what i like about kimchi
kimchi is the evidence that you can yield the utmost umami flavor out of the humblest ingredients by letting time do most of the work. in many situations in cooking where bacon or cheese is added to make a dish tastier, koreans would add kimchi. and because kimchi changes its taste with the ongoing fermentation, it is slow food in the best sense of the word.
so let it be said:
if you have never had kimchi before, don't wait too long until to try it. it will bring a complete new, complex umami taste into your life!
if you have tried kimchi and didn't like it: don't give in, you probably didn't got the right one.
to make good kimchi isn't magic but it demands some sensitivity in finding the right balance of the components. this seems to be hard enough to achieve and unfortunately a lot of kimchi end in bland or oversalt results (i screwed my first exemplars, too).
IV. a kimchi meal for beginners
since the authentic way of preparing banchans along with kimchi is so laborious that i think only really crazy fans of korean cuisine can do that, here is my suggestion that involves fresh as well as cooked kimchi. the great thing is that once you have good kimchi, no additional garlic, onions or spices will be needed.
1) spinach frittata with fresh kimchi
eggs in any form goes well with fresh kimchi.
pan-fry a vegetable of preference (i took spinach for some chlorophyllic green).
pour lightly beaten eggs with salt and pepper over it and let sit.
after it gets firm, turn it over with the help of a plate.
serve with fresh kimchi (wrung out so that there is no excess kimchi juice and drizzled with olive oil).
2) risotto with slowly roasted kimchi and white fish
the classic rice dish with cooked kimchi is kimchi fried rice but if that is too simple, here is another option. who would have thought but kimchi goes well with butter and white wine, too :)
chop 2 handful fermented (!) kimchi and roast it in the oven (180° C) for 1 hour with 1 tbsp of butter. the oven-roasting will turn out all flavors and result in a shiny mellow kimchi. this method will meet those people, who aren't yet used to the harsh and tangy taste of fresh kimchi.
for 2 servings
sweat 200 g carnaroli rice in 1 tbsp butter.
deglaze with 200 ml white wine and stir.
add the roasted kimchi.
successively add 800 ml kimchi broth (kimchi juice with boiled water and additional salt).
add 1 tsp of butter and optionally 2 tbsp grated parmigiano at the end.
serve with pan-fried white fish (i took trout), black pepper and chopped basil.
V. a special invite
it's a great pleasure to release my musings on kimchi for my dear fellow blogger miss boulette: not only do i share her love of everything "classic" and of sweet yeast breads, her blog keeps me marvel at how sensational authenticity is paired with modernity in presenting korean cuisine.
thank you for the dinner invite - i am so looking forward to it!! :)
I.
in the course of finding a reason why i am still a beginner at kimchi-making i could have come to the conclusion that it is that it was a grown-up-thing. then i read this excuse at orangette and couldn't repeat what had been said already :)
so here is the other explication:
my parents actually never got into western cooking when living in germany (not that they didn't like it but because every time & energy left was spent to prepare & procure korean ingredients, which was tough in those days in a small west german town :)). thus normally i would have got normal korean taste buds.
it was our german daymother then, a dedicated housewife, who introduced me and my sister to what we referred to as german food. in retrospect it was typical middle-class cooking of the early 90ies:
potatoes every day in every form, creamed spinach, stuffed red pepper, cucumber salad, homemade yogurt and streusel cakes... pizza with a thick bread crust (which we loved and would have never questioned), spaghetti bolognese (made with the infamous industrial condiment...). no bufallo mozarella, no dijon mustard. no sea- nor fusion food.
there was not a single exotic or exclusive produce in her kitchen but also we don't remember a single dish that wasn't delicious. not only did she cook every day but also there was desert every day :) one of my favorites was her "stuten" - a dense white yeast bread with a hint of sweetness that was served with lots of butter every second week - when we came back from swimming courses with a great appetite.
i think, she cooked the best that she could with the produces and circumstances given (among the suppliers was a discounter that is so disdained among today's foodies but that recently opened a successful branch in queens, nyc and also runs the popular trader joe's - just to put that into context :)). and apart from my family background it could be the influence of her cooking why until today, it is still the humble stuff that takes my heart. while everything fancy and glamorous, i just seek out of curiosity.
after leaving this culinary home behind and moving to korea, i was craving for pasta, breads, cakes and anything else "western" all the time. and as banchans were always abundant and western food totally deficient at our home, it never came to my mind to make anything else than the latter after i left home for studies. for a long long while.
but since last year i felt it was about time to get back to the roots and to finally make kimchi by myself - grown up or not :)
II. preliminary notes on kimchi:
1) it can be incredibly elaborate to process 40 kg of chinese cabbage at once which is a normal family batch for gimjang. while in germany my mother had to preorder her supply of cabbages before the day of the farmer's market. it must have seem so excentric for the market people, who did not know anything about kimchi, to see how many cabbages one woman alone could take away in a day :)
2) on the other hand: it is a piece of cake when processing just a single cabbage.
it was hilarious to see the first jars with tiny batches of kimchi popping out in blogs and it made me giggle. but now i think little batches totally make sense in a beginner's stadium.
3) kimchi making is like bread making: it is all about finding your happy medium in a universe of variable coordinates. the quest will never end but also, it won't take long to get the first satisfactory, if not mind-boggling results!
4) possibly there are as many sorts of kimchi as there are of bread. (think of how endless variations exist of turning flour, water and salt into a delicious bread. kimchi includes a couple of more components...)
5) you can add radish, spring onions, chili, pears, seafood and other extras but in order to make good kimchi it is no more necessary than:
- chinese cabbage
- onions
- garlic
- ginger
- gochugaru (korean red chili flakes)
- fish or shrimp sauce- glutinous rice flour
- salt, sugar.
- rubber gloves and a food container.- no other condiments at this stage, please.
III. my beginner's recipe for one chinese cabbage
(prep time 30 min. waiting time 2 hours)
1) half one very small chinese cabbage (1 kg)
2) dissolve 200 g salt in 2 l water
3) soak the cabbage in the salt water and let it sit for 2 hours. turn the cabbage around once every half an hour so that it is soaked evenly.
4) prepare the chili paste:
a) puree
- 4 garlic cloves (except for the very young garlic i remove the root parts),
- 60 g peeled and cut onions
- 13 g peeled ginger
- 80 ml fish sauce
- 13 g sugar
b) in a separate huge bowl mix
- 20 g glutinous rice flour with
- 100 ml boiling water and
- 30 g gochugaru
c) add the puree to the gochugaru mixture and mix well until it becomes a smooth sauce
5) slice 100 g onions very fine and add into the sauce.
6) put on the rubber gloves. wash the cabbage under running water and wring it out.
7) throw into the bowl and coat the cabbage with the chili sauce.
8) fill the cabbage in a food container as airtight as possible but leave some free space. pour all remaining sauce over the kimchi.
9) keep it one day at room temperature, afterwards stored in the fridge.
10) after five to ten days it will be fermented enough to cook with it. raw kimchi can be eaten at any stadium. if well covered with the kimchi liquid it will last several months.
more praise on kimchi and a meal suggestion in the next post!
do you own a deli? are you uninspired about what to offer the crowd for lunch? do you offer the same dreary whishy-washy sandwiches or greasy pasta gratins every day?
here is a hint: a lentil (but cooked until soft, not al dente!) salad with beetroots, radicchio, any other fresh and colorful thing that you have, coriander and a fine dressing.
veeeeery cheap ingredients. nooooo cooking involved. and the crowd will thaaaank you because they feel good after lunch. and they will come back. so offer some sort of this soon, be happy with the reactions and don't hesitate to consult me for further ideas.
anne & annette: THANK YOU!!!!! :) :)
i never understand the saying that contrary to cooking, you have to be precise in baking. so you must stick to a recipe a 100% in the latter.
naturally speaking you will yield to the closest results when sticking to a recipe (and if i don't run out of some ingredients or the recipe turns out not trustworthy i always do...).
but taking 247 gr of four instead of 250 gr is as discretionary as it would be in cooking, i think.
and also i don't get why measuring by volume should be trickier than measuring by weight. american baking recipes with cup measurements are great fun to me. i always use a little glass as utensil and it never failed.
sometimes i make a dough on a gut level which is practical to use up some ingredients.
for this sweet bread i stirred up apple puree (selfmade and passed over), quince jam, mashed banana, two eggs, a hint maple syrup, little canola oil, baking powder, baking soda, pinch of salt with whole spelt flour. and out came a wonderfully moist cake bread with a complex fruit aroma. the only disadvantage of intuitive baking - you can't make the exact same thing again although you wished :)
anke gröner reminded me that i haven't had tofu for several weeks. how is that possible?!
while making this dish i had to think of jean-george vongerichten's ginger fried rice introduced by mark bittman and smitten kitchen. an equally simple but genius treat.
find the original recipe here.
side note: as can be seen by this dish, "plenty" isn't only mediterranean. not at all.
lacking time is no excuse not to eat your veggies, okay? what is easier than eating raw food??
just as foggy winter weather is no excuse.
if you are lulled because of too much time spent in heated rooms and because of insufficient daylight, devouring hot stews or dampfnudeln is contra-productive. afterward you will long for the bed even more. i am speaking of own experiences ;)
instead a crunchy sour salad will wake you up like one round outdoor swimming. so why not start a day with it.
in the picture: some spinach, slices of celery stalks, spring onion, parsley, 1/2 blood orange, black pepper with 1/2 mashed avocado (no dressing because of laziness).
ramyun does not equal ramen. the first name derives from the latter but while the japanese usually associate a delicate noodle soup with it, koreans exclusively mean highly addictive junk food.
(if it wasn't addictive why would there be ramen blogs since 1997? an era when i didn't really know about the world wide web, let alone weblogs...)
the ramyun addiction could be the reason why koreans don't nourish healthier than other people. the traditional cuisine, that is, low-fat, dairy-free and vegetable dominated.
there is no possible situation where you would turn down a bowl of ramyun or cup ramyun.
breakfast, lunch, dinner, as main dish, as dessert, after holidays when you are almost fed up with festive foods, after a carousal...
always having in mind how harmful the stuff is (contains saturated fat plus flavor enhancers) we still enjoy it.
thus since longer time i tried to make ramyun myself according to the ingredients' list on the package.
with ansung tang myun, which is a fishy type, it worked out really well. it takes 10 min to make while the processed one (see comparison pic) would take 5 min. i can live with that :)
directions:
1) per each serving bring 1/2 liter water to a boil.
2) meanwhile add 1/3 tsp minced garlic, 1/3 tsp minced ginger (i rarely can be bothered to peel and mince them, so i keep both stored this way) 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp red pepper flakes (gochugaru), 1 tsp wakame, 2 tbsp soy sauce and optionally, 1 tsp vegetable oil.
3) with a scissor cut some spring onion into the pot. with a vegetable peeler add some carrot juliennes.
4) as soon as the broth cooks add asian wheat noodles. (haven't found tasty ramen noodles yet, so i take udon. my favorite brands are japanese and they are steadily disappearing from the markets here. which is very depressing and makes me feel sorry for the japanese and become even more depressed about the environmental problems but that is another chapter.)
5) after the noodles are getting softer (will take around 5 minutes) lower the heat and add 1 tbsp miso. stir well and cook for another 2 minutes.
6) pour everything into a bowl and garnish with fresh onion rings and sesame seeds (attention: this step is not authentic ;)).
note 1: eat it with kimchi (if not selfmade, i can totally recommend this brand which gets luckily more and more easy to find in the groceries).
note 2: koreans use steel chopsticks (wooden and plastic ones only when they are on the go...). and to clarify this as well, we never use these porcelain "asian spoons".
note 3: if the serving was not filling enough, one would dump cooked rice into the broth and eat the rest as cooked rice usually is on hand in a korean household. apart from that there is no reason to eat remaining ramyun broth.
note 4: korean snack bars usually offer ramyun as well as kimbap. if you have both one would (after having eaten the noodles) dump the kimbap into the remaining broth (it's great fun and not as freaky as it sounds but you don't have to...).
most likely i cannot settle back until i possess all the acclaimed new cook books of this season. the vegetarian cookbook by alice hart is no exception. full of beautifully presented unfussy recipes with a twist. what's not to like about it?
i had kept cooked spelt in the freezer since a longer while and have finally found out what to do with it. this wonderful spelt salad from the book consists of oven roasted shallots, carrots, walnuts and dried apricots (switched to them for the suggested plums) and is mixed with goat cheese, cress (instead of the suggested parsley as i had none) and a garlic-mustard-vinegar. nice takeaway, too.
not a burger in the ordinary sense but i had much fun constructing this one for a blog event.
100% selfmade, colorful & animal free. full of textures and tastes (sweet, sour, bitter and salty).
i found out how easy it is to cook tomato sauce and that it beats the pants off ready-mades. so there will be one more thing that i won't buy anymore.
the components:
1. whole spelt burger bun with black sesames - i adjusted my standard hefezopf/tresse recipe. using water and olive oil instead of milk and butter made the buns light and fluffy.
2. slightly fried kale - adds elegant bitterness and the most vivid green.
3. amaranth patty with roasted sweet potato and red onions - amaranth contributes to a soft and sticky texture and has a wonderful nutty taste.
4. oven braised fennel slices.
5. cranberry ketchup - the cranberries contribute to an intense color and sour taste when tomatoes are out of season and don't have much flavor.
instructions for making 4 burgers on 2 consecutive nights, total prep time 2 1/2 hours:
I. day one
1) make an amaranth porridge that will bind the patty: bring 100 g amaranth with 300 ml vegetable broth to a boil. turn the heat to the minimum and allow the amaranth to simmer for another 20 minutes. turn the heat off and let it sit.
2) make the dough for the burger buns: in a bowl mix 180 g whole spelt flour, 70 g all purpose flour, 2 tsp dry yeast, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar well with a whisk. in a cup mix 150 ml cold water and 3 tbsp olive oil and pour it over the flour. knead the dough well for about 5 minutes. cover the dough in a bowl with a plate and let it ferment in the refrigerator until the next day.
3) for the ketchup bring 3 tomatoes, 2 small red onions, 1 handful cranberries, 1 garlic clove, 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp sugar, 2 cloves, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tbsp red wine vinegar to a boil and let it simmer for 30 minutes until reduced. strain the sauce through a food mill.
II. day two
1) knead the prepared yeast dough again, form 4 buns, sprinkle them with water and black sesame seeds and let them rise at room temperature for 40 minutes.
2) dice 2 red potatoes and 2 red onions. fry in a pan, add salt and pepper and let cool down.
3) bake the buns at 200 °C for about 25 minutes. at the same time braise some fennel slices with little white wine, lemon juice, olive oil and salt in the oven.
4) mix the amaranth porridge, the potato and the red onions and form the patties. if the dough is too sticky add some semolina flour. fry the patties in olive oil.
5) carefully fry a kale leaf (big stems removed ahead) so that it maintains its color. add salt and pepper.
6) assemble: instead of mayo or butter i used avocado. garnish with fennel leaves.
dear mr. johannes king,
thank you for this brilliant combo from the last cooking show. and thank you for introducing an equally brilliant cooking technique for these vegetables.
if your restaurant wouldn't have two stars and be on a far-out island, i would drop by much sooner.
as i am henceforth a fan of yours i would very much appreciate if you followed my blog. if ever, feel free to leave comments :)
sincerelly yours
