Now that it’s full on summer (damn, it’s been hot and humid this past week), we find ourselves reaching more and more often for something crisp and cool for side dishes at dinner.
Salads and slaws certainly fit the bill, though sometimes it’s nice to have something with a bit more flavor and acidity to pair with that mouth-watering chicken hot off the grill.
Lately we’ve jumped on the international bandwagon of using all sorts of veg to make what we call here in the States a ‘quick pickle’, particularly given that the season’s freshest pickling cucumbers aren’t in quite yet.
Kimchi is yet another spin on pickling things, and after fighting over the last of the collard green kimchi on the hummus platter at our new favorite southern place in town (Ida Claire), I figured it was time to start experimenting with some home kimchi preps.
Our buddy Chef Libby in Austin likes this basic recipe for a quick kimchi at home, with her favorite versions being made with cucumber, carrots, radishes or beets. They serve it within a few days of stirring it together for catering events, and she notes that it gets a bit more funky the longer you let it rest in the fridge.
Libby also reminds that the recipe is best considered a framework to start from- e.g. if you like more ginger, put it in, and that if you’re going to age it longer than a few days, it’s probably best not to use the darkest green parts of your scallions as they tend to get a bit slimy the longer they sit in the pot or jar.
We can’t seem to keep a recipe around more than just a few days – the carrot kimchi I stirred up last weekend was gone by yesterday. Keep a jar (or two) of these in fridge all summer, maybe along with a green tomato chow chow, and you’ll be in tall culinary cotton all season.
2 lb cucumbers, ends trimmed, cut into 3/4 inch pieces
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar10 scallions, cut on diagonal into 1 inch pieces, use the white and pale green sections
1/3 cup (or more) gochugaru (Korean red chile flakes, coarse) OR
1.5 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes, ground
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
1 tablespoons fish sauceVeg options: radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, string beans, asparagus
Toss the prepped vegetables, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Let sit (covered with a towel) at room temp for 1-3 hours for juices to release.
Add the remaining 6 ingredients and stir well to make sure everything is coated.
Divide into quart jars, including liquid, leaving at least an inch of headspace, then cover loosely and leave on counter for up to two days to begin fermentation. Or eat it right away – we can’t seem to help but dig into one as soon as it’s in the jar.
Refrigerate after that; the flavors deepen and mature a bit with time as the fermentation process slowly moves on. Supposedly this prep will last 2 months or more in the fridge; we can’t get one to last more than a week around our place.
Enjoy.
