So what's the best thing to do when you've just returned from London, jetlagged and droopy, and you're procrastinating having to pack everything you own in 4 days?
Cook up some eggplant! Need I even ask.
As the Condiment Queen (not a nickname I chose for myself, but I'll endorse it), I've become increasingly fond of Korean food. I'm a loyal customer/consumer at
Ajoomah's Apron in Chicago, where (as usual) half the meal is comprised of bottomless bowls of pickles, sprouts, kimchi and seaweed salad. They also make great noodles and bowls of soup big enough for three people [to bathe in?]. But I can't help ordering bibimbap most of the time. It's a comfort food.
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My fellow eggplantophile Zoë (below) and I nerd out over
the condiments before the food even arrives.
Shout out to Zoë for introducing me to bibimbap several years ago. |
I was impressed by my mom's own intrepid forays into Korean cooking when she tried bibimbap for the first time last week and
one day later whipped up her own version.
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Bold experimenter in the kitchen, cooking muse, blog's most loyal reader.
HAI MOM |
Meanwhile, a few weeks ago I
made my first kimchi. Which makes me more bourgey than intrepid, but still, I was bubbling with pride like a bubbling jar of probiotic cabbage. Roughly 4 days at room temp, with twice daily burpings (gross, but seriously, burp the jars or they explode). In addition to the usual cabbage and chili, I used daikon, scallions, ginger, and garlic—and with all those flavors in there, it turned out delicious and it gets better each week as it matures in the fridge.
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| That said, I made it way too spicy. That red color is no joke. |
With six jars of the stuff, I'm looking for excuses to eat it. Today I made
gaji-namul, an eggplant side dish, along with lots of things-in-little-bowls to complement the condiment.
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| Eggplant side dish with kimchi, pickled radish, carrot, and cucumber, lightly dressed tofu cubes, steamed spinach with sesame oil, and rice. |
I won't reproduce the recipe here, since I used a couple recipes that already exist online:
this one and also
this one. It tastes delicious, but I'm not sure why my eggplant skins lost their lovely purple color, whereas the recipe photos retain their hue. This was admittedly my first time steaming eggplant. I found it tricky to steam all chunks equally; some were super-soft while others were a bit rubbery, even though I rotated them once during steaming. Probably tried to fit too much into a tiny pot.
But regardless, even the rubbery pieces taste great, and lend a bit of texture. As for the other stuff on the table: I lightly pickled some veggies in rice vinegar, salt and sugar. I dressed steamed spinach in salt and sesame oil. Likewise, I made a light dressing for the tofu. The brand I like to use is from a local Chicago company called
Phoenix Bean. It's the best tofu I've ever found, with a creamy flavor and dense texture, best served after being soaked for a day in salt water.
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| Health and stuff. |
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| The more bowls the better. |
Grumpy bowl was sad when the meal was over. (If we've learned anything from Disney, it's that the truest measure of yumminess is the critical response from the cutlery.)
