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Carolyn K. is a freelance writer from Austin, TX and began cooking with different Asian cuisines after she studied abroad in Singapore a couple years ago. She said, “I love how all the cultures there have blended, and I had some pretty interesting and wonderful food because of that blending. I have been doing some little fusion dishes since because it helps revamp meals and leftovers.” Carolyn’s post has includes two recipes, one authentic Korean recipe and a Korean fusion recipe. She also discovered a free menu planner which might help you find the ingredients you need for a kimchi burrito, or any other Korean dish at the best price. Carolyn was not paid by Koreafornian Cooking for this post and Koreafornian Cooking was not paid by Carolyn to submit this recipe to Koreafornian Cooking.

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A friend of mine named Jason loves beer. He showed me the place that sells the best beer I’ve ever drank, and he makes home-brews that are quite good. But you shouldn’t become his friend, because then he has more people to share his beer with, and less for me.

Anyway, a few months ago, at Craftworks Taphouse and Bistro, Jason got a bunch of his friends and connections together, who had been doing home brewing and the like, to hold a “Fermentation Celebration” – I went down with a mutual friend, and the place was so packed I couldn’t even approach the tables and displays, and talk to the brewers.

Driven by that success, Fermentation Celebration II is spread out across several locales in Gyeongnidan and Haebangchon, so that it won’t be shoulder-to-shoulder, the way the last one was.  It’s this Saturday.

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This has been my go-to kimchi jjigage recipe for more than 10 years. (Tammy Quackenbush photo)

Northern Californian winters are all about cold dampness — rain, lots of rain. For me, the only purpose for winter is to get the full benefit of a hot bowl of 김치찌개 kimchi jjigae, or kimchi stew. That’s a dish Koreans commonly make to finish off a jar of kimchi that has become too sour and mostly “juice,” the tangy, spicy, flavorful remnant of pickling.

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My first impression of Korean food was its striking similarity to eastern European cuisine. Some dishes reminded me a lot of my grandmother’s goulash. I noticed that gochugaru had sweet aromatic properties similar to Hungarian paprika. Kimchi jjigae tasted a bit like borscht, which is why it’s great with a dollop of sour cream.

It wasn’t until I was in that international cooking contest that I saw a dish by Maria Bakhmurova that made me smack my forehead–Kimchi Golubtsy.

They’re just like my grandmother’s cabbage rolls (which we called “Pigs in a Blanket”) but with kimchi. Yes, I know the LiteralNet will point out that kimchi is pickled cabbage, but you see why I slapped my forehead. Such a simple leap in ingredients. And the tartness in the kimchi reduces the need for a sour vinegary sauce. I wasn’t able to talk to Maria and ask for her recipe, so I had to try to make this on my own. But make sure that credit goes to her for the original idea.

Recipe: 2 Tomatoes
1 lbs. Ground Pork
1 Onion, chopped
2 cloves Garlic, chopped
1/4 cup Red Wine
3 Sesame Leaves, chopped
1 Egg
1/2 cup White Rice, cooked
Salt and Pepper
1 head Cabbage Kimchi

• Score the tomatoes by making a cross on one end. Start some boiling water and get ready a bath of ice water in a bowl. When the water boils, put the tomatoes in for around 20 seconds and immediately douse them in the bowl of ice water.
• Peel the tomatoes and squish them to get out the seeds and excess juice. Chop them up and set aside.
• Brown the pork in a skillet over medium high heat.
• Add 1/4 cup of the tomatoes, onion, garlic and red wine. Let much of the liquid boil out so it’s a little thick.
• Add the sesame leaves and take off the heat.
• When the meat has cooled a bit, add the egg, rice, salt and pepper and mix by hand.
• Separate the kimchi leaves from the main head and steam them in a steamer basket over boiling water for two minutes. Let cool.
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Take a kimchi leaf and put around a tablespoon or two of the meat mixture near the root side. Roll the root side over the meat like you’re tucking it into bed. Fold the sides over and finish rolling it like a burrito or egg roll. You may need to cut some of the leaves in half if they’re too large.
• Place all the kimchi rolls in a casserole dish and cover with the remaining tomatoes. Layer any remaining leaves on top.
• Cook in the oven, covered, for 30-45 minutes. Let settle a bit and serve.
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Kimchi is now an endangered species!  It’s a cabbage crisis!

Well, not all kimchi.  Just one of the hundreds of distinguishable varieties out there.  But hey!  It’s the important one!  The most basic of all, baechu kimchi, is going the way of the dodo.

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(Photo by Jeff Quackenbush)

Do you jump-start the kimchi or let nature take its course? The choice is yours.

Chef Hector Marroquin of Pupusa Griddle in St. Helena, Calif., continues to perfect his kimchi recipe.

He sent me this message on Sept. 13 from Facebook:

I made about three gallons of kimchi…. I used about a cup of the older kimchi juice I had as a starter. I was surprised how quickly the fermentation process started.

Then he asked me an interesting question — interesting to me anyway:

Have you ever seen anybody use old kimchi juice as a starter?

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Chef Gordon Xiao of Ark Chinese Restaurant in Alameda making pulled noodles. (Photo by Jeff Quackenbush)

Among the more than 80 caterers, mobile and brick-and-mortar restaurants and food-related vendors at the second annual Eat Real Festival in the San Francisco Bay area were two Korean “taco trucks,” a nouveau hanshik restaurant, a ramen restaurant serving kimchi and a food-preservation specialist teaching how to pickle the popular version of it.

Did I mention the live demonstration of making Chinese pulled noodles (lai min)?

Intensely craving some Korean yumminess, I attended the festival, held Aug. 27 to 29 at Jack London Square in Oakland, Calif., to snack on selections from Santa Clara-based MoGo BBQ and Seoul on Wheels of Emeryville. Reviews of those rolling restaurants will be posted in coming days.

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Matzzang is a premier food-blogger and she shares great recipes and cooking tips. This is a translation of her original post here.

We are all familiar with the nutritional benefits of mackerel.  They’ve got Omega 3 and DHA, which are especially good for young students for their brain activities. But then, to those of you who are known for being forgetful, just like myself, mackerel could be really good for you, too, as well as for elderly people. In other words, everyone can really benefit from mackerel.