Remembering Mom by using the stuff I stole from her house

The SoyLove

Yup a soymilk maker

 crazy contraption instructions are all in korean!!!

so I googled that beyotch and found a site that had instructions in Engrish

Soy beans and press I bought

weigh out the dried beans straight from bag

measure out the water

run the machine for 30 minutes and you get this crap.  Light soy milk

At this point you can drink it or you can add this... Nigari a coagulant

add it in gently

it forms curds 

strain it into your press

add the top and weigh it down

you get tofu.  This batch turned out crappy.  The machine is good for soy milk but not so good for tofu.  Lets try it again but the manual way.

take soybeans that have been soaked for 14 hours

this is 6oz of soybeans soaked

Puree them beans with some water

I forgot to take a picture of me boiling the puree but afterward you strain it

gather up the mesh

squeeeeze out all that hot milk

pour a little more water into the lees

and squeeeze that ish again.  This is what you have left

Koreans love this stuff, we make a dish called BEEJEE!!!

so heres the milk.  Simmer it for 6 minutes

let it rest for 2 minutes and then add the nigari in three batches.  Look at that stuff curdle

Let it sit for a few minutes

ladle the curds into the press.  The whey will fall out the press... save this stuff!

weigh it down.  Look Im using the saved whey.  Weighing it with whey.  Hey!!!

So this is what you get with 6oz of soybeans.  a buttload of LEES yes the leftover ground up beans are called lees.  You got the whey that is chock full of nutrients and has a strange yet pleasing flavor.  And you have the shorty block of tofu.  Next time I use the smaller press and make a block that resembles a block.  Not some janky tofu.   Nothing goes to waste.  The Cheapie in me loves this

Coming up we make a dish with the tofu.  Stay tuned.

This is a miniature we saw at a local Pho restaurant.  It was really well done!  It looks real!  Real good.

So Susan and Andrew had us over again for a BBQ/Picnic.  Everyone brought something.  I brought my chicken bucket. 

pressure fried chicken 

cant go wrong with that!  

It turned out to be a very beautiful sunny day.  HOT HOT HOT!!!

Then the next day we did family dinner in San Jose.  Yup more BBQ!!!  BBQ overload this past weekend.

Nyla says hi!!!

and after making three of these DIY sous vide machines....

I finally graduated to a professional one.  My new Haake E2 immersion circulator.  

Its strong.  Maybe too strong.  The water circulating makes a lot of noise.  Not just in this tiny pot but even in big tubs.  I aint complaining!

Delicious dinner

Is it better to put the captions under the picture or above?  Ill try below and you guys tell me which you prefer.  Lucky us got invited to Suz and Drews again for dinner.   Another delicious dinner from the two of them.  Here are pics!  First chicken liver mousse.  Soooo gooood.  offally good!

 

Then a sweet corn soup with dungenes crab soufle.  Suz hand picked the meat out of a fresh crab for us.  Thats food made with love.

 fried zucchini blossoms filled with ricotta served with tomato confit.  Drew if Im butchering all this please let me know.  My memory is shot from all the booze.

 

 Delicious rib eye topped with a blue cheese butter, salt baked potatoes, and spinach.  Was already so full but couldnt stop eating. 

Deep fried twinkies??? now this was overkill but man deep fried there you get this weird citrus flavor in there. 

We brought macarons.  These are so sweet maybe too sweet.  Diabetes bombs.  

 

We went to our friends studio warming party.  Check her stuff out!  http://www.tinafreydesigns.com/

 Cute stuff

 Her dog

 I just found out this shit...

Is made by Mizkan the people who make ponzu.

Im going to teach you how to make Kimchee

This is the easy way to make kimchee.  Its not going to taste as good as Moms but it will be good enough and I think it tastes better than the crap you buy at the grocery stores or costco.  Best of all its super duper cheap to make versus buying a small jar for $5 bones.

Get a head of napa cabbage.  Shits 39 cents a pound at the chinese market

Cut that ish up.  This is about half of a head in a big salad bowl.  Get some sea salt.  You can probably use kosher salt but dont use table salt.  Well I guess you could but definitely dont use iodized salt I think that might alter the flavor.  Anyhew take about a third of a cup of salt and sprinkle that shit in and mix it up.  If youre using kosher or finer salt use a quarter of a cup.

after a few beers the salt will start to leech out the water from the cabbage

after about a six pack shit will be nice and wilty and salty!!!  (about an hour for you non drinkers)

Heres the hardest part of making kimchee my way but also what makes it somewhat fail safe.  Add enough water so that the brine is salty.  How salty?  about as salty as you would want your kimchee to taste.  If its tool salty add more water.  If you added too much water then put mo salt.  See you cant realy f that ish up!

Leave it alone to get all salty and even more wilty.  6 hours to a day is fine you cant really screw it up at this point.  Youre almost done!

So the next day continue by dumping out almost all of the water.  Now chop up your green onions 

grate about two tablespoons of ginger

and about the same amount of garlic.  Lucky me I had a big ol tub of pureed up garlic that I stole from my moms fridge.  Shes in heaven so she doesnt need the garlic any more so I took it.  Sandy and Sue took some too.  Mom had a ton of garlic already pureed.  I think she was in love with garlic.  Poor Dad didnt have a clue.

so add that shit up!  if you want more garlic add it!  if you want more ginger add it!  

then more seasoning.  Sugar, fish sauce, and probably the most exotic ingredient in the recipe korean red pepper flakes.  This bag is crazy.  I took it from Moms house.  Again I dont think she needs pepper powder up in the clouds.  Anyhow for some reason this bag of flakes is the hottest bag Ive ever worked with.  Its so damn spicy I think it must have been some special burn the butt batch.  Maybe thats why it was stashed away in the cupboard. 

anyhow about 3 tablespoons of sugar, same amount of pepper flakes, and two tablespoons of fish sauce.

These are rough measures since you have no real way of knowing how much napa I have in these pics.

Just add a tablespoon at a time of each ingredient and mix and taste.  It should taste delicious enough to eat straight away and be just salty enough that you can eat it by itself but only a few bites before youd want some water.  Sugar is also subjective.  I like it somewhat sweet.  Make sure you can taste the sweetness.  When the kimchee ripens the sweet will transform into sour.  

pour that ish into a container.

Leave it out for another day or two until it starts to sour a tad.  Then store in the fridge for up to a few weeks. The older it gets the more sour it gets.  When it gets really sour you can make stews with it.

Youve just made a batch of kimchee for around a dollar something.  

Its so easy please do try and make it yourself.  If youre Vegan you can leave out the fish sauce.  If youre adventurous you can add raw oysters or tiny shrimp things.  This is roughly the same method I use to make radish kimchee.

THE END