D.I.Y Kimchi: A Crash Course With Chef EJ Jeong of Cham Korean Bistro

Do It Yourself!: Kimchi
Skeptical Youth sang..."I'm not to be the same 'ol Street Punk!"

And one of those indispensable ethics is the is the fundamental punk ethic of D.I.Y... Do-It-Yourself!

And this last Thursday, I was able to abide by that ethic as I was invited to make my own kimchi! By ways of a workshop hosted by Pasadena's Cham Bistro, I was taught the salty ways of Korea's revered staple food.



I Learn With My Hands


The workshop took place at the jointly owned !iT Jeans Factory aka. their kitchen headquarters in the industrial City Of Vernon. Other kimchi students included pastry chef Jashmine Corpuz, Gastronmy Blog, Deep End Dining, E*StarLA, Harriet Ellis of KCRW and Eastside Food Bites



You Can't Learn On An Empty Stomach!: Roasted Kale, Assorted Tofu Skin Pouches & A Seared Tuna Pop


Some pre-class snacks included some of their popular tofu pockets. Tofu pounded thin, fried and then brined with sweet vinegar encased rice topped with things like sweet seaweed, mulched Salmon and my favorite...kimchi topped with crispy candied anchovies. The roasted kale had a dangerously addicting salty junk food like thing about it, Jashmine Corpus swore it was fried, albeit salty as all hell--I wanted to eat more kale but couldn't due to its excessive saltiness.



Makgeolli 'Cham-tail': Pineapple, Agave Syrup, Sprite


But all the better to quench my thirst with their exclusive 'Cham-Tail' of the unfiltered rice wine goodness known as Magkeolli. It was mixed with pineapple, agave and sprite here. I found it a bit too sweet to my liking but fuuug it, still pounded it since it went well with the salty food to come.



Chef Professor EJ Jeong: Showing Us What's Up With Kimchi


I was in the first group up and stood fascinated at the intricate process of making this salty vegetable staple. I dunked and layered my kimchi with the chili rub as best as I can but it still did not compare to other peoples slathering skills....



Pre Mixed Kimchi Marinade


At the end of the crash course, we were treated to an ultra traditional plate bo saam which consisted of slices of braised pork shoulder, salted napa cabbage, sesame leaves, fermented chili paste, radish kimchi teeny tiny but salty as hell shrimp and a raw oyster.



A Meal For All Our Hard Work!: Bo Saam


I had underestimated those tiny raw shrimps as I slathered them on my makeshift sesame leaf taco. Apparently you are only supposed to use one or two, and then with that salted napa cabbage, salted fermented chili paste and oyster? By the end of the class I had imbibed at least 5 cups of water!



Persimmon Kimchi: Korean Equivalent of Mexican Chile Dried Mangoes?


Just when I thought I couldn't take anymore salt, they brought out some house made Persimmon Kimchi. I had never even heard of this but relished in the sweet, spicy and salty flavor of it. The pickling had rendered them slightly softer than their crispy pre-pickling texture so they were ultimately softer and just the right texture for me, no crisp nectarines or persimmons for me thank you very much! The recipe for these is the same as the following recipe for cabbage kimchi, the only difference is the removal of chopped shrimp.

Anyways, it was a pretty rad experience and I am eagerly waiting to pop open my jar of kimchi as soon as the recommended 20 days are over (14 days left!).

They are going to be hosting another kimchi workshop this Saturday for all you Kimchi curious readers out there.

Making Kimchi with Chef EJ Jeong

Saturday, November 20 from 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM

Cham Bistro R&D Kitchen (5251 S. Santa Fe Avenue, Vernon, CA 90058)

COST: $40 per person (Includes Korean tapas, a cocktail, and kimchi to take home.)

RSVP: Email kimchievent@chamkoreanbistro.com. Space is limited to 20 people.

Nonetheless, here is the recipe!

Chef EJ Jeong's Kimchi Recipe
Tong Baechu Kimchi (Whole Napa Cabbage Kimchi)

1. Wilting The Napa Cabbage

2 heads Napa cabbage
2 cups sea salt
8 cups water

Preparation And Procedure:
Trim the cabbage by removing any brown leaves on the outer layers. Slice the center of the cabbage’s stem 2 inches deep. Put your thumbs in the slit and pull it apart to divide it into two.

Soak all cabbage leaves in salted water for about 20 minutes. 20 minutes later, sprinkle the other half of the salt between each of the thick part of the leaves.

Cut side of cabbage should face up while wilting in salted water.

You need to rotate the cabbage in the bottom part to the top part every 2 hours. It will take 5-6 hours.

When it is ready, wash 3 times. Please be gentle and tender.

2.Marinate Kimchi

* 1 cup sweet rice powder
* 5 cups water
* 1 cup coarse Taeyangcho red chili pepper powder
* 5 ounces garlic
* 10 ounces Asian pear, peeled and quartered
* 9 ounces onions, peeled and quartered
* 1 ounce ginger, peeled
* 4 ounces Fresno chilies
* 2 pounds radish, julienned
* 4 ounces minari
* 4 ounces red mustard greens
* 4 ounces Korean chives
* 4 ounces green onions
* 1/4 cup Korean anchovy fish sauce
* 3/4 cup Korean salted shrimp sauce
* 4 ounces fresh shrimp, chopped
* 4 ounces Korean salted shrimp

Preparation And Procedure

Mix purified water with sweet rice powder, dissolving the powder until there are no lumps. Heat the water and rice powder mixture over the stovetop, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. When it starts to form bubbles, reduce the heat and stir continuously. Once the mixture becomes thicker and translucent, turn the heat off. The process from once the mixture is heated to when it becomes the correct consistency and color takes approximately ten minutes. Cool down completely.

Put onion, pear, garlic, fresno and onion in food processor, running the machine until they are minced. Add the produce to the porridge and along with the remaining ingredients, adding the shrimp sauce and anchovy sauce. Mix together.

Chef EJ Jeong’s Persimmon Kimchi Recipe

Ingredients
2 lb peeled persimmons
12 oz kimchi marinade

Kimchi Marinade
cup sweet rice powder
5 cups purified water
2 lb radish
4 oz minari
4 oz kat (red mustard)
4 oz Korean chives (thinner than Chinese chives)
5 oz garlic
10 oz Asian pear (peeled)
9 oz onion (peeled)
1 oz ginger (peeled)
1 cup Taeyangcho rd chili pepper powder (coarse)
1/4 cup anchovy fish sauce (Korean)
3/4 cup salted shrimp sauce (Korean)
4 oz fresno
4 oz green onion

Preparation And Procedure: How to Make Porridge

Mix puried water with sweet rice powder, dissolving the power until there are no lumps. Heat the water and rice powder mixture over the stovetop, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. When it starts to form bubbles, reduce heat and stir continuously. Once the mixture becomes thicker and is translucent, turn the heat off. The process from once the mixture is heated to when it becomes the correct consistency and color takes approximately ten minutes. Cool down completely.

Mix Together. Enjoy!

Thanks to chef EJ, Ricardo, Kimmy of Cham Korean Bistro and Kat for hosting an awesome event.

Passion Makes Perfect: A Recipe For Jashmine Corpuz's Seasonal Olallieberry Pie

Passion Makes Perfect: It Only Seems Hard

There is something to be said when someone chooses to follow their passion no matter what...for better or for worse. Maybe it will never 'make sense', maybe it will never be the most 'rational' nor is it ever going to be anywhere near the most 'secure' choice neither. But...material wealth and security are mere frailties in life when you do not spend it doing and perfecting what you truly love. And that intangible feeling of pure unexplicable happiness and ever-understanding mental satisfaction--is priceless.

That being said, I will now share a seasonal Summer pie recipe courtesy of Jashmine Corpuz, the bon vivant pastry chef of Drago Centro. I was lucky enough to try it but don't think I realized just how great it really was until now.

High quality berries can be found at the Murray Family Farms stand during the Wednesday morning Santa Monica Farmers Market. Her unique addition of Tapioca starch retains this pies moistness quite nicely so it won't look like a bloody murder scene upon slicing, it also adds a more stable body to the cooked berries. Also, a respectable amount of both fresh lemon zest and juice keeps the berries intense fruity-tart flavor train going. This recipe was made with pure fresh Olallie's but you can make from whatever berries that are lucky enough to bless you, boysen's, blue's, raspb's a mixture even with Rhubarb even, its all up to you...


Dessert Devotchka

Jashmine Corpuz's Seasonal Olallieberry Pie

*preheat oven to 500

Pie Dough

2 ½ C AP flour
1tsp Salt
2TB Sugar
½ C Shortening
1 ½ sticks Butter (unsalted)
7TB Ice water

Measure shortening and butter first. Cut fat into small pieces. Place in freezer for about 20 min. This will keep your dough cold.

Measure other dry ingredients and place in a food processor.

Scatter frozen butter in processor and pulse until the fat are the size of peas.

Pour the mixture into a medium sized bowl.

Add the ice water, and with a pastry scraper gently fold and cut into the dough. Do not knead it! This will only make your crust tough.

Once it forms a ball, shape it into a disk and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Olallieberry Filling

3pints Olallieberries
3pints Blueberries
1C+1TB Sugar
1tsp Lemon Zest
2tsp Lemon Juice
¼ tsp Ground Cinnamon
4TB Tapioca Starch
2TB Butter (unsalted)

1. Place berries in a medium bowl.

2. Zest lemon and juice. Place all other dry ingredients over berries and gently fold.

3. Let this sit and marinate for a bit.

To Assemble:

1. Lightly flour dough and roll out to 1/4 “ in thickness. Use flour when necessary to avoid sticking.
2. Gently use the rolling pin to pick up the sheet of dough and roll over a 9” pie pan.
3. Lightly press the inside of the pan. With kitchen shears cut around the pie tin leaving 1 ½ “ off of the edge.
4. Save the dough scraps and roll out again. Cut into 1” strips. You should have at least 8 of them
5. Fill the pie with the berry mixture. Add the 2 TB of butter to the top of this.
6. Take 4 strips and lay them across the pie horizontally. Fold back every other strip.
7. Lay down a strip vertically. Unfold the horizontal strips. Next fold back the other horizontal strips and repeat the process.
8. Cut any excess hanging strips.
9. Fold the crust over the strips to seal the lattice. Pinch the edges all around the crust.
10. Lower the oven temperature to 450. Place pie in the oven. After 30 min lower the temp to 400 and turn the pie. Bake for another 30 min.
11. Take it out of the oven and let it rest for 1 hour.






Step By Step Lattice Visual Guide:









She served it to me with a dollop of freshly whipped Lavender cream and it was a slice I will never forget...

A Mexican Christmas Winter Ponche Recipe & My Last Two Weeks of Illegal Drinking-Driven Debauchery

So, as you all may have noticed, I fell DEEP into 'Holiday-Relax' mode this last year.

For the first time in the whole year, I took some damn personal time to be twenty finally. You know, enjoying complete meals without ever whipping out a camera? Ok, ok...I did sneak in a couple of shots of my moms awesome Duck Tamales, Buñuelos and Ponche but nonetheless enjoyed a couple of meals without exercising my hunger's last moment discipline...it felt great to just eat.


Duck Mole Tamal, Achiote Spiced Guacamole, Nopal (Cactus) Salad, Refried Great Northern Beans, Radishes: My Christmas & New Year Dinner


Buñuelos (paper-thin flour tortilla fried in Grapeseed Oil & dusted in cinnamon-sugar)


Ponche: Mexican Christmas Cinnamon Tea Filled with Anything and Everything eg. Guavas, Mexican Crab-Apples, Prunes, Sugar Cane etc. (Recipe Posted Below)


My Older Sisters Dessert Spread: Chocolate Chip Cookies, Tea Cookies & Sweet Potatoes in Piloncillo Syrup

Uhhh...it also kind of just hit me that I am turning the big, effin 21 in just two weeks, two freakin weeks. Do you guys know what this means for a restaurant blogger? YES! I am now going to be able to legally drink, no more using the risky technique of "Walk in like you own the place" or hope that my glasses and increased posture will get me through. No more GETTING DENIED entrance to a food event for not being of age, and most importantly...not having to ask a passerby bum or stranger to buy me beer and end up with the wrong kind!

Ok, so not much will be different since it hasn't really stopped me from drinking before but somewhere between blogging, writing 100 word radio commentaries and getting mentioned in the New Yorker...I tend to forget that I am twenty sometimes. So for the last couple of weeks (ooh-ee New Years Eve, jeez!) and until I turn twenty one, I will live up my last two weeks of illegal drinking driven debauchery...


A Pair of 40 oz. King Cobras at Fourteen: My Introduction to Alcohol in Moderation via the East L.A Punk Scene

A Dear Recipe From My Holiday Break:

Ponche (Mexican Holiday Cinnamon-Fruit Tea: Familia Cabral Style)

1 Gallon of Water (Purified or Tap doesn't matter, will boil)
4 Medium Sticks of Cinnamon
1 Small Handfull of Dried Hibiscus Blossoms
1/2 lbs of Fresh or Frozen Sugar Cane
1 Large Apple, Deseeded, Quartered (Fuji, Gala or Granny Smith; No Red Delicious please)
1 Large Orange, Peeled and Segmented
1/2 lbs of Tejocotes, whole (Mexican Crabapples; available frozen in Mexican-American Markets)
1/2 lbs of Small Fresh Guavas, whole

*this is a mix that I have habituated, feel free to alternate amounts or even add dried fruits like prunes, apricots, raisins, fresh pomegranates...possibilities are virtually endless.

1) In extra large stock pot, lightly crumble all the cinnamon sticks in the one gallon of water, add the hibiscus blossoms, turn heat highest and boil until color changes and the scent makes people in your household swoon...

2) Once color changes, lower to low heat and carefully drop in the fruits.

3) Simmer under low heat for 1-3 hrs until fruits become tender and soft.

4) Enjoy, while contemplating winter, family and life.

--Con Piquete (A generous shot of Tequila traditionally thrown in it to truly keep one warm) is up to you!

...my mom fancies Sauza brand Blanco though if you do.

Mexican For A Day: Teaching Ludovic Lefebvre the Art of Mole Zacatecano

Ludo and I: United by Our Passion For Food

Since the first time I had Ludobites back in June, I knew Chef 'Ludo' was not like the rest. Put aside his deviant french-fangled approach to food for a bit, I'm talking about his mere dedication to food that got him to where he is now.

It was visible even at that same dinner, asking ever so humbly if I could teach him how to properly make a simple Quesadilla after watching him get the boot from Top Chef Masters live, for a failed attempt at a "Pig Ear Quesadilla" in which he stuffed with Monterey Jack, Pinto Beans, Aleppo Peppers, Smoked Paprika, Chili Powder, Green Onions and served with Lime-Mint Aioli--interesting but...really?

This eventually evolved into him asking me if I can teach him how to make a home-made Mole, Mexico's laborious but dignified National dish of pureed spices, chilies and Chocolate...

Where others would have been satisfied with recipe versions of this dish, Ludo wanted to take in the experience of it all, he wanted to FULLY comprehend the concept of Mole, how it was made traditionally in my family...from point A to point EAT.

Sooner than I knew it, he was outside my house in East LA at 10:00 AM sharp and we were off to the local Tortilleria and Top Valu Super Market to stock up on the 15+ ingredients needed. He had already brought the protein, a fine young Diestel Guajolote (Turkey), the original pre-conquest protein for the famed dish.

My mom is from Yerbabuena, Zacatecas--a desert, ranch-village in between Valparaiso and Fresnillo known for my Aunt's Queso Añejo Enchilado, a raw, hard rind stinky cheese that is dunked in a red Chile de Arbol sauce. To date, there are about seven families in total living there with ours being one of them.

This was not going to be your L.A restaurant acquired Mole of Oaxacan or Poblano descent, this was going to be 100% PURO ZACATECANO, my spanish-only speaking mom clarified that with Ludo several times through out the day...

In addition, I had also suggested that we teach Ludo Pipian to contrast with the sweet and savory Mole. Pipian is a more minimalist but still complex, entirely-savory sauce made up of unhulled toasted Northern Pumpkin seeds, almonds and Cumin, it is more common amongst meals than the extremely labor intensive Mole, which is traditionally only seen Weddings, Quinceañeras, parties etc.


Don't touch anything else with that hand Ludo...

We first started with the personal de-seeding and de-veining of every single one of the chilies. Equal portions of Chile California and Chile Nuevo Mexico are the base of the sauce, California adds flavor, Nuevo Mexico adds heat. Second up is Chile Ancho (aka Guajillo), its raisin-like flesh adds exquisite texture and lends that signature dark crimson hue. A moderate amount Chile Chipotle adds a shadowing heat. And the Chile de Arbol is added lastly according to personal tolerance to fire, with it's instant dry, lip singe-ing heat.

Next was the frying of the nuts and spices: Almonds, Peanuts, Sesame Seeds, Anise, Cinnamon, Clove for the Mole. And just Cumin, Almonds and Pumpkin Seeds for the Pipian.

Blending all this batch-by-batch was a fatal task for my sister's Cuisineart blender, plastic gear underneath the blade actually melting completely off due to the extensive use of it through out the cooking process!


Straining: Just for Ludo

For Ludo's sake, my mom decided to strain both sauces for a luxurious, smooth, velvety sheen but otherwise, we would of traditionally sufficed for a little more rustic texture in honor of not wasting ANY of the ingredients.


Crimson Red Mole and Opaque Orange Pipian.

Of course, both of the sauce's flavors were allowed to fully transpire with the aid of freshly rendered Manteca (lard).


Ludo Drooling

After six hours of labor and about an hour of the final brews simmering and allowing the flavors to gain depth, I could tell Ludo was eager as ever to fully experience Mole and Pipian Zacatecano in all its bounty with its time-honored sides: Garlic-Tomato Fried Arrozito and crisp-tender marinated Nopalitos (cactus).



Mole, Nopalitos and Arrozito: The Heart, Body and Soul of Zacatecano Cooking

All and all, it was an absolute pleasure to share a piece of my rich edible heritage with Chef Ludo...and to watch him swoon to my mom's and my cooking.



My Mom and Ludo: Two Serious Cooks