Pad Thai for a Crowd

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, held between 10 am - 2 pm on the corner of Agate and 19th Ave., you'll find plenty of summer produce from Camas Swale Farm and pastured meat and poultry from Fair Valley Farm and Fog Hollow Farm. Along with summer favorites of tomatoes and eggplants, you can pick up all your ingredients for a big batch of pad Thai, including scallions, leeks, carrots, and cabbage.

Here is our market haul before chopping (fortunately our cat is not easily scared by vegetables) and below is the resulting tasty plate of stir fried noodles, based loosely on this Bon Appetite recipe but with fried tofu and many more vegetables. I started with a whole head of chopped cabbage that filled a huge serving bowl, which miraculously as it always does cooked down to be contained in a wok. With all the noodles and additional vegetables, the resulting pad Thai filled back up the serving bowl, but miraculously as it always does, was mostly gone by the end of the meal.

Pad Thai for a Crowd

serves eight

vegetables
1 head cabbage
4 small leeks
4 large carrots
1 bunch scallions
2 Tbsp neutral oil like canola

tofu
14 ounce package of firm tofu
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Sriracha
2 Tbsp neutral oil like canola

noodles 
12 ounces wide rice noodles
3 Tbsp tamarind paste
3 Tbsp brown sugar
3 Tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp chili garlic sauce such as sambal oelek (or more to taste)
4 eggs
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
lime wedges

1. Prepare the vegetables and soak the noodles. Core and chop the cabbage. Halve the leeks lengthwise, cut into 1/2 inch slices, and rinse. Cut the carrots into thin ovals. Cut the scallions into thin rounds. Soak the noodles submerged in boiling water until they are soft, about 20 minutes. Drain and reserve the noodles.

2. Prepare the tofu. Cut the tofu block into 8 1/2 inch thick slabs. In a large skillet, combine the soy sauce and Sriracha and mix well. Add the tofu and turn several times, then arrange flat in the skillet. Set the skillet over medium heat and when the sauce starts to bubble, in about two minutes, use a spatula to flip the tofu. Continue cooking to allow the seasonings to concentrate and stick to the tofu. When little liquid remains in the pan, drizzle 1 Tbsp oil over the tofu, shake the pan and flip the tofu again. Let the tofu sizzle for 3 to 4 minutes to dry out and brown.  Drizzle on the remaining 1 Tbsp oil and flip again. The finished tofu will have be orange-brown with some dark brown spots. Remove the pan from the heat and let the sizzling subside. Cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

3. Prepare the sauce. Mix together the tamarind paste, brown sugar, fish sauce, and sambal oelek.

4. Heat a large wok or skillet over high heat. Add 1 Tbsp oil and stir fry the carrots until they start to soften. Add the leeks and a pinch of salt and continue to cook until charred in parts. Transfer to a large serving bowl. Add another Tbsp oil to the pan and stir fry the cabbage until most pieces have acquired some charred edges and it has reduce in volume by about half. Add the scallions and the return the carrots and leeks to the pan. Add 1/3 of the pad Thai sauce and toss to coat the vegetables. Transfer back to the serving bowl. 

5. Turn the temperature of the pan to medium. Whisk the eggs together with a pinch of salt. Add the remaining 1 Tbp oil to the pan and pour in the eggs. Use a fork or spatula to mix and scramble them. When they are still a bit runny, add the strained noodles to the pan and toss. Add the remaining pad Thai sauce to the pan and toss the noodles until well coated. Add the cubed tofu and toss to heat. Transfer the noodle mixture to the serving bowl and toss well to mix with the vegetables. Serve with roasted peanuts and lime wedges. 

Gado Gado and Chicken Satay

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you can expect to find pastured meat and eggs from Fair Valley Farm, fresh cut flower bouquets from Tiger Lily Art Company, and fresh produce from Camas Swale Farm including:

strawberries (make some fresh fruit crepes)
last of the snap peas
carrots
beets (try this quinoa and beet salad with roasted kale)
potatoes (make some gado gado below)
summer squashes
onions (make this addictive cumin lamb with seared onions and Fair Valley Farm lamb)
salad mix
chard (why not bake a chard and bacon tart with Fair Valley Farm bacon)
kale
herbs

When we were in Bali a few weeks ago, we took at cooking class at a restaurant in Ubud, Cafe Wayan, where we made (clockwise from top left) eggplant with sambal balado, chicken satay with peanut sauce, chicken curry in coconut milk, and a Balinese grilled fish salad.  

It all tasted wonderfully exotic, but in fact many of the ingredients were ones we have in our kitchen, and the flavors came from how they were combined, often in complex ground pastes, or cooked in unexpected ways. For example, the peanut sauce for the chicken satay, unlike our regular peanut sauce for noodles, was made by grinding fried peanuts with garlic and some tomato and then simmering in a pan with water. 

Last week we recreated this recipe at home, along with another Indonesia dish called gado gado, a composed salad of boiled and fresh vegetables that is also served with peanut sauce. We made a trip to Sunrise Market for small peanuts, kecap manis (a sweet soy sauce), palm sugar, and prawn crackers (little discs that puff up when fried and are traditionally served with gado gado).   

All the vegetables we sourced from the Fairmount Farmers Market, including fingerling potatoes, green beans, cabbage, cucumbers, and carrots. Almost anything could go into gado gado, so it is the perfect farmers market dish for any season, and once you've made a big batch of peanut sauce, the rest of the recipe scales easily for a crowd.

We served ours with hard boiled eggs and fried tempe, with chicken satay skewers on the side. It was a wonderful meal for reminiscing about our recent trip and my husband's family's years spent in Indonesia long ago.  

Gado Gado

peanut sauce (recipe follows)
lightly steamed cabbage leaves
boiled little potatoes
blanched green beans
fresh cucumbers and carrots
other steamed or fresh vegetables of your choice
cilantro
hard boiled eggs
tempe or tofu, sliced into thin strips and fried
prawn crisps and sambal oelek for serving

Prepare all of the vegetables, the hard boiled eggs, and the fried tempe or tofu. Serve with peanut sauce, fried prawn crisps, and sambal oelek.

Peanut Sauce (Bumbu Kacang) 

from Cafe Wayan (for four servings of gado gado)

100 ml water
100 g small peanuts (often called Spanish peanuts)
canola oil as needed for frying the peanuts
1 slice tomato
1 clove garlic
1 Tbsp palm sugar (or use white sugar)
a pinch of salt
1 Tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce, or use regular soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar)
1 tsp tamarind paste or lime juice to taste

If using fresh, small peanuts, fry them in a small amount of canola oil until they harden and become fragrant. Drain on paper towels and season with a pinch of salt. Grind all of the ingredients together with a mortar and pestle or in a food processor. Place in a pan with 1/4 cup water and simmer over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Then add 1 Tbsp kecap manis and 1 tsp of tamarind paste. Combine, taste, and if needed add more salt, sugar, tamarind paste, or lime juice.

Chicken Satay (Sate Ayam)

from Cafe Wayan (serves four as an appetizer) 

1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp oil such as canola
3 Tbsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce, or use regular 3 Tbsp soy sauce and 1 Tbsp sugar)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
mild chili
salt and pepper

Mix the ingredients thoroughly. It's best if you can marinate the chicken for several hours or up to a day. Thread the chicken cubes onto skewers and grill until cooked. Serve with peanut sauce.

Soba Noodles with Lemon Grass Tofu and Roasted Broccoli

This Sunday at at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you can look forward to a selection of pastured chicken and grass-fed lamb cuts from Fair Valley Farm and beautiful fresh cut flower bouquets from Tiger Lily Art Company. Good Food Easy at Sweetwater Farm will have the following offerings: 

Fresh
Blueberries (world's perfect pancake topping)
Lots of tomatoes (Romas and red, yellow, and orange slicers) 
Eggplants (try these grilled eggplant with tomatoes and mint)
Bell peppers, jalapeños, anaheim and poblano chile peppers
Artichokes, baby beets, new potatoes, and broccoli (try roasted, below)
Carrots, summer squash, and cucumbers
Chard, collard greens, and kale (try this chard and bacon tart with rye crust)
Garlic and fresh herbs (basil, oregano, sage, thyme) and home-grown lemon grass
Lettuce, including ready-to-eat bagged mix
Cherries and Blenheim apricots (from Washington)

Preserves, Beans, and Grains
From Sweet Creek Foods:
Dill Pickles, Chili Dill Pickles, Bread 'N Butter Pickles, Pickle Relish
Blueberry, Strawberry, Blackberry, and Raspberry Fruit Spreads
Enchilada Sauce and Salsa
From SLO Farm: Applesauce
Assorted beans and grains from Camas Country Mill

The farmers of Sweetwater Farm are always experimenting with new produce, and this season they lovingly raised their very own lemongrass for us. I used these tender stalks to infuse fragrant flavor into slabs of tofu (prefrozen to remove liquid). These were baked until firm and layered onto buckwheat soba noodles tossed with a lime vinaigrette.

For vegetables, I prepared these highly addictive roasted broccoli spears from America's test kitchen (similar in flavor to kale chips) and some seared cabbage with black Chinese vinegar. A satisfying summer meal that could be eaten warm or at room temperature if you are planning on picnicking over the 4th of July weekend.

Soba Noodles with Lemon Grass Tofu and Roasted Broccoli

serves four

marinated tofu
1 block firm tofu (sliced into 8 slabs, preferable frozen and then thawed to remove liquid)
2 to 3 stalks lemon grass
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp maple syrup
zest of one lime

Remove excess liquid from the tofu either by freezing and thawing or by pressing between two cutting boards weighed down with cans and propped at a slant to let the liquid drain. Slice the bulbs of the lemon grass stalks into half lengthwise and slice thinly. Combine the lemon grass with the remaining ingredients. Place the tofu slabs into a single layer in a small baking dish and pour over the marinade. Let sit for at least 15 minutes or overnight in the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for about 15 minutes, flip the slabs and bake for another 15 minutes. Scrape off most of the lemongrass slices, cut the slabs into bite sized cubes, and reserve.

roasted broccoli (from America's Test Kitchen)
1/2 lb broccoli florets
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil

1. Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place large rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Cut broccoli at juncture of florets and stems; remove outer peel from stalk. Cut stalk into 2- to 3-inch lengths and each length into 1/2-inch-thick pieces. Cut crowns into 4 wedges if 3-4 inches in diameter or 6 wedges if 4-5 inches in diameter. Place broccoli in large bowl; drizzle with oil and toss well until evenly coated. Sprinkle with salt, sugar, and pepper to taste and toss to combine.

2. Working quickly, remove baking sheet from oven. Carefully transfer broccoli to baking sheet and spread into even layer, placing flat sides down. Return baking sheet to oven and roast until stalks are well browned and tender and florets are lightly browned, 9 to 11 minutes.

roasted cabbage
1/2 head napa cabbage or a young green cabbage
2 Tbsp black Chinese vinegar or balsamic vinegar

While the oven is heating to 500 degrees for the broccoli, place a cast iron skillet on the middle rack of the oven. Cut the cabbage into 1 to 2 inch wide wedges and remove a triangle of the core at the base, but leave enough so that the wedges stay intact. Drizzle the wedges with a little vinegar. When the pan is hot, place the wedge into the pan to sear on one cut side for about 3 minutes, then flip and sear them on the second cut side for about 3 minutes, until the both sides are nicely chard and the interior cabbage is just cooked but still has some crunch. 

soba noodles
4 bundles soba noodles (360 g)
juice of one lime
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp soy sauce

In a pot of boiling water, cook the soba noodles according to the directions. Meanwhile, mix together the dressing. When the noodles are cooked, drain and toss with the dressing in the bowl or platter you will use for serving. Garnish the sides with the roasted cabbage wedges, then the roasted broccoli, and then top with the tofu cubes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Chinese Cabbage with Vinegar

This Sunday at the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market, you can look forward to a selection of grass-fed lamb cuts from Fair Valley Farm, including ground, stew meat, kabob, chops, roasts and chorizo, and Good Food Easy at Sweetwater Farm will have the following offerings: 

Fresh
Strawberries, available by the flat for $32 (make some retro tapioca flamingo pudding)
Fava Beans (large and baby) and French sorrel (try these grilled favas and sorrel sauce)
Artichokes
Baby Beets 
Broccoli (delicious roasted in a salad)
Cabbage (Green, Red, Napa, & Savoy!)
Carrots
Cauliflower
Chard
Collard Greens (great wrappers for these rice parcels)
Cucumbers
Fresh Herbs (cilantro, dill, oregano, sage, thyme) plus our own home-grown lemon grass!!
Garlic (baby stalks)
Kohlrabi (try in a dry curry)
New Potatoes
Spring Onions
Summer Squash
Lettuce, including ready-to-eat bagged mix

Preserves
From Sweet Creek Foods:
Dill Pickles
Chili Dill Pickles
Bread 'N Butter Pickles
Pickle Relish
Blueberry, Strawberry, Blackberry, & Raspberry Fruit Spreads
Enchilada Sauce
Salsa
From SLO Farm: Applesauce

Bean and Grains
Our own Polenta and Cornmeal!
Assorted from Camas Country Mill

Sweetwater Farm had a lovely selection of cabbage last week. Fermented cabbage may be all the rage these days, but this stir fried cabbage with black Chinkiang vinegar that I made from Fuchsia Dunlap's Every Grain of Rice is a great instant gratification dish. It has tangy, sour notes from the vinegar that highlight the caramelized char from the high heat cooking. 

I was initially incredulous about this recipe. The ingredient list is a mere four items -- cabbage, sugar, salt, vinegar -- and Dunlap has you blanch the cabbage, which seemed like a lot of work. But I'm glad I didn't skip this. The blanching is well worth doing so that you can stir fry the cabbage quickly and synchronously, rather than having half of your cabbage start to braise to mush while the other half is still hard, and when nicely seared, the cabbage really doesn't need more than the light sweet and salty seasoning and the splash of flavorful vinegar. Any cabbage will work with this preparation, but Dunlap's recipe calls specifically for Chinese or napa cabbage, which will be available at the market on Sunday.

Chinese Cabbage with Vinegar

adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice

1 small head of cabbage (~1.5 lb)
4 Tbsp cooking oil (such as canola)
1/2 tsp sugar
salt to taste
4 tsp Chinkiang vinegar 

1. Cut the cabbage into quarters and cut out the hard core. Slice each quarter into 1/2 inch slices. Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch the cabbage for a minute of two to soften the thicker parts of the leaves (will need a minute or two more for a thicker leaved cabbage than napa). Strain in a colander and shake dry.

2. Heat a large wok or skillet over high heat. Add the oil and swirl around, then add the drained cabbage and stir fry for a couple of minutes until some of the leaves are softened and seared in spots, but still have some crunch. Add the sugar and salt to taste for seasoning and texture, adding more salt or cooking a little longer if necessary. Pour in the vinegar, stir, and cook for just a few seconds to allow the vinegar to be incorporated. Remove the pan from the heat and serve.

Bok Choy and Pork Dumplings

After we had children, we had to scale back on certain culinary undertakings, such as staging elaborate dinner parties. But as our children have grown (our youngest just attended his kindergarden orientation on Friday), it's become clear that certain ambitious cooking tasks are easier with children. In our household, making fresh pasta is entirely accomplished through child labor, and even birthday cake baking has been delegated. Recently my sister-in-law pointed out that dumpling making is another such child-friendly task, if you invest in a dumpling press.

Dumpling making is not a task I would take on single handed, but armed with our new gadget, I cooked up a recipe of pork and cabbage filling from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty, using tender baby bok choy from the Farmers Market, and let my sous chefs go to town.

The end results may not have been quite as pretty as expertly hand-pinched pot stickers, but they tasted delicious and our little assembly line was so productive that we had enough dumplings to freeze for a rainy day.  

Bok Choy and Pork Dumplings

adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty

makes 25-30 dumplings

1/4 pound tender leaves of baby bok choy or cabbage
3 Tbsp neutral oil such as canola
1/2 lb ground pork
2 tsp rice wine
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp darl soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
6-8 turns of a black pepper mill

1 package of frozen thin dumpling wrappers
more neutral oil for frying

1. Start thawing the dumpling wrappers about 30 minutes before, or microwave them briefly on low power.

2. Blanch the vegetable leaves briefly in boiling water, and then refresh immediately in cold water. Chop finely and squeeze to get rid of any excess water.

3. Heat 3 Tbsp oil in a wok or skillet. Add the pork and stir-fry for a minute or two, adding the wine, soy sauce, and salt as you go, until cooked through. Tip the pork into a bowl, add the chopped leaves, sesame oil, and pepper, and mix well.

4. To assembly the dumplings, gather a large platter or baking sheet, a small bowl of water, your filling, and the dumpling wrappers covered with a moist towel. Spoon a teaspoon of filling into the center of a dumpling wrapper, use your finger to wet around the circumference, and seal the dumpling with a dumpling press or by pressing closed with your fingers. Place the completed dumplings on the platter.

5. Heat a larger skillet with a cover over medium heat. Add enough oil to coat the bottom generously. When the oil is hot, arrange the dumplings in the pan and cook until crisp and golden on one side (a minute or two). Then add 2 Tbsp water for every 10 dumplings in the pan, cover and steam for 2-3 minutes. Uncover and allow the water to evaporate away. Remove the dumplings to a serving platter and serve at once with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, black Chinese vinegar, and hot oil combined to your taste.

Note: freeze extra dumplings on a baking sheet and then transfer them to a zip lock bag. To cook, add the frozen dumplings to the pan as above, but increase the frying and steaming times by a couple of minutes.

Sundry Uses for Homemade Sauerkraut

After attending the standing room only sauerkraut class by John Karlik from Sweetwater Farm, packed with eager hipsters taking copious notes, I recently tried my hand at sauerkraut making. At his demonstration, John had an impressive handmade mandolin about the size of a fruit crate that easily shredded a dozen cabbages in a matter of minutes, which got pounded down in a large tub by a couple of enthusiastic aughts using a large wooden paddle resembling a cricket bat. I started smaller scale with a single head of cabbage, a kitchen knife, and a five year old wielding a meat tenderizer. It worked.

After about twenty-four hours, the pounded, salted cabbage released enough of its own liquid to become submerged underneath the weight of a clean plate and gallon bag of water, allowing the inoculum of cabbage-associated Lactobacilli bacteria to flourish in the salty, oxygen-depleted brine and get busy fermenting. The recipe I followed from Karlik is essentially the same as this detailed one from Sandor Katz. The one difference is that rather than checking on it every couple of days, I left my crock rather neglected in the basement for about six weeks. When I finally remembered to take a peek, it had developed a skim of mold (Karlik had explained that he has a dedicated shop-vac for this), but once that was scraped off, the underlying kraut was delicious. One large cabbage produced two quarts. 

"What are those hipsters going to do with all that sauerkraut?" my sister wondered after I told her about Karlik's demo. I can highly recommend Karlik's vegetarian reuben sandwich with kraut piled on melted cheese and a generous slather of mustard. A less conventional use presented itself when it occurred to me that red cabbage sauerkraut is packed with pigments and lightly acidified: perfect for dying Easter eggs. 

Vegetarian Reuben with Homemade Sauerkraut

2 slices of sandwich bread 
several slices of sharp cheddar or swiss cheese 
homemade sauerkraut (follow this recipe from Sandor Katz)
dijon mustard

In a toaster oven or skillet, toast the bread lightly. Then layer on the cheese on one slice and continue toasting until the cheese is melted. Slather mustard on the other slice, heap on some sauerkraut, slap the two slices together, and enjoy.

Dyeing Easter eggs

For a lovely mottled blue pattern, submerge hard boiled white eggs in some red cabbage sauerkraut and wait a couple of hours. For a more even blue color, decant some sauerkraut juice into a small bowl and submerge your eggs in this. If you don't have red sauerkraut on hand, you can boil some red cabbage leaves in water and put in a splash of vinegar. Other natural dyes can be made with turmeric (yellow) and beets (pink).

Mung Bean Pancakes with Kimchi

With a large supply of kimchi from our Open Oak Farm cabbages, a recent New York Times recipe for kimchi mung bean pancakes caught my eye. 

The article was about cooking with kids (in this case the daughter of chefs Jean-Georges and Marja Vongerichten).  I was skeptical that our kids would try pancakes with kimchi (my jars of fermenting cabbage are a source of jokes for them right now, but someday they will see the light). However, I thought the basic principle (similar to falafel) of making a batter from soaked, raw legumes could be the starting point for all sorts of pancakes. So for my recipe I left out the kimchi juice from the batter and incorporated grated raw carrots and chopped mint into half for kid-friendly Korean style latkes. Both versions were delicious as appetizers for dinner, and the remaining batter made a tasty lunch of fritters on top of a green salad. 

Mung Bean Pancakes

adapted from “The Kimchi Chronicles,” by Marja Vongerichten and Julia Turshen

makes about 20 pancakes

batter
2 cups split mung beans
1/4 cup short grain rice, such as sweet rice
1 cup water
1 tsp fish sauce (optional)
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
pinch of salt
1 cup kimchi (or 1 cup grated carrots and chopped mint, plus more salt)
neutral oil, such as canola, for frying

dipping sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
2 scallions, green and white parts finely chopped

for serving
cilantro leaves
lime slices
sriracha sauce

1. Combine the mung beans and rice in a fine-meshed colander and rinse well with cold water. Transfer to a bowl and add 8 cups of lukewarm water. Cover the bowl and soak at room temperature for at least 6 hours and up to 24 hours, changing the water once or twice.

2. Prepare the pancake batter by draining the soaked beans and rice and transferring them to the jar of a blender. Add 1 cup water, the fish sauce (if using), sesame oil, soy sauce, and salt and blend into a slightly coarse paste. Do not overmix. Transfer to a large bowl, finely chop the kimchi and stir into the batter. You could also divide the batter into two bowls and incorporate 1/2 cup finely chopped kimchi into one and 1/2 cup grated carrots, chopped mint, and a pinch of salt into the other.

3. To fry the pancakes, heat a large skillet, such as cast iron, over medium heat and add 1 to 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil. Heat until the oil shimmers. Using a 1/4 cup measure, ladle in the pancake batter, flattening each pancake to 1/3-inch thickness. Cook until crisp and browned on one side, about 4 minutes. Flip the pancakes and cook until browned on the other side, another 2 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

4. While the pancakes are cooking, you can make the dipping sauce by combining the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, red pepper, and scallions in a small bowl and mix until blended.

5. Serve the pancakes warm with the dipping sauce, cilantro leaves, lime slices, and sriracha.

Fun With Fermentation

Here's my latest batch of kimchi, made with purple savoy cabbage, turnips, carrots, and green onions. The quart jar is dwarfed by my new sauerkraut crock, a Christmas present from my sister-in-law. In my family, plentiful sauerkraut consumption around the New Year is equated with wealth, so I'm feeling like a billionaire. And for instructions on how best to nurture a happily fermenting culture of lactic acid bacteria in my crock, I'm planning on going to the Fun With Fermentation Festival this Saturday January 12 from 11:00 - 4:00 at the WOW Hall. For those of you who miss the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market supply of delicious sauerkraut, John Karlik from Sweetwater Farm will be demonstrating how to make your own.

Kimchi and Bo Ssam

It's official: the Fairmount Neighborhood Farmers Market is over for the season. You can catch some culinary action on the corner of Agate and 19th this evening at the Dia de los Muertos Festival from 4 to 9 PM. If you are suffering from a sense of loss over the end of your summer Sunday routine and the passing of the sunny days, here is my prescription: be sure to preserve some of the last of fall's harvest for the rainy days ahead.

With a final collection of Sweetwater Farm's produce -- arrowhead cabbage, kohlrabi, carrots, celery, green onions, and garlic -- I made a delicious version of this kimchi. 

We turned on the oven for the slow roasting of a sweet and salty slathered pork shoulder, following this Bo Ssam recipe from David Chang's Momofuku. 

And we enjoyed these delicious lettuce leaf packets of tender pork and rice topped with a little bit of preserved harvest.

Kimchi and Bo Ssam

Kimchi
follow this recipe from Momofuku, using the following vegetables:
1/2 small cabbage, cored and chopped into small strips
1 kohlrabi, peeled generously and cut into matchsticks
2 big or 4 small carrots, scrubbed and cut into matchsticks
2 big or 4 small celery stalks, sliced into 1/4 inch slices

Bo Ssam
follow this recipe from Momofuku. We used a smaller pork shoulder, but cooked it for almost as long to achieve the "souffle effect" when the meat is falling apart and the fat starts to bubble.

Serve on tender lettuce leaves with a scoop of white rice, a couple forkfuls of pork, and a generous dollop of kimchi.

Homemade Kimchi

Right now in the microbiology course I'm teaching we're considering all the different ways that microbes make a living, eking out energy from the most unlikely sources and in the most unlikely settings. It's hard not to feel a little superior as humans, knowing that we have the luxury of aerobic respiration, popping out dozens of ATPs for every sugar molecule we ingest, while the slow fermenting microbes toil away to make a couple of ATPs from the same starting material. But, while dashing to class after frantic mornings getting the kids off to school, I've been thinking that there's a lot to be said for those fermenters' slower paced lifestyle. It's not all about the ATP. I'm certainly grateful for those fermentation byproducts, especially when they result in a delicious and easy kimchi stir fry supper at the end of a long day.

This kimchi recipe is based on David Chang's from Momofuku. It is easy to prepare once you locate the Korean chili powder, called kochukara, which I grabbed while racing through Sunrise Asian Food Market on a mission to find roasted black sesame seeds, although I forgot the jarred salted shrimp called for in this recipe. The chili powder went into a gingery, garlicy, salty, sweet paste that I tossed with cabbage, daikon radish, carrots, and green onions. Then I left the cabbage-affiliated microbes to their leisurely fermenting as we dashed off to a Saturday soccer game. Later that evening I tucked my jars in the refrigerator, instructed to let the kimchi continue fermenting for a couple of weeks, but we couldn't resist sampling it the next day. It was already delicious, with a strong kick of ginger.

A stash of kimchi is a readymade stir fry in a jar: a bounty of precut vegetables, softened but still with plenty of crunch, in a delicious sauce, that just needs heating up with some starch and protein. We're particularly fond of this kimchi fried rice recipe for a quick weeknight meal. A new favorite is kimichi fried rice cakes, topped with strips of cooked egg and a sprinkle of those sesame seeds. Given our speedy rate of kimichi consumption, our diligent cabbage fermenting microbes barely made it to their two week mark before we had gobbled them up. 

Cabbage Kimchi

adapted from Momofuku

makes 1 to 1 1/2 quarts

1 small to medium head cabbage, discolored outer leaves discarded

2 tablespoons kosher or coarse sea salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 bunch scallions, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (greens and whites)

1-2 julienned carrots

1 small daikon radish, peeled and julienned

20 garlic cloves

1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger 
1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup kochukaru (Korean chile powder)

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup usukuchi (light soy sauce)

2 teaspoons jarred salted shrimp (optional)

1. Cut the cabbage lengthwise in quarters, slice out the cores, then cut the quarters crosswise into 1-inch-wide pieces. Toss the cabbage with the salt and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl. Let sit for a few hours at room temperature or overnight in the refrigerator. 

2. Combine the garlic, ginger, kochukaru, fish sauce, soy sauce, shrimp, and 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl. If it is very thick, add water 1/4 cup at a time until the brine is just thicker than a creamy salad dressing but no longer a sludge. 

3. Julienne the carrots and daikon and slice the green onions. Drain the cabbage. In a large bowl, combine the vegetables and the brine.

4. Transfer the kimchi to clean glass jars. Pack the kimchi down so that the vegetables are submerged in the red spicy brine (the goal here is to have the vegetables in an aqueous, oxygen-depleted environment that promotes fermentation of lactic acid bacteria and prevents the growth of other bacteria). You can leave the kimchi to ferment in a cool place for a day or refrigerate directly. Though the kimchi will be tasty after 24 hours, it will be better in a week and at its prime in 2 weeks. It will still be good for another couple weeks after that, though it will grow stronger and funkier.