Wash, Rinse, Repeat

The laundry hamper
I emptied just yesterday
is full once again.

#MyLifeInHaiku

SWOT

I can cook dinner,
Wash clothes and fold the laundry.
I don't gift wrap well.

#MyLifeInHaiku

meds

Naproxen, two pills,
Glucosamine twice a day,
low dose aspirin.

#MyLifeInHaiku

What's for lunch

Musubi with sesame seeds and gribenes in the middle. In the back, chia seeds with Perilla oil.

Kakdooki

Due to popular demand (2 people), here is my recipe for white radish kim chee. This is based on the recipe in the The Joy of Pickling with a few minor tweaks. 

Kakdooki (Fermented Daikon)

1 1/2 lbs daikon, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch cubes*

6 scallions cut in 1- 1 1/2 lengths, white parts split

8 cloves of garlic, minced

2 teaspoons pickling salt

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons Korean ground chili pepper

1. In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients, cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temp for 6-12 hours. I usually mix up the mixture 2 or 3 times during this time.

2. Pack the mixture into a quart size jar and push down firmly to remove air bubbles and push vegetables below the brine. The recipe says to cover the jar loosely with the lid but these days I use a plastic mason jar lid with a rubber grommet and an air lock (available at home brew supply stores)

3. Let the jar sit at room temperature (not warmer than 72 degrees) for 3-7 days until the radish has reached the desired sourness. I usually wait until my wife tells me the kitchen smells like kim chee. 

4. Tighten the cap and refrigerate. 

With the chili pepper I use, this produces a pretty mild kim chee, which is just right for my boys. If you like spicier you can add more pepper.

The original recipe called for the scallions to be cut into thin rounds but I like big pieces of green onion and so do the boys. 

Be sure to leave yourself at least an inch of headroom as the radish brine may rise after you put the mixture into the jar. 

* I use lobak, Korean daikon. I've never tried it with daikon or any other white radish. 

Riding the bike

Today we took the training wheels off:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob_vwUfD_2I&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Bed

Onion soup

This is what 7 pounds of Spanish onions reduced for 6 hours on low heat looks like. FYI

Things to do when you can't sleep

Play around with Twitterfeed.

No seriously

What did we do before the Internet and iPads?

Observations while folding laundry

1. My wife has a lot of running pants
2. The littlest one produces the most laundry by volume
3. I do not know how to fold women's clothes

Insomnia sucks

This makes it all worth it.

My First Mustard

Inspired by Hank Shaw, I mixed up my first batch of mustard today. Got all low tech and ground up 3 tbls each of yellow mustard and brown mustard in the mortar, mixed that up with a little under 1/2 cup of ground mustard (the can didn't say what kind), 2 tsp of Kosher salt and 1/2 cup of cold water. I added one clove of garlic passed through the microplane and add 3 tbls of white wine vinegar after waiting 10 minutes. I probably should have ground up the mustard seeds separately since the yellow seeds were noticeably bigger than the brown and therefore seemed to get broken up much more than the brown. Live and learn. I have a feeling this won't be the last batch of mustard I'll be making. 

Gribenes 4:23

Schmaltz 3:45

Schmaltz 2:54

It just occurred to me that I should be using a frying pan to increase the surface area so that the water can boil out faster. Oh well, live and learn.

Someone might wonder why a guy who has issues with cholesterol would be learning to make Schmaltz in the first place. There are several reasons:

1. This is a test run for when I make rendered duck fat to make duck confit.
2. I paid for this fat so I'm going to use it, by god.
3. Some chicken(s) gave up their lives so the least I can do is try to make use of every single part of their body.
4. By using the Schmaltz I'll use that much less olive oil or vegetable oil and save a few cents here and there

Schmaltz 2:32

Schmaltz 2:32

More fat. The aroma is filling the kitchen. I need to turn up the fan. 

Things I plan to do with this:

1. pour over the chicken liver pate I plan to make
2. fry up some potatos 

Schmaltz 2:15

after just 15 minutes the pot is boiling and liquid golden goodness is forming around the edges. I don't want it to burn so I've turned down the heat a little bit. My wife just walked by, looked in the pot and said "Whoa, that's a lot of chicken fat."

Live Blog of my first batch of Schmaltz

I'm getting back to my long lost Ashkenazi roots and making a batch of Schmaltz. This has been a long time coming. The evolution to this point has probably been almost 5 years in the making but I'm finally taking a small step.

It didn't occur to me to take a picture of the two bags full of chicken fat and skin that I have been accumulating exactly for this purpose so the first picture is of the cut up fat and skin, one diced onion and about 2 cups of water in the pot.

I've looked at about 5 recipes and watched one video and decided that since I'm really going for the Schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) and not the gribenes (fried chicken skins) that I'm dicing my onion rather than slicing it. Although all the recipes seem to suggest using a frying pan I'm using a pot because I'm afraid of fat splattering everywhere. So now the pot is on stove over medium-low heat.

- right after I put the pot on the stove and turned on the heat. Of course, I'm using chopsticks to stir.

 2:00 I just checked one of the recipes and realized I should put in some salt so I've added a few pinches. Kosher, of course (duh).