Cooking with friends brings me a lot of joy in life. While everybody’s working, you’re chatting, laughing, and just sharing life together. It’s honestly such a good time. Yes, cooking is a lot of work, but when you’re having fun, the tools feel light. It’s even more fun when nobody really knows what they’re doing.
Lately, I really haven’t been making time to cook or to really work on something fun or meaningful with other people. I mean… I don’t even work that much with others at work. So I was really craving doing some cooking with some friends. I will admit that finding people and the time to cook together is tough, but I was able to do it this past weekend. I made kimchi for the first time!
Compared to other stuff I’ve made like matcha cookie or salmon wellington, I think kimchi is one of the easier foods to make with friends. There is quite a bit of mise en place or food prep (a lot of vegetable chopping), but once you’re done, it’s just a matter of putting everything into a bin, layering in the salt, and letting the bacteria do the work!
Kimchi fermentation
Kimchi ferments through a process called lacto-fermentation. When you mix cabbage, radish, or other veggies with salt, garlic, and shrimp paste, and then pack everything tightly into a bin or jar, the salty environment helps keep out the bad bacteria while letting the good ones thrive. The good ones (predominately lactobacillus) eat the natural sugars in the veggies and turn them into acids, which give kimchi its sour taste!
I’m not sure if there’s really an ‘optimal’ fermentation time, but I know that the longer you let it ferment, the more tangy and sour the kimchi tastes, which just adds more depth and complexity. My friend let the kimchi ferment for about 3 days.
The kimchi definitely had that sour taste, but it was light compared to the kimchi I usually get at the supermarket. Still, it was delicious and had that fresh, clean kimchi flavor.
One of the guys made some garlic chili oil infused butter, which had insane umami. I forgot to take a picture of it, but kudos to you Nyk. I put it on my sandwich for dinner, and it instantly shot up my sandwich game. I’m definitely going to make it myself in the future.
I was so happy eating home cooked food and making kimchi with friends.
Thank you Travis and Jess for hosting :).
The final result of the kimchi:
