How to make Kimchi at home

I like the Korean kimchi very much, but the kimchi available in the market are of two extremes.  On the one side, it is the good quality kimchi directly imported from Korea.  These kimchi's are very good in taste but high in price.  For a small pack, it costs you about $3-4.  On the other side, it is the local made kimchi's.  You see those kimchi's often served in our local food courts.  The taste is really bad and lacks that mouth-watering sensation.

So?  What can I do?  I do it at home, myself.  I did some search in the internet, watched some YouTube videos, and voila, I embarked on my kimchi-making journey.

Ingredients:

1. Chinese cabbage
2. Garlic mince
3. Ginger mince
4. Sping onion
5. Reddish
6. Salt
7. Sugar
8. Fish sauce
9. Chilli power

Preparation 1:

1. Cut Chinese cabbage into half, wash clean.
2. Put one cup of salt into water and let the salt fully dissolve into it
3. Put your Chinese cabbage into the salt water, and put a ceramic plate on top to press the cabbage down.  Leave it in room temperature for 24 hours.

Preparation 2: The sauce

1. Cut spring onion into small pieces
2. Cut reddish into small slices
3. Mix the spring onion, reddish, ginger, garlic together with one tea spoon of fish sauce, one tea spoon of sugar, one tea spoon of salt, and 3 tea spoons of chilli power.  Add one cup of water.

Preparation 3:

1. Take out the Chinese cabbage that has been marinated for 24 hours.  Cut it into 1-inch slices.  Mix the Chinese cabbage together with the sauce.
2. Put the mixture into an air-tight container and leave it in room temperature for 24 hours, and voila, you can have you home-made kimchi!

Notes:
1. You can also add in apple and/or pear in the sauce.  I have not tried it before, so decide for yourself.
2. The exact portions of the ingredients is subject to personal taste.  You can plus minus according to your own taste.
3. You will find different from what you see on TV about the kimchi preparation.  In TV, they don't cut the Chinese cabbage into small slices, instead, they marinate the Chinese cabbage leaf by leaf with the sauce.  That's the so-call authentic way of preparing kimchi, but it becomes quite a chore when you want to eat your kimchi.

Enjoy your home-made kimchi :)

Flu Prevention Porridge

I have noticed there is an increase number of people having flu these days.  In office, in the MRT trains, in the bus, everywhere you go, sure you will hear someone coughing, sneezing, blowing their noses.  Viruses are easier to spread in the air-conditioned environments we so love to stay in.

To help ourselves, I would like to share with you a recipe of Flu Prevention porridge.  The ingredients are easy to get & inexpensive, the preparation is easy too.

Ingredients:
1. Rice
2. A few slices of ginger
3. some white portion of spring onion (葱白)
4. rice vinegar

Preparation:
1. Put ginger and rice together with sufficient water into a pot to boil into porridge
2. When it is done, put in the spring onion
3. Before serving, add in some rice vinegar and boil for a few more minutes, then it is done and ready to serve.

It is very easy, isn't it?  I have tried this recipe myself and it works pretty good.  Give it a try. 

Tom Yum Kung

Tom Yum Kung

Ingredients:

1. Prawm with shell
2. lemon grass
3. laksa leave
4. ginger
5. onion
6. small lime
7. mushroom
8. garlic
9. red chilli

Preparation:

1. cut garlic, red chilli, ginger into small pieces
2. cut lemon grass and onion into pieces
3. wash clean mushroom
4. remove head & shell of the prawns. cut the prawn into halves and devein. Put the heads & shells aside

Direction:

1. Heat up a wok, put in some cooking oil, wait until the oil heats up
2. Put in garlic & chilli, fry till the garlic becomes golden
3. Put in prawn shell & head. Fry till they turn orange.
4. Add in water. Wait until water boils.
5. Put in ginger, lemon grass, & laksa leaves
6. Wait till the soup boils, then leave it boiling for a couple of minutes
7. Drain the soup through a filter to remove all the contents
8. Put the soup back into a wok, wait for it to boil again
9. Once the soup boils, put in mushroom, onion, and let it cook for a few minutes
10. Put the prawns in the wok and cook for ~3 more mins
11. Squeeze small limes, and add the juice to the soup for the final touch

When serving, it is optional to add fish sauce and some chilli. Fish sauce is made from fermented fish. Popular in South East Asia, but it is said to have some health hazards related to fish sauce.

This is my personal recipe. It works well for me. You are most welcome to try it out and give me some feedback.

This recipe is only for prawn Tom Yum, you can actually modify the recipe for chicken, or squid, or whatever you like, for the hot & sour taste.