Kimchi with Hal.

Recently, ALL of my ‘vanilla’ friends have been asking me subtly (and not so subtly so) to give bondage lessons, from drunken text requests for ‘tie up fun time’ to serious inquiries about certain knots. It is commonly known, or at least assumed, that if you are my friend, I have tied you up. If I haven’t, we haven’t been friends long enough. Hal is one of the exceptions. Having known her since I was flat chested (yes - there was a time), and knowing her interest, it was an anomaly that I hadn’t tied her.

Hal came to visit me in NY and spend a few days with me for my birthday, because, she is the best. She and I talked a lot about health, eating and living holistically. I decided that she would have to try my version of Kimchi before she left. Kimchi is a great source of probiotics, which are great for intestinal health. I stole this quote from the internet:

‘Kimchi contains the bacterium called lactobacillus kimchi as well as other lactic acid bacteria that are beneficial to our gastrointestinal as well as immune systems. A typical kimchi made with Chinese cabbage, carrot, garlic, ginger, onion and pepper is also high in vitamin A, C, B1, B2, beta-carotene, calcium and iron. Animal studies also suggested that kimchi may be effective against the avian flu virus.’

(http://theconsciouslife.com/top-probiotic-foods.htm) (news to me about the bird flu!)

I make Kimchi around once a week from the contents of my CSA, because what the fuck else do you do with all of that cabbage? The contents of my Kimchi change weekly, depending on what I have in my fridge. I do, however, manage to put kimchi on everything, from tacos to salads to eggs.

For Hal I made a sunny side up egg, on a gluten free bagel with Kimchi and siracha.

Rainbow Kimchi

Part 1:

Half a head of red cabbage
Half a head of nappa cabbage
1 cup salt

Part 2:

three inches of ginger
6 cloves of garlic,
any other hard veggies (turnips, radishes, kohlrabi) shredded
2 shredded carrots
¼ cup hot pepper flakes (or less if you are a baby)
⅓ cup fish sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Part 3:
1 cup water

1/2 cup sweet rice flour

1/4 cup sugar

Part 1: Chop the cabbage and soak in salted water for two hours. Drain.

Part 2: shred all veggies and mix in hot pepper flakes, fish sauce and salt and pepper

Part 3: Bring 1 cup of water, ½ cup sweet rice flour, and ¼ cup sugar to a simmer until thick and gooey, mix everything together.

Put the mixture into ball jars and seal tightly. Do not fill too high, or they will explode! Let stand at room temperature for 24-48 hours and then for 5 more days in the fridge. ENJOY for 2-3 weeks or until the stink goes from good stink too bad stink.

***I would highly recommend doing the intricate bondage before making the egg sandwich, as it is pretty gross cold.