Korean Cookery

Today I joined a cookery class hosted by the "Seoul Searching Sisters" to learn how to make "Kimchi" a fermented vegetable dish which is usually made in huge batches by Korean families and kept in jars in the ground for up to 3 years!

Yes, I know I am in Hong Kong, but the girls have some great little films on YouTube and I wanted to join in the fun!

We only had 2 hours to make our own kimchi, but the girls had done all the time consuming prep work beforehand. The cabbages had already been " brined" and needed at least 3 rinses to remove all the salt. Then Gina showed us how to make the spicy paste which would be combined with the cabbage. You can see, there are a lot of ingredients, and the bowl which looks like puréed ginger is in fact garlic!

Soon we were involved in the delicate and technical task of layering each leaf with the spicy paste, all wearing gloves as apparently without our skin would tingle! None of us managed to create a beautiful neat parcel, as you can see with the one in the bowl! ( not mine, honest!)

Next came a lesson on making a marinade for BBQ pork which we were going to eat later, followed by a session on how to make seafood pancakes, I will definitely be trying this at home.

Finally, we all got to sit around the table and eat everything that had been made, truly delicious, especially the BBQ, sublime.

We got to bring our kimchi home, mine is likely to take more than a week to eat, but, apparently, kimchi hotpot with noodles is a must!

PS, note the very expensive hairdo that is now back to the frizz after a very hot and humid day, ah well! :-)