Burger
Burgers have a somewhat undeserved reputation as junk food. It is indeed true that there are some pretty poor examples out there, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have good burgers if we try.
The Perfect Burger
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Cornbread
Cornbread
A large plastic tub containing eight kilograms of yellow maize arrived on my doorstep this morning (along with a similar tub containing wheat), so I felt obliged to make something with it this evening. I milled some of the corn into cornmeal, and decided to make cornbread.
Fruit Kimchi Tasted
Fruit Kimchi
I tasted the fruit kimchi at the weekend – it was certainly interesting. It had all the flavours you would expect from a normal kimchi – garlic, ginger, chilli, and the sourness from the fermentation – but there was more there. It fizzed lightly on the tongue, and had a slightly alcoholic taste to it. That fizzing sensation reminded me of the home-made wines my parents used to make when I was a kid if you got to taste them whilst they were still fermenting.
An odd sensation overall, but not unpleasant. I’m not entirely sure what kind of food it would go with. Cold roast chicken springs to mind as a likely candidate. I need to experiment a little here, I think.
Fruit Kimchi
Fruit Kimchi
Last night, I started off some fruit kimchi based on the recipe in the Wild Fermentation book. Ingredients-wise, it’s very much like a vegetable kimchi, but using fruit. In this one, there’s pineapple, apples, pears, plums, grapes, coriander and a handful of cashew nuts, together with the usual kimchi flavourings of salt, garlic, ginger and chillies.
I’ve not tried this before, so I’m not entirely sure how it will turn out, although the sneak taste this morning was rather nice, even though it hasn’t had chance to ferment yet. It now needs a week, maybe two, sat on the side in the kitchen before it’s ready. I’ll be sure to report back.
Barszcz
Krakus Barszcz Koncentrat
My friend Anya kindly gave me a present yesterday – a bottle of deep red liquid proclaiming itself to be Barszcz Koncentrat. It’s apparently concentrated beetroot juice and used in making Borscht (or, if you’re Polish, barszcz). I now need to figure out just what to do with it – Google Translate is coming in very useful here. Look out for a borscht recipe here soon!