Authors: Theresa Rodgers

Dharma Feast Cookbook (40 page)

Kimchi is Korean sauerkraut. Koreans eat kimchi every day, adding it to breakfast and even using it as a cure for hangovers. They say it keeps the doctor away. Its spice can enliven all kinds of rice dishes and soups, even matzoh ball soup.

We love how colorful it is and how much room there is for creativity in the particular mix of vegetables you choose. Try different vegetables depending on the season—for instance, use green onions and napa cabbage as a base in the spring and add cucumbers in the summer. You can also add all kinds of root vegetables, Jerusalem Artichokes, snow peas, seaweed, and spicy peppers to taste. It is common to add fish sauce to the recipe as well. This recipe has no chile in it but is plenty spicy, in a more kid-friendly way, due to the garlic. But add the chiles if you wish.

Fermented foods like kimchi take patience and experimentation. The time it takes to wait for them to ferment only adds to the joy you feel when you finally get to taste them. A small bit of kimchi goes a long way towards waking us up and slowing us down. Sounds better than meditation.

M
AKES ABOUT
14
OUNCES

P
REP TIME
35
MINUTES (WITHOUT FERMENTATION TIME)

2 cups filtered water

2 tablespoons sea salt

1 head napa or savoy cabbage, chopped or grated (you can

also use bok choy)

½ daikon radish or a few red radishes

2 carrots, sliced

4–6 cloves garlic, chopped

1–2 green onions and/or shallots or leeks

3 tablespoons grated ginger

1–4 red chiles, either whole,

dried, or in a sauce (optional)

Mix together water and sea salt in a large jar or in a bowl; mix or shake well to dissolve salt.

Place cabbage, radishes, and carrots in half of the brine and mash them down with hands or with any pestle-like tool until they are submerged by the liquid. Add more brine if necessary. Place a plate over the mixture to keep vegetables submerged and cover with a clean cloth.

A few hours later or even the next day, once the vegetables are soft, prepare the spices. Blend garlic, onions, ginger, and chiles (seeded), if using, into a paste. If using fish sauce, add it to paste. (Make sure that the sauce has no chemical preservatives in it or fermentation will be prevented.)

Drain brine off vegetables into a bowl and set aside. Taste vegetables for saltiness. If they’re too salty, rinse them. If they aren’t salty enough, add a few more teaspoons of salt but be careful not to add too much.

Mix together vegetables and paste and press this mixture into a quart-sized jar or a bowl. Press it down until juices are higher than vegetables. You can add some brine back in if necessary. Weigh down vegetables with another smaller jar or with a plate. At least once a day, or several times, pack kimchi down further with your hands and re-cover. Always cover the set-up with a clean cloth.

After about a week, start tasting. When it tastes sharp, move it to the refrigerator.

B
EET
K
VAAS

Many Americans have never heard of it, but in the Ukraine beet kvaas is found in most kitchens. It adds a sour saltiness to their soups and is also used as a health tonic.

While for most people it wouldn’t win awards for taste, some people crave it because of how good it makes them feel. Like other lacto-fermented drinks, it provides a hydrating balance in the body similar to electrolyte drinks, but in a much more natural way. Folk medicine teaches us that beets contain high levels of anti-carcinogens; they can be especially strong in preventing colon and stomach cancers. They also support liver health, increase the oxygen-carrying ability of the blood, and are an easily assimilated, high-quality source of iron.

Anybody that hangs in there long enough through experimenting to create the appropriately mellowed taste of beet kvaas ends up hooked on it and keeps a batch continuously going, adding new beets and using ¼ cup of this liquid instead of whey for the next batch.

M
AKES ABOUT
14
OUNCES

P
REP TIME WHEY:
10
MINUTES (WITHOUT SEPARATION TIME); BEETS:
10
MINUTES (WITHOUT FERMENTATION TIME)

¼ cup whey (see Note below)

3-5 medium beets, peeled and roughly chopped (Don’t cut them too thinly or you will create alcohol rather than lactic acid.)

1 tablespoon sea salt

Filtered water

Combine whey, beets, and salt in a 2-quart container. Add filtered water to fill. Stir well and cover. Let this sit on the counter for 2 days and then transfer to the fridge. If any mold forms, just scoop it off the surface. This will probably only occur if it is very warm or it is left longer than 2 days.

One-fourth cup of this liquid can be used to start another batch, removing the need for whey.

Many people find beet kvaas tastes better if left for a week or more in the refrigerator. This further fermentation mellows the saltiness.

Note
–Make
whey
from good-quality raw milk or from whole-milk plain yogurt. If using raw milk, place it on the counter in a glass jar and allow it to separate. This should take anywhere from 1–4 days. Place a dish towel over a strainer. Place this lined strainer over a bowl. Pour the separated milk or yogurt, if you’re using yogurt, into the lined strainer and then tie up the towel into a package, being careful not to squeeze the milk solids inside. Place a wooden spoon through the knot and then rest it on top of the container. This will allow more of the whey to drip out. When the whey stops dripping, put whey and resulting cream cheese (what’s in the towel) into separate covered glass jars. Refrigerate. 3 cups yogurt makes about 1¼ cups whey. Use ¾ cup yogurt if you only need the ¼ cup whey for this recipe.

N
UTS AND
S
EEDS

Roasted nuts and seeds are a wonderful way to add protein and good fats to breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They bring flavor and variety to any meal. Sprinkle them over salads and vegetables, mix them in with cooked grains, or eat them on their own as part of a lunch or dinner, or as a snack.

Homemade nut butters contain more nutrients than store-bought ones because they are fresh, but make sure to refrigerate them so the naturally-occurring oils don’t go rancid. They can be used in dressings, desserts, smoothies, or even eaten straight. They can also be used as a base for sweet or savory sauces.

Don’t eat too many nuts at once. They contain enzyme inhibitors, which makes them very difficult to digest. To rid them of enzyme inhibitors and activate the enzymes needed for digestion, soak them overnight in water or in water with a little pineapple juice, or toast them. See
Soak and Toast Nuts and Seeds
in
How To,
Chapter 6
. Even when soaked or toasted, it’s best to eat only a handful or so at a time.

G
OMASIO
(S
ALT
S
UBSTITUTE
)

Gomasio is traditionally from Japan and is a principal table condiment in macrobiotic cooking. It’s made out of ground, toasted sesame seeds (with or without salt) and sprinkled over food. It can be used as a topping for any dish. The smell of toasted, ground sesame seeds can be counted among the best smells in any kitchen.

M
AKES
2
CUPS

P
REP TIME
15
MINUTES

2 cups raw sesame seeds

Put seeds into a cast iron frying pan. Roast over medium heat, stirring constantly, until brown but not dark. If seeds start to smoke, turn down heat.

Let seeds cool and put into food processor, coffee grinder used just for spices, or Vita-Mix, and grind until desired consistency is reached. Don’t grind too long or it will turn into tahini.

T
AHINI

M
AKES
2 ¼
CUPS

P
REP TIME
25
MINUTES

2 cups raw sesame seeds, toasted

¼ cup olive oil (or more, to desired

thickness)

Toast sesame seeds in a heated dry skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until barely light brown. Pour onto baking sheet and let cool.

Once cool, put sesame seeds in food processor. Blend until finely ground. Add oil and blend until smooth.

R
OSEMARY
C
ASHEWS