Pressing Tofu

I know Thanksgiving is in two days* but I don't feel like talking about stuffing or sweet potatoes; I've been doing plenty of that at work. So instead... Do you know about pressing tofu? It's an awesome trick, and I think it improves the texture some, plus it definitely makes it more flavorful... or easier to make flavorful. Think of it as a sponge (but tofu isn't inherently spongey, ok? it's actually really delicious). If you want it to absorb flavorful liquids (soy sauce, sesame oil), you have to squeeze out the flavorless liquid that's already in there.

Above you can see my tofu pressing set up: cutting board propped up on a lid so the tofu can drain into the sink, something heavy on top. If you don't have a cast iron pot, use a regular pot and fill it up with cans of heavy things. I find it easier to balance one heavy item than a bunch of middle weight items on top of each other, but maybe you like a challenge!

Once you've pressed your tofu, splash on a little soy sauce and sesame oil, turning the tofu so it's all coated and absorbing evenly, then broil it for 4-6 minutes until the top is browned. Serve with rice noodles and stir-fried kimchi, if you like.



*In fact, I have specifically been avoiding Thanksgiving-y foods for the last week or two. I don't want to be over it before the big day, you know? So we've been eating tofu and grilled cheese and burritos instead of mashed potatoes and cranberry jelly.

Kimchi Fried Rice

After making kimchi on Friday night, I started to think about ways to use it. I know I like it on hotdogs, and I've used it in tacos, but I had never made kimchi fried rice before. I googled around on it a bit and found an approachable recipe over on Rasa Malaysia (which has officially become my go-to site for easy Asian recipes). I changed it up a bit based on what I had around, but I did cook the rice in the morning before work so it could dry out in the fridge during the day. Freshly cooked rice doesn't behave in a frying pan, it's too wet so it gets mushy and soft.

Kimchi Fried Rice
serve 2

Variations on this dish abound on the internet, but most of them are topped with a sunny side up egg. Since I would eat a bowl of packing peanuts if you put a runny-yolk egg on top, I opted in. Oh, and by the way this takes all of 20 minutes to pull together, so consider it for a busy weeknight! Just make sure you have a cold beer on hand, kimchi is spicy. You can use less than the cup I used if you can't take the heat. 

3-4 cups day-old cooked white rice
1 cup kimchi, chopped, plus a splash of the juice
half an onion, chopped
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1-2 tablespoons sesame seeds
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs, fried sunny side up (optional, but excellent)

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. If you're going to use the eggs, fry them now (cover the pan so the top steams and they'll cook more quickly). Slide the eggs out onto a plate or board, and cover them with a bowl to keep warm.

Add the onion to the oil remaining in the pan (add a touch more if you need it) and cook, stirring regularly, until soft, 3-5 minutes. Add the chopped kimchi and cook, stirring, for several minutes, until the kimchi is starting to brown.

Add the rice. Stir it a couple of times so everything is well distributed in the pan, then pat it into an even layer and don't touch it! for a couple of minutes. Stir, redistribute everything, then pat it into an even layer and leave it alone again for a couple of minutes. I think the key to good fried rice is actually letting the rice brown, and the only way you can do that is by not messing with it too much. Repeat the patting and leaving-alone until the rice is cooked to your liking. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, kimchi juice and sesame seeds, then stir and taste it. Adjust seasoning with more soy sauce or sesame seeds as necessary. Divide the rice between two bowls and top each with an egg.

Making Kimchi

I was talking to my friend Sunny at school a few weeks ago (I graduated back in June but I'm a TA on Mondays) and I mentioned that I wanted to try making kimchi. Sunny is from Korea, and she offered to help me, and THEN she started to ask if I had the right ingredients.



She wanted to make sure I had the right brands of fish sauce (yep, two different kinds) and where I bought my red pepper powder and if I knew which radish to buy (I still managed to buy the wrong one) and by the end of the conversation she had written down the names of the sauces I was supposed to get and we made a date to make kimchi.



I salted the cabbage when i got home from work, but it turns out I should have done it the night before as it hadn't wilted much. I also used a very large grain gray sea salt; you can see it in the photo above. When Sunny got to my house she decided we should brine the cabbage while we put everything else together to try and wilt it further, so we mixed a cup of salt and five cups of water and soaked the cabbage while we chopped the rest of the ingredients.



Sunny would not stand still for a picture, but this is her julienning a few daikon radishes on a box grater (a julienne slicer would have been better, but I don't have one).



We chopped some scallions, ginger, garlic, and some tiny salted shrimp that Sunny brought. We also made a broth with kombu and water and a slurry with some sweet rice flour that we boiled with water until it was thick.



We mixed a paste with red pepper (I bought some at the Korean market in my neighborhood but Sunny brought some that her mom had sent her from Korea and we mixed the two), some of the slurry, a few tablespoons of broth, garlic, ginger, two fish sauces (one made with anchovies and one made with a fish called a sand lance)



We smeared the paste on every leaf of the cabbage quarters, then wrapped them into little bundles and stuck them in a jar. I left it out overnight to start fermenting, and the next evening I pushed the cabbage down into the brine and popped it in the fridge. Isn't it pretty?



I'm not going to post the recipe because it's more of a process that we eyeballed and I'm not entirely confident of it myself. Next time I make it I'll try to get it streamlined and share it with you, and tomorrow I'll share the kimchi fried rice I made with it. Have you ever made kimchi? What's your favorite way to eat it?