Growing up in Lahaina, kim chee was a staple in the fridge, next to the Best Foods Mayonnaise, and next to the tub of miso paste, most locals can relate.
What In sun talked about was that the cabbage (close to 2 lbs Napa), had to be sliced down the center only a tad by the whitish part of the bottom of the cabbage, not all the way down. As Alan commented as his wife was plucking the cabbage apart, "You never slice it all the way, because for one thing, the leaves in the center gets messed up, when you pull it apart, you have more leaves to work with." Then she sliced the cabbage in quarters, and then into bite-sized pieces. Then she sprinkled some salt over the cabbage that was resting in the bowl, this had to sit overnight or longer, but she had one prepped for the taping.
After that she boiled some water with cornstarch to make something of a roux, or slurry, she got it over the heat and it got thicker, then she cooled it down considerably. After the thickened water cooled down, she added some garlic and ginger, and some chili powder (not the fine one), it had texture, and then some shrimp paste, and green onions, and some Hawaiian chili peppers. This technique she claims makes the sauce hotter. "When you heat up the peppers, it loses heat, you heat the water and thicken it first, then you add in the ingredients when it is cooled down." Alan explained, "When we make chili pepper water, we never heat the chilis first, we add it in the water raw, it retains the heat longer. I learned that from a Japanese man."
Then she tossed the cabbage leaves together with the kim chee sauce, it was better than eating the bottled ones I buy at the supermarket, there's nothing like fresh kim chee, it was a great short segment that needs to be edited for Akaku TV and to be on YouTube, so I got some work to do.
In sun and Alan Fukuyama on the set
No comments:
Post a Comment