Sunday seems to be my, "try a new dish" night. This past Sunday I tried making homemade kimchi chigae for the first time. I even made my own banchan (side dish); beansprout (kongnamul muchim) and sesame leaf kimchi (Kkaennip kimchi).
Kimchi is a traditional fermented Korean dish made from vegetables like, cabbage, bean sprouts, daikon with varied seasonings like garlic, salt, red pepper flakes. Kimchi, in cabbage form, is the ultimate staple in Korean cuisine and history and almost 4,000 years old. Due to its affordability kimchi was cured in small quantities, except the winter months where large quantities were jarred, stored in the ground and could be eaten for 3-4 months - enough to get through the harsh winters. As kimchi rests, like all fermented and pickled foods and people, it changes.
Throughout generations of the nation kimchi was a counterpart to the traditional korean meal of rice and soup and served daily with every meal. Kimchi is served as a side dish, the star of many chigaes, a stew like soup, or other main dishes. Kimchi is spicy, smelly, rancid, but oh, so wonderful tasting. It tastes like home to me, which is odd since I was not raised in Korean culture and probably ate my first kimchi (except for in the orphanage) when I was 15 years old.
Kimchi Chigae is probably one of my most favorites of chigaes, so naturally I wanted to see if I could make it. Ingredients include kimchi, red pepper paste and flakes, scallions, rice cake, tofu, onion, garlic, pork belly.
Korean cusine is always accompanied by side dishes (banchan) and eaters can expect to see anywhere from 2 "free" side dishes to 30. Yes, I had over 30 wonderful side dishes accompany this one meal in Wonju, when I visited Korea for the first time back in 2002. I was amazed by how much food lined the table while feeling a little guilty that one person could be given so much food when so many have none.
Well, I didn't make 30 side dishes on Sunday, but I did make a couple of my own for the first time. It was fun. These days cooking feels like the only creative thing I get to do. I need to get myself back to it.
A friend recently told me that I shouldn't post things like my cooking or all the ambitious activities like skydiving, because it makes me look NOT disabled. After all "normal" people don't even do these things.
"Well, what does a disabled person look like?" I asked, "because I don't want to look like that, I just want to be me."
I can only be me and while it looks like cooking, or the like, is effortless it's quite the contrary. I have very high standards and refuse to degrade them even if it means a bigger challenge. It takes so much effort and I'm shuffling milimeters to get to where I need to inside my kitchen. It may end with a pretty finished picture of the results, but it has nothing to with the results and rather all about the journey within that one, two, three + hour cooking projects.