THE ITEM

Red Ginseng with Honey

Recently we bought this on a whim.  It was surprisingly affordable and a pretty color which are two of the most important reasons to try a new food.  Plus, red ginseng tastes like dirt which seemed like an interesting flavor profile to mix with honey.

If you aren't familiar with eating red ginseng, our friend Norma Jean described it best as an angry carrot.  Its taste is unbelievably earthy and leaves you with impression you've been tricked into eating/drinking a mud pie that will somehow cure all your diseases.  Who knows if red ginseng is actually as helpful as they say, but it sure tastes like it.

That said, we kind of like things that taste a little bit like medicine and dirt. Kind of reminds us of the grit in our teeth after a gnarly day of motorcycles and mud. And, as it turns out, when you mix it with honey it's like kissing your hot boyfriend/girlfriend after said ride through the mud.

That's right folks, Red Ginseng with Honey tastes like dirt and kisses and we love it. 

Now, you can be a wussy pants and just put it on your toast, but we recommend a walk on the wild side.  We added it to our Raspberry, Blueberry Smoothies and it knocked our socks off by adding a sort of "garden fresh" flavor.  

Of course, don't go to crazy with it or it will taste like you are just licking the berries of the ground in your garden.  I mean, we did mention it tastes a bit like dirt.  Even delicious, tasty dirt has its limitations. 

This isn't everyone's cup-of-honey, but we love what we tasted and we will keep this in the pantry from now on.  

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DEAR DIARY

Norma Jean

From the USA to Indonesia with love.

THE EXPAT TABLE: Where do you hang your apron these days?

NORMA JEAN: Ubud, Bali

THE EXPAT TABLE: How did you end up in Bali?

NJ: I came on a vacation and met some friends who loved the songs I wrote and encouraged me to write an album!

THE EXPAT TABLE: What inspired you to get in the kitchen?

NJ: Most people in Ubud are transient and quite a few are on a "vacation high." There's great restaurants here - like WORLD CLASS great - but after awhile you need the space to nourish yourself to feel at home. Also, I started the Anti-Candida Diet, cutting out all sugar, fruit, bread, anything with yeast, and alcohol, so making my own food has become the easiest way to make sure my body's getting what it needs (and what it doesn't!)

THE EXPAT TABLE: What does your kitchen look like?

NJ: Ovens are like unicorns here, so I'm operating on a pretty basic scale. Sink, 2 gas burners, a lot of counter space. I bought a blender which has made my life infinitely easier. Also, my kitchen is outside and overlooks my lotus pond... one of those beautiful Bali things.

THE EXPAT TABLE: Do you make a lot of things from scratch?

NJ: Yes. I find that making things from scratch brings more gratitude and enjoyment to the finished product.

THE EXPAT TABLE: How has doing this changed your life?

NJ: I'm more process oriented, and less results oriented. I guess you could say I'm more present about what I'm doing.

THE EXPAT TABLE: When you are missing home, what do you cook?

NJ: When I'm missing home, it's less about the recipe and more about the ingredients! I used to go straight for the cheese, now it's either avocados or almonds (I AM a California girl!) Also chicken soup is pretty reminiscent of home. I'm of the school of thought that says "Soup makes most things better."

THE EXPAT TABLE: What is the one ingredient you can't live with out?

NJ: Olive Oil. I know it's not local like coconut oil (which is so rich I use it in my hair more than my cooking) but sometimes you have to shell out for what's really important.

THE EXPAT TABLE: What is your favorite new ingredient from Bali?

NJ: Bali is an amazing place and there's a plethora of great, locally grown commodities.

A LOT of chocolate is grown here, and I started making my own chocolates with stevia (instead of sugar) that use local cocoa powder and cocoa butter! Even my friends who eat sugar are having me make them en mass!

I also like a lot of the local tea - Rosella is my favorite!

THE EXPAT TABLE: How has Bali affected your cooking?

NJ: Things are slower and less processed here. It forces you to insert yourself into the process to get the results you want.

THE EXPAT TABLE: How did living in Korea affect your cooking?

NJ: In California, everything is available year-round. It may be more expensive at certain times, but there's a general accessibility that anything can be had at anytime.

Living in Korea was not only the first time I lived anywhere with real seasons (or snow) but where there was a limited time-frame for certain foods, making things like eating locally and seasonally all that more conscious.

THE EXPAT TABLE: What do you do when you aren't in the kitchen?

NJ: I sing! I just finished my first album (it's on iTunes!)

Ubud is also a phenomenal place to live, there's so much to do, see, experience... There's great live music here every night of the week, so I go dancing a lot, practice yoga, and work for a magazine.

THE EXPAT TABLE:  What do you want to make next?

NJ: I've been on a Mediterranean kick recently, making hummus at least 2 times a week (I like to garnish it with sunflower seeds that I've freshly roasted in the pan with olive oil and a bit of salt.)

I think the next logical step is Baba Ganoush!

Norma Jean is a singer and Expat living in Ubed, Bali.  She just released her debut album The Devilicious Sessions.  You can find it on iTunes and playing around Bali.

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THE PERISHABLE

Goat Milk

Yah, yah, yah.  This is going a bit far right?  Do we really need to be hunting down free range, green goats milk on the outskirts of Seoul?  The answer for us is, "Hell, YES!!" because there are all sorts of reasons to use goats milk instead of cows milk. 

When we decided to make this change after seeing goats all over Korea, we had a little trouble finding it because we didn't know who to ask or where to get started.  However, once we did a little research we found that goats milk is all over.  For example, it is sold at many Homeplus and E-mart stores across the country.

It's also readily available at icoop stores (an organic food coop).  This is their website www.icoopkorea.coop  We have one in Pyeongtaek and it makes the best organic pizza.

However, we are always trying to go straight to the source, so recently through a friend, we found a "Green Goat" farm about 30 minutes away from us in Pyeongtaek.  We LOVE this goats milk.  No strong flavor, very rich texture, and it makes the PERFECT cheese.  A much better quality than the cheese made with the goat milk from E-mart.  Although, we are still happy to use the store brand when we are feeling lazy.

Here is the contact information for the goat farm:

Hand Phone: 010-9853-5869

Office: 031-352-1100

Address: 평택시 청북면 고렴리 1061 번지

As an added bonus for visiting the farm, you get to go hang out with the goats.

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THE FOOD

Feta

We had so much success with our Chèvre / Soy Cheese recipe that we thought we would kick it up a notch.  Inspired by a recommendation from Travel This we decided on Feta so that we can try more Iranian dishes, especially some of their great breakfast ideas.   We googled, checked out a few recipes and made our cheese plan. 

THE QUANDARIES

As you may, or may not know.  Feta is traditionally supposed to be made from sheep or goats milk so it fits into our dietary restrictions so that worked out great for us.  Of course, Feta is a lot more complicated than chèvre so we wanted a better quality milk so we started looking around for a better source including the local organic grocery.  However, serendipity stepped in and solved this problem for us.  

A local foodie/friend texted mid-week and asked to come over to learn how to learn how to make cheese, of course we jumped on it and said, "OF COURSE!!"  Then she mentioned it to a mutual friend who said she'd taken her son on a field trip to a local "green" goat farm and they sold goat milk.  Hurray!!  We will post a blog about said goat farm next week, for now we are focusing on the cheese.

Of course, feta is much more complicated and part of the complication is the fact that almost all the recipes tell you to put in "cheese culture".  Well, we aren't about to find greek cheese cultures floating around rural Korea so that was just not going to happen.  After sorting through lots of recipes we decided it could be done without the culture.

Another thing we chose to ignore was all kinds of talk about cheese salt, this salt, and that salt.  Screw it, we live in South Korea and we just use this the wicked delicious local sea salt from the local market that costs a dollar.  That's what's available so that's what we use.  

THE SOLUTION

Mostly we followed this video on YouTube.

We recommend you do too,

but we also made some changes.

After the video, you can read what we did.

NOW FOR WHAT WE DID

3 liters of goat milk

1/2 teaspoon rennet 

1/2 teaspoon calcium chloride 

6 tablespoons water

Create a double boiler using two kitchen pots and add three liters of milk.  Heat it slowly to 30 celsius.   This will happen pretty quickly so stay with it.

Cooking Note: If it gets to hot DON'T PANIC if it hasn't curdled just let it cook down by putting the pot in some cool water.  You haven't ruined it.  Just stay calm and cook it down.

While this is heating, dissolve rennet in 3 tablespoons of water and the calcium chloride in another 3 tablespoons of water.

Add the calcium chloride and stir.  Then let it sit for 1 minute.

Add the rennet and stir into the pot. Then let it sit for 1 hour.

After that cut the curd into squares with a knife and stir.  Then let it sit for another 20 minutes.

Now your curd will have a nice elastic texture that makes you wish you were making mozzarella.

Pour it out into your cheesecloth lined strainer.  During this step, if you drain the whey back into a pot, you can go ahead and make some Ricotta using this recipe:

Tie up your cheese clothe nice and pretty.

Now, put something on top to squish it down for a few hours.  Turn it regularly.

While it's pressing you can make the brine.  Follow the directions in the video.  It works just fine.  When it's finished draining it looks like this.

And once you put it into the brine it will look like this.

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THE FOOD

K-Country BBQ

Since half of this cooking team is a born-n-raised Southern boy, it was only a matter of time before this blog went K-country (Our name for Korean Southern fusion food).  The first item on our K-country menu is actually a two-fer:  Marinated Pork Ribs and Baked Beans.  They are so amazingly delicious you will want to put on some cowboy boots and drink some beer.

THE QUANDARIES

Here is the biggest issue with Southern BBQ in Korea - Molasses.  It's a bitch to find... or so we thought.   In actuality, Korea exports over 66,000 tones of molasses every year.  They call it 당밀 and you can order it on G Market for cheap.  Just do a search for 당밀 and have a co-worker help you order.  You'll be glad you did.  Now, onto the magic

THE RECIPE

Ribs

1.5 small onions

2 tablespoons ginger (powder or fresh)

6 garlic cloves

2 fresh lemons

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons Korean red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoon molasses

1/2 rack fresh and separated pork ribs.

Cooking Note: We used a small, half rack of pork ribs but it would also be good with other kinds of pork or chicken.  Please note, this marinade is very light and designed to highlight the flavor of the meat and not over power it.  You want fresh meat for the best result.  We use a local butcher to ensure quality.

First, add all the ingredients together in a mixer, food processor, blender, whatever.  Blend it all together and poor over your meat in a small container.  Add additional water to allow the marinade to cover the ribs and put in the fridge over night.

When you are ready to make dinner/lunch, take out the ribs and put them into tinfoil packets.  4-5 ribs a packet works nicely.  Put these on the grill to cook.  This will help keep them juicy.  Once they are cooked, you can quickly brown them on the open flame.

We work late so the magic happens in the dark.

Beans

Leftover marinade from meat

2 tablespoons molasses

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 cans beans
(we used kidney beans)

While you're beans are grilling, take the left over marinade and put it into a small-medium pot.  Add two cans of beans, molasses and brown sugar.  Let these simmer on low heat while the ribs are cooking, stirring every once in a while to keep them from burning and make sure they cook evenly.

Serving Note: This is delicious to also eat with rice, wrapped in lettuce leaves Korean style.  We use the lettuce from our roof garden. 

This recipe takes a bit of prep time, but then its very easy to make dinner.  Great for when you want something really delicious but you work late.  All the heavy lifting is done the day before, and come dinner time you just cook it and enjoy.

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