I wish I had a scratch and sniff blog, because this mix of jalapenos and garlic in soy sauce has such a great smell, my mouth waters when I walk by them. Even writing about them has got me salivating. *scratch here* (this will work when I get my technology up and running)

I think every Korean family has their own version of these soy pickled jalapenos and garlic. Everyone has a secret technique, secret ingredient whether it be sugar, vinegar, MSG what have you. But my mother-in-law makes them really simply – and I love hers. The great thing about hers is that because there is no sugar or vinegar, you can “age” these in your fridge for a very long time with no worries that it will deteriorate. Acids from vinegar tend to break down the jalapenos and garlic too quickly so they can’t do the duration in the fridge. I feel that sugar also does the same and for me doesn’t really enhance the flavor experience.

This recipe will be strange, as it really doesn’t have measurements. It will be up to individual people to figure out what jar they will use and make decisions as to how much garlic and jalapenos to use and to make it.

Soy Pickled Garlic and Jalapenos

1 good sized jar with a wide mouth which is big enough to hold your garlic and jalapenos. ((My favorite jar is this huge one that had marinated artichokes from costco, but you can decide what you’d like to use)
Bunch of jalapenos, sliced. Cut of the stem and just use the remaining portion of jalapenos, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
Bunch of whole cloves of garlic, tough woody top portion trimmed off
Soy sauce (I always use low sodium Kikoman, with the green lid)

Technique
1. Place all chopped jalapenos and garlic into the jar. Try and layer and mix up so the jalapenos and garlic are well distributed in your jar.

2. Pour soy sauce into the jar, NOT all the way covering the jalapenos and garlic. Do not cover about the last 1 1/2 inches of garlic and jalapeno. The reason is that the soy sauce will draw out water from the garlic and jalapeno and soon the soy sauce will eventually almost cover the jalapenos and soy sauce.

3. Allow the garlic and jalapenos to sit in the soy sauce for a good 4 hours. Eventually you will notice that the garlic and jalapenos are almost covered by the soy sauce.

4. CAREFULLY drain the soy sauce into a heavy saucepan. Leave the garlic and jalapenos in the jar.

5. Bring the soy sauce to a boil. As soon as it boils, pour the soy sauce BACK into the jar.

6. Let the jalapenos and garlic cool. Cover and place them in the fridge for at least one week. The flavor changes the longer you leave them. You can enjoy these for up to 6 months.

Normally I wouldn’t post two muffin recipes in a row – it sounds too – well – indulgent. But friends heard about it and wanted to try it and here I am, posting a double header of muffin recipes. These muffins are very similar to the tropical muffins as the base is essentially the same, but just switching out the ingredients. But they taste VERY different and are really yummy. My kids actually preferred these over the tropical muffins and husband walked around grumbling that he “only got to eat 3 of them.” They aren’t any harder to make than other muffins – you just need to wash and chop some strawberries and you are good to go.

** Preparation tips
Bananas taste the best in baked goods when they are the worst looking for eating; black, mushy, squishy make for GREAT baked goods. If you can’t bake when your banana is looking its worst, freeze it in a ziploc bag. When you are ready to bake, place it in the fridge to defrost over night and in the morning it will be defrosted and perfect.

If your child eats only part of a banana, cut off the eaten bit and stick the other portion into the fridge. You will save banana and as a bonus get some baking goods.

Measure out all dry ingredients the night before – sugar in one larger bowl, and the rest of the dry ingredients in a smaller bowl. Have your butter cut and measured in a bowl, ready to melt and your egg all ready to go. Paper liners in the muffin pan already all set up.

Strawberry Banana Muffins

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick of butter, (6 tablespoons or 85 grams of butter) melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 large ripe bananas
1 cup fresh strawberries, diced (I don’t think frozen strawberries would work in this recipe, so make them while you can!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake/muffin pan with liners. In a medium bowl, measure out and mix together four, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk egg and sugar together until well combined. Add melted butter. Mix well. Squish bananas into the mixture. A nice squish should break the bananas up well enough to be incorporated into the batter.

3. Add strawberries to the dry mixture. Toss until strawberries are well coated with flour mixture. Add dry strawberry mixture to the wet mixture. Use a VERY light hand to mix at this point. The more mixing you do the tougher the muffin so try not to over mix. You want everything well mixed together but not over mixed.

4. Divide batter equally in liners. Bake until golden brown, about 22-30 minutes.

5. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan. Then enjoy.

I decided to send myself on a little breakfast tropical vacation with these tropical muffins. I’ve always loved banana muffins but was excited to try and mix it up with some other flavors to change things. I am EXTREMELY glad I did because these muffins are really yummy – moist, flavorful and a total vacation for your senses. Do some prep work the night before, and 8 minutes of work and 25 minutes of baking produces delicious muffins in the morning. These muffins are fool proof and you won’t regret making them.

** Preparation tips
Bananas taste the best in baked goods when they are the worst looking for eating; black, mushy, squishy make for GREAT baked goods. If you can’t bake when your banana is looking its worst, freeze it in a ziploc bag. When you are ready to bake, place it in the fridge to defrost over night and in the morning it will be defrosted and perfect.

If your child eats only part of a banana, cut off the eaten bit and stick the other portion into the fridge. You will save banana and as a bonus get some baking goods.

Measure out all dry ingredients the night before – sugar in one larger bowl, and the rest of the dry ingredients in a smaller bowl. Have your butter cut and measured in a bowl, ready to melt and your egg all ready to go. Paper liners in the muffin pan already all set up. Set out your pineapple and coconut also ready to go.

Tropical Muffins (banana, coconut, pineapple)

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick of butter, melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 large ripe bananas
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained and slightly pressed on for the juice to come out (I use the Dole crushed pineapple in the can)
1/2 cup dried coconut (if you can find the unsweetened variety, feel free to use.) and a bit more to sprinkle on top of the muffins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake/muffin pan with liners. In a medium bowl, measure out and mix together four, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk egg and sugar together until well combined. Add melted butter. Mix well. Squish into the bowl bananas and mix. Add pineapple and coconut. Mix well.

3. Add dry mixture. Use a VERY light hand to mix at this point. The more mixing you do the tougher the muffin so try not to over mix. You want everything well mixed together but not over mixed.

4. Divide batter equally in liners. Sprinkle tops with some coconut. Bake until golden brown, about 22-30 minutes.

5. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan. Then enjoy and go on a mini vacation.

I posted a couple of weeks back on a Cold Sesame with Cilantro and Scallion Noodles. As I LOVE cilantro, that noodle dish is just perfect for me and I can’t get enough of them. However, I have one girlfriend who is not keen on cilantro – and by not keen, I mean, she can’t stand it. I think she’s nuts for not liking it but I respect her for being very quiet about her dislike of cilantro and have watched her slowly, methodically, piece by piece take out cilantro when it made an appearance in her meal. She often looks at my blog and asks, “Can such and such dish be made without cilantro?” and I’ll respond, “”Yes, but it won’t taste that good.”

As she was coming to a dinner party at our house, I wanted her to enjoy the noodle dish, but felt like merely taking out the cilantro wouldn’t be as tasty. I wanted to up the flavor but leave out the cilantro and this is what I created. Her husband LOVED it, and kept on going back and forth between this version and the cilantro version. To up the flavor, I decided the addition of chili pepper flakes, garlic, and ginger would add enough so that cilantro wouldn’t be missed. I essentially changed the flavors of the dish and made something new. It was a delicious noodle salad, and I think that from now on, when I have a bigger event to cook for I’ll make both versions so that those who do not like cilantro can still have some cold sesame noodles. This is great with any grilled meats, salmon, or would make a great addition to an outdoor picnic or potluck.

Ginger Garlic Sesame Noodles
Dressing
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I like canola)
2 tablespoons sesame oil (100% sesame oil – I prefer Kadoya brand)
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

The Rest

1/2 cup thinly chopped green onions
1 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced or grated
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (more or less depending on your eating audience)

8 oz thin spaghetti or angel hair (I recommend getting Barilla’s whole wheat thin spaghetti as it has enough bite to withstand the marination in dressing)
Salt for boiling the noodles

Optional Additions (choose one or more)
1/4 cup carrots, julienne
1/4 cup red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup cucumber, julienne
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
1 cup baby spinach

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. (Don’t forget to salt the water.) Drain pasta, but do not rinse.

2. While pasta is cooking, in the same pot (make sure it’s dry) you cooked your noodles, over VERY low heat heat mix honey, vegetable oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and red chili pepper flakes. This is to help melt the honey to incorporate it. Remove from heat.

3. Dump pasta into the pot. Pour dressing all over pasta. Toss together scallions and sesame seeds. Place into your serving bowl or storage container. Cover and chill for a few hours.

4. If adding options, add them before serving to ensure crisp vegetables.

Having a child with severe food allergies (son) has knocked the life and enjoyment out of eating out as a family. If we do go out, I have to pack separate food for him, worry about if he’s going to eat something off the table that he shouldn’t, and it essentially kills the joy of eating out. But every cloud has a silver lining; it’s actually made me a better cook, because now, if I want to eat something, I have to make it.

Hence the obsession with pizza dough – because I do love really delicious wood-fired pizzas, and I love the arugula topped salad type pizzas. One lovely friend gave me her pizza stone and pizza peel and I’ve been fiddling with a pizza stone on my outdoor gas grill as an alternative to heating up an oven, and may I just say – I LOVE IT! There is a slight art to it, as the few burnt pizzas and flatbreads attest to, but I can say now, I really understand how to make my pizza stone turn out beautiful pizzas and flatbreads.

This salad is perfect for a weeknight appetizer or meal (very light meal.) It’s great because you can give you kids their own homemade pizzas while you eat this incredibly deluxe and fancy meal – that essentially takes no time at all to put together. (arugula in a bag, cantaloupe cut, squeeze lemon,throw on top of pizza – TADA!) It’s slightly salty, tart, sweet, tangy – all in one. I got to enjoy this while daughters enjoyed their roasted tomato, basil, mozzarella pizza – and it almost felt like I was eating out. Well, almost, because I essentially was the waiter, the cook and the cashier, but you get the idea.

I’m still loving the pizza dough (for pictures) I made a couple weeks back and I’m still fiddling around with proportions of wheat and white flour. I do like about 3 cups of white whole wheat flour to 3 1/2 cups of white flour. I’ve done a full white whole wheat dough and although tasty, I found was almost too chewy for a great pizza dough.

Olive Oil Master Dough (from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day)
Makes 4 1lb loaves. This recipe is easily doubled or halved

2 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (I bought the Fleishman’s Yeast in a jar, and then stored it in my fridge after opening)
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar (I substituted 2 tablespoons of honey)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used 3 1/2 cups regular unbleached all purpose flour and 3 cups whole wheat white flour)

1. Mix the yeast, salt, sugar and olive oil with the water in a 5-qt bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container.

2. Mix in the flour without kneading, using a large wooden spoon. (because of my hand problem, I did use my stand mixer with the dough hook. You do NOT need a stand mixer, just mix with a large wooden spoon.)

3. Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature for about 2 hours. It will rise and get super big. You can use the dough at this point, or refrigerate and use over next 12 days.To make one flatbread, pinch off a grapefruit sized piece of dough. When you do this, your dough will deflate. This is okay, as it will rise again later. Loosely cover and refrigerate the rest to use over the next 12 days. (or less if you are a motivated flatbread maker like me!)

** Preparation tip – make this Sunday night, after the kids are in bed…it’ll take you 15 minutes to make. Let it rise and then stick it in the fridge to have hand for the week of food you can make with it.

Parmesean Crusted Flatbread with Arugula, Prosciutto, Cantaloupe Salad
Serves 2

1 grapefruit sized chunk of pizza dough. (make your own or buy some) If you are using cold dough, let it come to room temperature for about 15 minutes.
1/2 cup of parmesean cheese, shredded, grated, or thin slices

1/2 of a really good ripe cantaloupe diced (I used an heirloom seed Tuscan – smaller but so much sweeter and amazing)
4-5 slices of prosciutto, sliced into two inch pieces
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cups of arugula, washed and spun dry
salt and pepper to taste

On top of the grill instructions (Requires pizza stone) Unfortunately I have a gas grill and no good way to explain how to use a charcoal. You could experiment or simply use the oven directions.

Heat up your pizza stone on your grill with the lid closed. A good 10-15 minutes should do it.
Flour your surface and roll out your dough into a good sized circle. The thinner you roll the crisper your flatbread.

I’ve had problems moving a fully assembled pizza onto the grill (my own lack of talent possibly) so I’ve started assembling on the grill – which can be good, but also can be bad due to loss of heat. If you are a talented pizza peel user, please use it and assemble before hand if you can.

Open the grill and lay your dough disk onto the pizza stone. (slight sizzle) Brush entire surface with olive oil. Sprinkle 1/2 cup parmesean cheese all over surface. Turn down grill heat to low, so you can bake the top and not burn the bottom. This will bake for about 8-10 minutes depending on your grill heat.

While flatbread is cooking, assemble salad. Toss arugula with lemon juice and olive oil. As soon as flatbread is ready, when the bottom is nice and crisp and brown and the cheese is all melted and brown, remove from heat and place argula on top. Attractively lay the cantaloupe and prosciutto pieces on top as well. Sprinkle with black pepper. Serve immediately.

In the oven instructions

Preheat oven to 500. Place pizza stone or inverted cookie sheet inside. Preheat for about 15 mnutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll out or stretch out dough into a good sized circle (or other shape that seems to form – you can cut into attractive pieces later.)

Working quickly, place dough on top of preheated cookie sheet/pizza stone. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with parmesean cheese. Bake for about 7-8 minutes, or until flatbread is nice and golden brown on top.

While flatbread is cooking, assemble salad. Toss arugula with lemon juice and olive oil. As soon as flatbread is ready, when the bottom is nice and crisp and brown and the cheese is all melted and brown, remove from heat and place argula on top. Attractively lay the cantaloupe and prosciutto pieces on top as well. Sprinkle with black pepper. Serve immediately.

But motherhood never lets you have that extra five minutes of shuteye and three children 5 and under make it near impossible to ignore the duties and the calling of motherhood and so I get up. Oftentimes with dread, regret, or annoyance, but I do get up.

But these muffins make getting up in the morning much brighter. I prep the ingredients the night before and already it puts a smile on my face. I know when I wake up in the morning, I’ll have something warm and delicious after 5 minutes of work and 25 minutes of baking time. When I wake up, I sneak downstairs, toss the ingredients together and get it into the oven before the kids even notice that I’m not in my room. As the muffins bake and I am getting kids ready, changing diapers and washing faces, the smell of lemon and something yummy wafts upstairs making what I’m doing easier. Daughters will say, “Something smells good mom” and I’ll reply, “Something good is coming out of the oven.”

I’ve fiddled with one of Ina Garten’s Recipe from her latest book barefoot contessa back to basics only because I don’t want a streusel topping on my muffins. I think it is unncessary fat and sugar and I don’t like giving it to my kids, especially as a morning meal. These also have less butter (only 1/2 stick vs. many recipes which call for a full stick) and less sugar. I also don’t believe in using an electric mixer first thing in the morning as some muffin recipes call for and these don’t use a mixer. The extra flavor comes from vanilla and lemon zest and the moistness and richness comes from using buttermilk. In a nod towards streusal toppings, I’ve sprinkled the tops with raw sugar which was an idea that came from another food blogger – it adds a bit of that streusal crunch but not too sweet.

Make these and wake up with a smile on your face.

** Night before prep notes
Line muffin tin
Measure out all dry ingredients into large bowl (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt)
Lemon zest ready in another smaller bowl
Butter cut and measured (you can leave it out covered so it’s even faster to melt)

Happy to Wake Up Blueberry Muffins (adapted from barefoot contessa back to basics)
Makes 16 regular sized muffins

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick) melted and slightly cooled
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 extra large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups fresh blueberries (or frozen, UNTHAWED)

2 tablespoons turbinado or raw sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper.
2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix with a fork. Add blueberries and toss all together.
3. In a separate bowl mix buttermilk, butter, lemon zest and eggs. Stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture. Mix until JUST blended (don’t over mix as you will make tough muffins.)
4. Scoop into prepared cups, filling them until just full.
5. Sprinkle tops with turbinado sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

But most Korean restaurants here don’t do steamed cabbage as an option of wrapping your meats. We’ve seen the dduhk (thinly sliced rice cake), the moo (thinly sliced radish), the ssangchoo (red leaf lettuce) but no steamed cabbage, which is a pity because it is simply so good. Steamed cabbage is slightly sweet so it really goes well with bulgogi as well as other Korean marinated meats. (Spicy pork or just pork belly with steamed cabbage is also great.)

Bulgogi Marinating Mini Lesson

Korean beef is generally based on a good marinade and if you have a good one, you can do a lot of things with it. The following marinade can be used to marinate flank steak, which then can be grilled and sliced across the grain for a really nice meat; flank steak, kalbi, or bulgoki can all use this marinade. Another trick to marinating and saving time – it doesn’t hurt to do MORE and actually the effort to do more is well worth it – because it doesn’t actually take more time to marinate more meat. I usually do a triple portion, and then I have enough to freeze two packs of whatever (kalbi, bulgogi or flank) and then I can quickly defrost it if I want to make something with it in the next month or so. So when you buy your meat, just buy extra with the thought that you’ll freeze some to have ready for a quick meal later.

Marinade (for about 3-4lbs of meat) (easily doubled)

1/2 cup soy
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup sake
2 T minced garlic (or more if you like it more garlicky)
1/4 green onions finely chopped
sesame seeds
black pepper

Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Have a clean storage container ready and dip each slice of bulgogi into the marinade and place into your storage container. Continue until you are done with all the beef.

There are two fry pan methods of cooking the beef – one that gives you lots of extra liquid (which husband LOVES) and one that gives you no liquid and just a really flavorful beef (which is what I love.) The liquid saucy version means that you have to cook the beef in a cold fry pan. Put the beef in a fry pan and then turn on the heat and cook it over medium heat until done.

The non-saucy, more caramelized version means that you start the beef in a HOT fry pan. Heat up your fry pan and then place the slices in there and cook over medium high heat, quickly until it is all cooked through.

Steamed Cabbage

It’s a bit odd to me to be explaining how to steam cabbage, but if you’ve never cut one up to steam, it can be a bit strange. How do you cut it? What do you do with it? I thought I’d just show some pictures and explain.

Cut out the core on each of your 4 pieces.

For the prettiest leaves, tear out the middle section of the cabbage as the leaves aren’t flat and they are somewhat curly and not smooth. If you aren’t concerned about it, don’t worry – you can just use it all. If you want it to look more refined, remove the center core and use it in fried rice. Separate the leaves and steam in a steamer for at least TEN MINUTES. (sometimes it can take longer – you want the leaves to be nice and tender)

Steamed cabbage leaves.

Lay your bulgogi in the cabbage leaf and top it with sahmjang (Korean soybean paste) and green scallions.

Peekaboo! The tastiest flower you’ll ever eat.

But last week I posted on the Spice Rubbed Chicken with Honey Glaze and was fantastically pleased with the results; unfortunately Son was not. He did not like it and I wasn’t sure if it was the honey glaze I had put on top or the spiciness of the cayenne in my rub. In either case, he did not eat it and I was disappointed, because I was so hoping to make something yummy for him that he would enjoy.

I liked the concept of the rub and the honey finish so I decided to come up with my own rub variation, based on what I had in the pantry and finish it with the honey glaze (I’m now calling it a drizzle). Upon a raiding of my spice cupboard, I decided to keep it simple and use paprika, ginger, and garlic. These were all in powder forms and I decided to give it whirl. I did get the rub on the chicken the night before I intended to cook, only because I knew that the day I was cooking I was also baking 200 cookies and 100 cupcakes. A little pre-planning on my part and it was so easy to put together the night before.

I grilled some on the bbq and I made the rest in the oven. For Son’s chicken, which I cooked in the oven, I did not put the honey on top. The verdict? He LOVED IT! It was flavorful, moist and utterly delicious. He could not stop eating it and was shoving chicken pieces in his mouth as fast as he could.

My girls and I enjoyed the grilled one immensely – warm, succulent and tender – and totally easy to prepare. The honey drizzle at the end was the perfect touch and it all just tasted so good together. I served it with snow peas (Daughter #1′s favorite) sauteed in garlic. Super easy. This would also be fabulous with the Cold Sesame Noodles.

As an additional note, make extra because this chicken is FABULOUS to reheat and throw on top of a salad. I had it with a lightly dressed salad the other day and I was thrilled to have some reheated bbq chicken to throw on top of spring mix, tomatoes and feta.

Ginger Garlic Rubbed Chicken with Honey Drizzle
12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 1/2 tablespoon ginger powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup honey
3 tablespoons vinegar (I used rice vinegar)

Broiler (oven) instructions
1. Preheat broiler.

2. Mix garlic, ginger, paprika, salt, and olive oil in a bowl. Mix well. Add chicken thighs and rub well so that the mixture coats all the chicken pieces evenly. (I use a disposable glove as I don’t love rubbing up close to raw chicken.)

3. On a foil lined broiler pan, lay the chicken pieces. Broil until chicken is cooked – about 5 minutes per side. (I actually forgot to flip it and it was fine in there for 10 minutes, but watch your oven carefully as mine is not as hot as I think it is.)

4. While chicken is cooking, mix together honey and vinegar. If it doesn’t mix well, you can microwave it for about 15 seconds to loosen things up.

5. Remove chicken from oven. Brush chicken with honey vinegar glaze. Cook for 1-2 minutes more.

6. Place chicken on a plate and drizzle remaining honey vinegar sauce on top.

BBQ grill instructions

1. Mix garlic, ginger, paprika, salt, and olive oil in a bowl. Mix well. Add chicken thighs and rub well so that the mixture coats all the chicken pieces evenly. (I use a disposable glove as I don’t love rubbing up close to raw chicken.)

2. On the grill, place chicken over medium high heat. Cook about 5-7 minutes on each side.

3. While chicken is cooking, mix the vinegar and honey together.

4. Brush the honey vinegar glaze over the chicken pieces. Cook for an additional minute.

5. Plate chicken and drizzle remaining honey glaze over the chicken.

I had the opportunity to spend 3 years of my married life living in Seoul, Korea, my birthplace. I had Daughter #2 there, lived there, conceived Son there and all in all adjusted and enjoyed my time in Korea. It was a great experience and one that taught me a lot about food and life.

While in Korea, I was pregnant with two of my children – and the ONE thing I COULD NOT STAND….Korean food. I could not take the smell, the thought – everything about it just wanted to make me sick. We lived in a very Korean restaurant heavy neighborhood and all I did was think about moving out of there. I wanted anything not Korean, burgers, chili fries, burritos, tacos, ribs, corn on the cob, sandwiches – that was my craving. Husband took pity on me and escorted Daughter #1 and me to various restaurants, expensive and cheap to help me survive the pregnancy of hating Korean food.

I remember at the time, being both amused and bemused at the frequency of “pickles” at these non-Korean restaurants. A fine Italian restaurant? Have a bowl of pickles in the middle. Pizza joint – definitely need pickles at the table. Burger? Extra pickles with your fries please. I knew that for many Koreans, pickles were in essence, “replacing” their traditional kimchee, and the pickles helped these non-Korean, Western “greasier” dishes go down. Husband and Daughter always gobbled them up – I just looked at them, appalled that they needed pickles to eat anything. The food tasted really good – without pickles.

But essentially, pickles are good for the whole “balance” of a western meal. Many western dishes leave out acid, essential for helping to cut the richness of many foods and brightening the flavors. (There is nothing acidic on a pizza for example.) Pickles bring in the acid, brighten up the flavors, and balance the flavors of a meal. Clearly daughters and husband intuitively understand this notion, because if there is something non Korean on the table, they either ask for pickles or kimchee.

I’ve taken to making these VERY simple radish pickles – as they are so beautiful and wonderfully refreshing. They are somewhat Korean in their smell – only because they have a distinct order that comes from pickling radishes. They are a great addition to any table, and are so easy to make that you’ll always want to have a supply on hand. They are a beautiful color (as Daughter says – Pink PICKLES mom) and are fun to eat.

The only thing slightly tricky about this is the scoring of the radishes – but if you can do that, the rest is a piece of cake.

Pink Radish Pickles
3 bunches of radishes, washed and trimmed.
1 cup of white vinegar
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Mix the vinegar, water, sugar and salt and stir until sugar is complete dissolved in a glass container where you will store the radishes. (I like this big glass bowl that comes with a plastic cover.)

Score the radishes, about 1/4 inch mini cuts. Do not cut the radish complete, just cut them 3/4 of the way down. (see photo below) Add to the vinegar mixture. Store for several days until the red from the outside of the radishes has completely bled out and dyed everything a beautiful pink.

Radishes scored, about 1/4 inch apart cuts, 3/4 of the way down on the radish.

Radishes placed in GLASS storage container with 1 cup water, 1 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt.

24 hours later, the pickles look like this. Notice the vinegar water mixture has now started to turn pink and the white surfaces of the radishes have also become slightly pink.
Pickles 4 days later…pink and perfect.

But I also hate waste. I hate wasting food especially. When the fruit still tastes good but just has a funky look to it, I just get frustrated when my kids refuse to eat it. My solution is this – FRUIT JUICE! Watermelon and strawberry and honeydew and mango – you name it – a slightly funky looking but tasty fruit looks beautiful as a fruit juice. It’s a great tasting yet economical way to use up fruits that you have in your fridge that are slightly not so cute. Daughter #2 LOVES watermelon juice and today I had a half frozen watermelon. I just chopped up the frozen portion of the watermelon, stuck it in a bowl and blitzed it with a hand blender.

This method also works for not so tasty melons. Although it is melon season, I got a not so great honeydew this week. The kids didn’t want to eat it and so I decided to blitz it. Since it wasn’t so sweet, I just added a tablespoon of honey and blitzed it with my handblender – voila- a refreshing, silky, slightly sweet juice – and again, went down very easily with lunch.

So this summer, when you find yourself with a handful of berries that are “not cute” or some bits of melon that haven’t been eaten – don’t throw them away – turn them into a fruit juice that everyone enjoys. If you make a fruit mosaic and have some leftovers after it’s all been eaten, blitz those fruits for a juice. Feel free to stick the fruit juice in a popsicle mold and have a really delicious summer treat.

Summer Fresh Fruit Juice
Serves 4

2 cups your choice of fruit – watermelon, mango, kiwi, strawberry, honeydew, cantaloupe, pineapple, peach
1-2 tablespoon of honey, if your fruit is not that sweet
Ice (optional – if you like your juice a bit more watered down – my kids prefer no ice but super cold fruit that has been blitzed.)
Mint (optional)

Put fruit in a blender and puree or alternatively, put fruit in a bowl and blitz with a handblender. Add ice if desired. Garnish with a sprig of mint. Serve in a pretty cup.