ferments

ferments, Probiotic, Vegetarian

Korean Sauna Deviled Eggs

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

I have loved Korean saunas since my friend introduced me to one in 2011. It happened to be WiSpa at the edge of KTown on LA. I was hooked. Sadly there are none here in the desert so we have been deprived since moving. In a random recipe search for something else I found Korean Sauna Eggs which apparently are common snack at the cafes in the saunas that I had missed out on.

I started a batch last night using data from all the recipes I found rolled into one. The trick with these guys is that they are pressure cooked for 1, 2, 3, or 4 hours depending on level of brown nutty good ness you want. I had these blue eggs on hand which I put in the instapot for 2 hours on pressure and let the pot naturally release when done and then just through them into the fridge. With the eggs in the instant pot you need two cups of water and 2 tsp salt

If you have never made eggs in your instapot, one of the joys is the ease in peeling.

Peeling batch one and you see the second batch coming out of the pot
My first batch after peeing.

Yep. These aren’t bad. This is how they turn out. they peel like a dream and have a brown color with nice nutty flavor.

I decided these would turn into deviled eggs that I would flavor based on their heritage.

Korean red pepper flakes (just a dash), some seasoned soy paste (1/2 tsp), and about 1TBl kimchi. Mix it all up.

Fill your eggs and chill. I garnished with a tiny piece of kimchi and a dab of sriracha.

This were so much better than I planned. The nuttiness of the egg and the soy paste marry perfectly.

I’m making these again

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beans, ferments, Gluten-free, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

Pupusas with fermented curtido and salsa

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

I started this adventure a week ago as the curtido needs 2 days to ferment so the rest of the time it can hang in the fridge.

A half a head of cabbage, 2 grated carrots, and 2 garlic cloves

I did use 1 tsp of salt and 1/8 tsp of culture…plus about 1 tablespoon of Mexican oregano.

And she got treated to 3 days on the counter at room temp

The sauce starts with three anchos and one California soaking in warm water. Once they soften (retain the water) they are cleaned of seeds and hard stems and added to 1 big Roma and 3 garlic close, a dash of liquid smoke and a quarter of an onion in the blender. Adding soaking water as needed.

The sauce mixture goes on the lowest heat to simmer down by 1/3 volume then adding reserved chili liquid to reach a somewhat runny consistency.

I forgot to soak the beans in advance so they did a cycle in the Instant Pot on pressure cooker. After that I added my home made low sodium no chicken broth—substitute as you will…onion, garlic powder. Simmering slowly to eliminate liquid.

I just mush them in the pan so I have some solid pieces but mostly mashed.

The Pupusas were made with 2 cups masa and 1 1/2 cups water, and a little salt. My Pupusas were small and this recipe yielded 8. You just mix the ingredient and go for a Play Doh texture adding a little more water or a little masa if needed. I filled these with cheese—you can use any melting cheese you want really, but I had a white Mexican cheese.

My dough was rolled into 8 balls. Take a ball and press your thumb in to make a deep indentation. Fill that with about 1 Tbl cheese, close your hole and flatten the pupusa, which next gets fried. you can make this vegetarian by using beans instead of cheese as the filling.

I had a jicama sitting around so I cut that into sticks and sprinkles with tajin and lime.

Here’s the whole table:

The pupusas
Salsa, curtido and margarita
A pupusa with sauce and curtido. I like my curtido dripping over the top….
beans, cultured, ferments, Gluten-free, Uncategorized, Vegetarian

Cultured Beans

Aside | Posted on by Brian and Jim

This is batch 4 of my attempts at cultured beans. The first batch was black beans made with the fermentation liquid from a hot sauce batch plus salt. It was yummy but too salty for my taste. The second batch was creamy creamy white beans that I made with salt and yogurt whey and they were yummy but I must have put a dirty spoon by accident or something because after they were finished and I scooped some, they grey fuzz so I trashed them. Batch three were garbanzos made with buttermilk whey—they were okay but I’m not a fan of the buttermilk whey. So I bought some powdered culture. This batch is cannelini with salt and culture. They taste great going into the jar.

They need the skins busted open. They don’t need to be mashed but they do need the skin broken so the culture can get in. These beans soaked a day then I boiled them with dried garlic and some fresh rosemary.

Smash them up with the culture—about 4 Tablespoons and 1 Tablespoon salt. I used Cutting Edge Culture at 1/8 tsp/4 Tbls water.

Pack into the jar and leave it out 3 days….and fingers crossed that we have some magic.

Day two—24 hours
Day 3 it puffed up.

And finally they are ready for fun! These are super creamy with a nice sour bite and no overwhelming salt flavor.