(Not up for the chitchat? Completely get it. Click the email title to go to a web-based version then jump straight to the recipe or Cultural Fun.)
I’m well. Hot but well. Everything is taking about three times as long as it ought to.
Also, as someone who is married to a teacher, this time of year is a bit weird. James and I are child-free but still tied to school holidays if we want to go away. But of course, I’m not a teacher (not a school teacher anyway) so I have work scheduled for at least some of the six weeks that he has off. I try and clear the decks a bit so we can spend some time together and do fun things in London but I’ve never come up with a satisfactory way of thinking about this time.
Am I on holiday? Or just scheduling some long walks and gallery visits into the working day? I’m not sure. As a freelancer who sometimes works antisocial hours, I’ve always slightly slightly struggled to give myself permission to switch off during what I still think of as “office hours”. Often I end up with the worst of both worlds. Not getting much work done but not relaxing either.
The Garden Museum is always a lovely place to teach since the kitchen looks out over the beautiful central courtyard.
At least the work I do is fun! I was at the Garden Museum on Sunday which is always great and back at Borough Kitchen last night. More dates at both those places coming soon as well as more field-to-ferment courses in Oxfordshire adn Dusty Knuckle classes. Plus something in Walthamstow that I’m excited about. Make sure you’re subscribed to be first to know when the dates go live…
Recipe: Kimchi devilled eggs
Makes 20
I love a devilled egg. I feel like these retro snacks are having a moment right now. My revived love of them was sparked by finding them on the menu at Brunswick House when we went for my birthday dinner last year. There they were served with trout roe and sesame. Eggs on eggs to fabulous effect.
It was atmospherically dark but you get the idea.
I’ve served some version at several parties since but the menus for my supper clubs always highlight fermented ingredients so I knew I wanted to include kimchi in place of cayenne pepper as the “devilling” agent. The spice and umami of blitzed kimchi works beautifully with the rich egg yolk and they’re a great, make-ahead party dish as you can get everything ready well in advance (a couple of days if need be) and just pipe the filling when you’re ready to serve.
My supper club versions contained kimchi in three different forms: finely chopped in the yolk mixture, dehydrated and ground into a spicy dust and lastly as a caviar-looking “pearls” made with the brine.
These final cheffy touches are definitely a bit “extra” and by no means necessary for a delicious party snack. But they were fun to do and added pizzazz so I’m including the recipes in case you want to give either or both a go.
Ingredients
150g kimchi
10 eggs
100g Mayonnaise
Salt
Gochugaru (optional)
Small bunch of chives, finely chopped (optional)
Kimchi “dust” and brine pearls (optional - see recipes below)
Method
Blitz and strain the kimchi. Put the kimchi in a food processor and blitz to a rough paste. Put this in a sieve over a bowl and leave for a few hours or overnight. You can put a saucer weighted down with a tin or similar on top of the kimchi paste to help squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
Boil and peel the eggs. Put the eggs in a pan large enough that they can sit in a single layer and cover them with cold water. Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer and cook the eggs for seven minutes. Drain the hot water off and put the eggs under running cold water or in an ice bath to cool down as quickly as possible. Bash them about a bit so their shells crack.
Peel the eggs. Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, peel their shells off. I find this easier done whilst they’re still in their cold water bath.
Make the filling. Chop each egg in half (see note) and remove the yolk. Set the egg whites aside in an air-tight container in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. I like to put a piece of baking paper between layers to prevent jostling or breakages. Put the yolks in a sieve over a bowl and push them through with a spatula. Add the drained kimchi, mayo and a generous pinch of salt. Mix until evenly combined. Alternatively bung the lot in a food processor and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust the salt levels if necessary. If you want it spicier add some gochugaru to taste. Transfer to a piping bag and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Fill and serve. When you’re ready to serve, cut the tip off the piping bag and put a little dot of filling where you want each egg to be on your serving plate (this stops them sliding around). Pat the whites dry with a paper towel and put one half on each dot. Pipe in the filling. Top with a tiny spoonful of brine pearls and add a sprinkle of kimchi dust (if using) or garnish with some finely chopped chives. Serve immediately.
Notes (If Ifs And Ands Were Pots And Pans…)
When halving the eggs, look out for ones where you can see the yolk through the white because it’s closer to one side. Try and cut these through the point where the yolk is central or the eggs will look all lopsided and the thin part is susceptible to breakage.
Any spare filling is good on toast or loosened with a bit more mayo as a dip for crudités.
Some toasted sesame seeds and/or crumbled nori sheets would also make good toppings.
Recipe: Kimchi brine pearls
Ingredients
200ml (approx) neutral oil
Kimchi brine
Agar agar
Method
Chill the oil. Put the oil in a small container (I used a takeaway box) and pop it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. It should be cold but not solid.
Thicken the brine. Towards the end of this time, weigh the kimchi brine and put it in a small saucepan. Calculate 1% of the weight of the brine and add this in agar agar (or follow the instructions on your agar agar packet). Stir to combine fully and put the pan over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken slightly. Once boiled, remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.
Make the pearls. Use a pipette or syringe to drop droplets of the brine mixture into the cold oil. They should form little round pearls and sink to the bottom. If the brine mixture begins to set firm then add a tiny bit of water (a tsp or so), stir and heat it up again then continue. Keep going until either all the brine mixture is used up or your patience wears thin.
Store the pearls. Tip the oil through a small sieve (I used a tea strainer) to collect the pearls. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge. They will keep for at least a week. You can reuse the oil.
Click through to this Instagram post for a little video of the pipetting:
Dehydrate the kimchi. Lay the kimchi on a dehydrating mat, put in a dehydrator and dehydrate until completely dry and crispy. This took me about 10 hours at 40°C. Your entire house will smell of kimchi for the duration of this procedure. Be warned.
Grind into dust. Allow the kimchi flakes to cool then put them in a coffee or spice grinder and grind into powder. Sieve the powder to get rid of any larger lumps then store in an airtight container. It will keep for ages.
Click through to this instagram post for a video of the texture you’re looking for on the dehydrated kimchi:
This is a faff to make but keeps for ages and is great sprinkled on absolutely everything.
I have this dehydrator from Sous Vide Tools. It is bulky and I don’t use it that often but it’s quite a fun thing to have. Melissa Thompson has been very inspiring with her dehydrating adventures on Instagram (here she is making wild garlic powder). I’ve made some other bits and pieces I’m pleased with and will share with you soon.
I also have these dehydrator sheets which are useful to stop smaller pieces falling through the gaps in the shelves.
If you don’t want to give up valuable kitchen space to a dehydrator (and I very much don’t blame you, it was quite a silly thing to buy) then a lot of air fryers have it as a functionality or you could also try the lowest setting of a fan oven.
Cultural Fun
We had a delightful day at RHS Wisley on Monday. We first/last went in early spring when there wasn’t much out except daffs, magnolia and camellia so it was lovely to see everything in full bloom.
The orchards and World Food garden was particularly inspiring with all sorts of beautiful edibles I hope to try growing some day. There was a volunteer showing a Cuban oregano plant which apparently makes nice chimichurri…
We went by train via Woking (there’s an RHS shuttle bus from the station which makes the journey very easy) and stopped there on the way home for dinner at a really nice Lebanese restaurant called Jeitta which I highly recommend if you’re in the area.
I’ve been a fan of the comedian Daniel Kitson for 25 years and have lost track of the number of times I’ve seen him perform. (In fact - digression alert - I think the first time I ever saw him was the night I made my own stand-up comedy debut at the Purple Turtle in Oxford whilst I was still a student. I had to follow a fresh-out-of-Footlights John Oliver and Kitson was headlining! My own comedy career never came to much…)
He has done stand-up and story-based shows, often experimenting with form and location-specific performances. His most recent, Collaborator, currently on at the Albany in Deptford plays with the idea of audience participation, something he calls “creatively bankrupt and ethically questionable”. Yet the piece has nearly 200 parts and everyone in the audience is given a script…
It’s an exploration of the performer’s relationship with the audience and the artists’s urge to keep moving creatively but much more lighthearted than that sounds and very funny indeed.
We made our annual trip to the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, which is always a treat. I think what I really like about it is that in confronting such a vast array of styles and subject matter (with the possibility, no matter how remote, to buy the art), you’re forced to properly consider your own taste, what you like and why.
It’s a real antidote to “Filterworld” where everything is shaped by an algorithm and we all end up “liking” the same thing.
Here’s what it turns out I’m drawn to: pictures of pears; pictures of birds; variations in colour and texture; semi-impressionist landscapes; typography; almost-abstract black and white photos; fairly old school still lives with an eerie peacefulness about them, preferably of lemons or silverware or both; interiors of rooms containing other paintings; lithographs and etchings with lightly fuzzy lines, especially anything by Norman Ackroyd.
Have you been? What were your favourite things?
What a strange selection of things I’ve done this week. Last on the list was ABBA Voyage, the holographic concert experience from the Swedish supergroup. I went with my two oldest friends (as in, I’ve known them for the longest - we are all middle-aged/in our prime), donning sparkles and flares for the occasion, and we had a great time but I can’t stop thinking about what an odd experience it was.
Part gig: ABBA themselves might be holograms but there’s an actual live band accompanying the recordings. Part theatre or experience: the crowd is having fun, dancing and singing along but there isn’t the same energy in the room that there would be for a live performance. Your brain is partially fooled but not completely. You acknowledge the artifice whilst giving in to it. And then part multimedia show: the visuals are spectacular and there’s even a strange Manga-esque animated sequence halfway through.
I’ve never experienced anything like it. That combination of real and unreal. It totally messed with my brain. If you’re interested, I found this great article afterwards explaining how it’s done.
Bye! See you next week!
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In Good Taste is a Sycamore Smyth newsletter by me, Clare Heal. You can also find me on Instagram or visit my website to find information about my catering work, cookery lessons and upcoming events.
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I so resonate with being neither on holiday nor working properly! Am doing it right now! Love the recipe for kimchi eggs and the cheffy extras! And great description of how we react to holograms!
I so resonate with being neither on holiday nor working properly! Am doing it right now! Love the recipe for kimchi eggs and the cheffy extras! And great description of how we react to holograms!