(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.)
Happy New Year! I think you’re allowed to greet people with that until the end of January, right?
I’m not a huge believer in New Year’s Resolutions. As a teenager I used to write 10 every December 31st and then forget about them until the same time the following year when I would write a hand-wringing diary entry about my failure to self-improve. I had no sense that intention alone wasn’t enough.
Sample diary entry as 1993 ticked into 1994: “I will change the world for the better and be happy more often than not.” Looking back the next NYE I decried this as “WITLESS” which is absolutely fair enough. But it’s also meaningless and unmeasurable. I think I was quoting something, but 30 years later have no idea what.
However, January is as good a time as any to think about what you want in life and try and do something about it. I usually do Dry Jan (or at least some part of the month) as I find it a pleasant re-set after all the indulgences of the holidays. Boring but peaceful and with great sleeps.
I actually felt better at the beginning of the year than I usually do. Most years I’m longing for abstinence by Boxing Day, overfed and fuggy with sugar and booze. But this Christmas just gone I made a conscious effort to pace myself. We were away for 10 days, visiting friends and family and living out of a suitcase but I took a little survival kit of gut-replenishing sauerkraut and some kefir grains with me and it definitely made a difference.
Tim Spector of Zoe has been out and about promoting his M&S Gut Shot which I’m sure is all very well but it’s £2! £14 a week if you really do drink one a day. And all that plastic! So much cheaper and more sustainable to make your own kefir, kraut or kimchi. I’m going to talk about kefir in the next couple of weeks and have a whole new kimchi recipe for you today. We’ve made many krauts in the past - just check the archive.
So, it’s not a resolution but I will continue to eat at least a couple of portions of fermented food a day as I know I feel better when I do. I am giving myself a couple of nudges this January. The first is to revive my 10-minutes-every-morning gardening habit which I’d let slip during December. I started it this time last year as a way to get some early-day exposure to daylight which apparently helps you sleep better. But it also stops the garden turning into a daunting mess.
It’s cold out there but my mum gave me some new gardening gloves for Christmas and it’s exciting to see the bulbs coming up already.
MacNaughton is an illustrator, best known for her work in Samin Nosrat’s cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. The first week of her January challenge was all doodles which was really good for getting the brain warmed up and as a release from fear of the blank page. Different types of doodles each day: freehand, circles, grids etc. culminating in a challenge to turn one doodle into a picture. These circles became the pebbled bottom of a fish pond.
This week we moved onto the theme of “delight”. In everyday objects, food, nature etc. I particularly loved today’s prompt (well, yesterday’s - MacNaughton’s in the States so I’m following a day behind) of blind contour drawing - a picture made whilst never looking down at the page! It’s such a great exercise in properly examining something - trying to see what’s actually there rather than what your brain assumes it looks like - but the results are very funny too. I laughed out loud when I saw how the decoration was escaping from the jar…
I wrote about Oliver Burkeman’s book 4,000 Weeks last year and I’ve have had a lot of conversations with friends recently about the new perspective on one’s own mortality that comes with middle age (we sure know how to have a good time). So if I do have a resolution it’s to be more intentional about the things I include and exclude from life. These are habits that can definitely stay.
Before we get to the recipe, another short note about intentions for 2024 with regards to this newsletter. I’ve got lots of lovely things planned in terms of recipes and content but, administrationally (is that a word?), I’m going to turn on payments. Some of you have already been generous enough to pledge towards supporting my writing, but before I took anyone’s money I wanted to prove that I was offering something of worth. I think after nine months I’ve done that. I put a lot of work in, not just writing but recipe creating and testing - and fermented foods aren’t generally quick to test!
I won’t push the button until next week though so if you pledged and want to back out, now’s the time! But if you have found my work useful or enjoyable then your support - for far less per month than a commercially bought jar of artisanal kraut! - would be greatly appreciated. Special, subscriber-only benefits are in the works. If you can’t afford or don’t want to pay, that’s cool too. If you shared or recommended the newsletter that would also mean a lot to me.
I had a great meal a few months back at Okan, a Japanese restaurant on the South Bank specialising in okonomiyaki pancakes. They had a particularly delicious kimchi, really fresh-tasting and umami-ish. Although I think the flavour must have come from fruity, fresh chillies (any insider info gratefully received!) it reminded me of ripe tomatoes and made me think about the possibility putting tomatoes in a kimchi paste. I’ll try it with fresh ones in the summer but tinned worked really well.
You’ll need a scrupulously clean jar.
Ingredients
1 Napa cabbage/Chinese leaf
30g (ish) salt
3 sprig onions
200g chopped tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
20g (approx) ginger
2 tbsp fish sauce/light soy sauce
1 tbsp gochugaru Korean chilli flakes (or to taste)
Method
Slice the cabbage in half through the root and firm white part, stopping about halfway up where the leaves begin to get frilly. Get your thumbs into the opening and pull the cabbage in half. Doing it this way keeps the frilly inner leaves more intact than slicing through the whole thing. Also, I find it is deeply satisfying in an ASMR kind of way. Use the same method to divide the halves lengthways again into quarters.
Slice the cabbage quarters into bitesize pieces. I like them quite chunky, maybe an inch and a half. Smaller, more shredded pieces will make a more homogenously textured kimchi. It’s completely up to you. If you don’t have a pickle weight, remember to save the quartered root.
Put the pieces of cabbage in a bowl, toss with the salt and a small splash of water (just a couple of tablespoons) and set aside for 90 minutes – 2 hours.
Divide the spring onions into whites and greens. Finely slice the greens and set aside. Put the whites in a food processor.
If your tomatoes are a bit watery, drain them through a sieve.
Add the tomatoes, garlic, ginger, fish (or soy) sauce and chilli flakes to the onions in the food processor and blitz to an even paste. Add the sliced onion greens.
Once the cabbage has been brining for a couple of hours you will notice that it has wilted and shrunk. Drain it in a colander over the sink and rinse thoroughly. Rinse the bowl too. Taste a little bit of cabbage. A hint of salt is fine but you don’t want loads. Give everything a squeeze to remove as much water as possible but don’t manhandle it too much or you will make the leaves floppy.
Return the cabbage to the bowl and add the tomato paste. Mix thoroughly to coat each leaf evenly. Pack the cabbage into your jar. Use a pickle weight or cabbage core to keep everything under the brine and seal the jar. Place it on a plate or tray to catch any leakage and leave at room temperature, out of direct sunlight.
Check and “burp” the kimchi every day. It will probably be ready between 3/4 days and a week when it has become a little funky and sour but still has some tomato sweetness left. Move to the fridge where it will keep for at least a month.
Notes (If Ifs And Ands Were Pots And Pans…)
I used half a tin of Mutti Polpa which didn’t need draining that much to get a good consistency. If your tomatoes are waterier let some of the juice drain off. You can return it to the can and use it for pasta sauce later.
I wanted this kimchi to be about the delicate umami tomato flavour so I kept it to plain cabbage. But you could always add carrots and mooli as in my original recipe if you wanted more crunch.
This is also less spicy than my usual recipe. Feel free to up the gochugaru or add a fresh chilli to the mix instead of or as well as the flakes.
So good in a toastie with strong cheddar!
Cultural Fun
We had a day in York as part of our Christmas travels. We were there just before New Year to visit my godmother but had time for a wander round town and a look at York Art Gallery too. They’ve got a good permanent collection including works Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Ben Nicholson. I often prefer city art galleries outside the capital since they usually have lesser-known works by big name artists that are more interesting than encountering things already familiar from reproductions. In this case a picture of local landmark Clifford’s Tower by LS Lowry.
There was also a wonderful exhibition called Yorkshire Tea Ceremony about WA Ismay, the UK’s most important collector of the 20th century ceramics. Ismay was based in Wakefield and had 3,600 pieces in his collection by makers including Lucie Rie, Hans Cope and Bernard Leach. According to the website its on until “Spring” which is vague but still some way away, however you definite it. I really recommend a visit if you’re in the area and like looking at functional but also beautiful pots.
Doesn’t the Laughing Cavalier look like Chris Pratt? I also liked how both he and (possibly) Nicolaes Pierersz are doing the same pose. A kind of 17th century red carpet attitude…
I read The Future, Naomi Alderman’s latest novel, a sort of tech dystopia. I didn’t love it as much as I loved The Power but it was still really interesting, readable, thought-provoking and page-turnery.
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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