In Good Taste #: 87 Radish & rhubarb kimchi

A tart and zingy ferment for spring; pottering; Devonian cultural fun

Well, hello there! How are you?

Good I hope.

(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 am well, thank you. It’s been a lovely Easter break. A few days in Devon followed by some pottering about at home. I’d be hard-pressed to give you an actual definition of pottering but I am rarely happier than when engaged in it.

What do you do when you potter? For me it has to be semi-productive and have, at least, the appearance of tidying. Things get rearranged or moved from room to room. Maybe there’s a bit of light cooking or gardening. Some salad-draw or veg-rack languishers turned into an experimental pickle, say, or a bit of casual weeding. But there’s no urgency to any of these things, no deadline.

I think you also have to be moving around to be pottering. You can’t do it whilst sitting down for any length of time.

Maybe this is overthinking but I might even describe it as a form of mindfulness. An appreciating of what you have, enjoying your space and your possessions.

Which is to say that it was an Easter pottering session that led to today’s recipe. A relaxed appraisal of a mooli, half a swede and a few stalks of rhubarb that I didn’t have other plans for. A successful potter in and of itself, but especially pleasing since the outcome was delicious too.

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Recipe: Radish & rhubarb kimchi

I’ve been on a bit of a kimchi tip lately, what with the recent radish and wild garlic number and last week’s fritters but I won’t apologise. Any kimchilover will get through a jar in no time.

We’ve moved on from the candy-pink forced rhubarb to the less glamorous but more flavourful field stuff and it works really well here. The tartness blending perfectly with the spice. I used a mooli as I had one in the fridge but you could just as easily go with pink radishes. I really like swede in kimchi but feel free to replace witn more radish or just leave it out.

Makes approximately one 750ml jar

Ingredients

• 1 daikon/mooli

• ½ swede

• 6 stalks rhubarb

• 4 spring onions

• 40g flaky sea salt

• 10g glutinous rice flour

• 6 cloves garlic

• 1⁄2 inch ginger

• 2 tablespoons gochugaru (or to taste)

• 2 tablespoons miso

• 2 tablespoons chilli jar/sweet chilli sauce (see note)

Method

1. Prep and salt the vegetables. Wash all the veg. Peel the daikon and swede and chop them into bite-size chunks. Trim the rhubarb and slice it finely. Trim the root off the spring onions and slice them finely, white and green parts. Put everything into in a large bowl and add the salt. Toss through to evenly combine then cover and leave for an hour or so.

2. Make a rice flour porridge. Meanwhile put the glutinous rice flour in a pan and add 80ml cold water. Whisk to combine then bring to a boil over a medium heat. It will thicken and look like wallpaper paste. Set aside to cool.

3. Make the paste. Peel and crush/mince the garlic and ginger. Add it to the rice flour porridge along with the gochugaru, miso) and sugar. Alternatively just blend the rice flour porridge with the other ingredients in a food processor.

4. Wash and drain the veg. When you return to the veg you’ll find it has released a little puddle of liquid. Tip this away rinse the veg in colander under running cold water and give them a good rinse. Taste a piece of mooli. It should taste well seasoned but not much saltier than that. Drain off as much water as possible.

5. Massage through the paste. Combine the vegetables with the paste, making sure each piece is evenly coated.

6. Pack into a jar then leave to ferment. Seal the jar and leave at room temperature for three days, regularly “burping” and tasting, then transfer to the fridge. The kimchi will continue to develop, even in the fridge. Although the relative density of the vegetables means it keeps its crunch well.

Notes (If Ifs And Ands Were Pots And Pans…)

• In my easy kimchi recipe I say that the glutinous rice flour porridge is recommended but optional. I guess that same is true here but I would particularly recommend it. There’s less water in these veg than in the napa cabbage used in traditional baechu kimchi and the rice flour porridge really helps the paste coat the vegetables evenly, keeping them salty and safe until lactic acid is produced. Glutinous rice flour is available in Asian supermarkets where it’s sometimes also labelled as sweet rice flour. You can use cornflour, potato starch or tapioca starch instead, all prepared in a similar way.

• I had a jar of Chilli Jam from the South Devon Chilli Farm which I wasn’t in love with. It described itself as “a savoury chilli jam” but wasn’t really. Not unpleasant just not up my street for jam/chutney territory (much more like a thick sweet chilli sauce). I used it here instead of sugar and it worked really well, bringing some extra heat with the sweetness. Sweet chilli sauce would work well instead. If you don’t have either then just go with a tablespoon of sugar.

  

• The radish and swede make this quite crunchy but you could just use rhubarb on its own (double the quantity) for a more condiment-like result. My favourite way to eat this so far was alongside some Wensleydale-on-toast and asparagus which felt very spring-like.

  

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Cultural Fun, North Devon special

During our time in Devon we stayed in Barnstaple which I wouldn’t rush to visit again but had some lovely bits. Tbh, we weren’t immediately impressed. On our first walk through it had a bit of a run-down, pound-shop vibe and a distinct lack of nice-looking pubs. We never found a good pub (not for lack of trying) but the local museum (more of which later) provided a heritage trail map. I love a heritage trail map so we dutifully followed it to see the daff-covered motte and bailey castle, a charming wonky-spired church (right in the centre of town but hidden down a crossroads of cobbled passageways) and the historic indoor market amongst other things. All of which tipped the balance.

Barnstaples very pretty motte and bailey castle and St Peter's with its crooked spire.

There was also a great cheese shop which provided us with the makings of a handsome picnic and we had a good meal at the (Michelin-recommended but very quiet) Maiden Arch.

Picnic mainly sourced from South West Cheese with bread from next door’s East & West Bakery and garnished with foraged wild garlic.

The Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon is really great though. I’m a sucker for a little local museum and will very happily while away time looking at minimally-captioned collections of fishermen’s jumpers and fossils in ramshackle cases. But this is somewhat more ambitious. There’s been proper research done here, real scholarship and archive trawling.

Fishermen’s jumpers and fossils all present and correct (vintage farm machinery too - got to have some vintage farm machinery) but also in-depth presentations of the local industries, Brannams pottery and Shapland and Petter furniture manufacturers. Plus a temporary exhibition with pictures from the archive of local teacher and artist Vernon C Boyle. All nicely and knowledgeably displayed witha good cafe too.

The overall holiday mission was to visit RHS Rosemoor, thus completing our middle-aged pilgrimage to all five RHS properties.

It’s in two halves on either side of a road, linked by an underpass. The first, more formal part was a bit bare and before-its-best although I’m sure it’ll be glorious in summer. But the second half, the more historic garden developed by previous owner Lady Anne Berry, was perfect for spring. All magnolias and cherry blossom and camellias.

Barnstaple is also the centre of the 180-mile Tarka Trail (named for Henry Williamson’s fictional otter who lived nearby). We walked seven and a half miles of it, a pleasant stretch along a disused railway line, to Instow where we had a stroll on the beach and some very good fish and chips at the Instow Arms.

Perhaps our highlight though was a visit to the Dartington Crystal factory to watch the glassblowers at work. The chaps all looked so casual, dressed in shorts as they puffed at 1400°C molten glass, no protective clothing except the odd pair of shades. But all very focussed and industrious. Fascinating and impressive to watch.

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Bye! See you next week!

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