· James Torr · Personal · 1 min read
Korean fermented fish (Jeong-eo-ri jeotgal). Using sprats which are a kind of large anchovy quite easy to get hold of in UK unlike anchovies. Never tried this before so I’m a bit excited + nervous to see how much stink this is going to kick off! thanks for the recipe from your lovely book @maangchi!
Another round of kimchi this morning. Sweetheart, Savoy and Napa cabbages in the mix with some pepper, onions, carrots and garlic. Fish sauce, rice porridge, gochugaru pepper flakes to season, add creaminess and spice respectively. Just scaled up Maangchi's ratios for the porridge and chilli flakes and went with 2% by weight of the total for the salt. This will likely be pushed up to around 2.3% due to the fish sauce, which is an acceptable amount for a ferment.
Daikon in the snow. Smells amazing. Super easy ferment to make and very tasty.
Here we have a butterflied, salted and dried Indian mackerel, known as aji no himano in Japan. Traditionally eaten for breakfast, however, I ate it for a late lunch today. It was accompanied by smoked salmon skin, crisped up in an air fryer, and some fried rice. The mackerel process is relatively simple once butterflied, and would work just as well on filleted mackerel or sardines. I soaked 4 in 100ml of 10% alcohol (sake or 1 part gin/vodka diluted with 3 water) for about 15 minutes.
Umeboshi! Japanese fermented salty sour plum. These are a Mirabelle/cherry plum growing close to my house, local as it gets. They're used in dressings, cooked in a sardine stew, or eaten with rice in Japan. Super salty and a bit sour, best not eaten on their own.