Home Made Kimchi

If you could pick anyone in the world to teach you how to make your own Kimchi, you could do worse than to pick a Korean grandmother who's been making it for seven decades or so. If you're the type of person who's inclined to ferment their own cabbage and you have access to some Korean ingredients, check out the video below (via GOOD), and then go take a look at the full recipe at CoolHunting.

Kimchi (or Kim Chee) is a fermented Korean dish, usually made with cabbage and/or radishes with dried red chilis. Like many other naturally fermented foods (like yogurt, sauerkraut, and fermented pickles, etc.), it contains bacteria that may have beneficial health effects. It's also low in calories and contains lots of healthy vitamins, so eat up!

CSA Box Recipe: Beet Risotto

Well, internet friends, I hope you're enjoying the summertime. Here in NYC where I live, it's approximately one million degrees outside and very humid. We're officially in the midst of a "heat wave," the likes of which NYC has not seen in a decade. Yay. Even though it's hot outside, my CSA keeps giving me tons of veggies (oh, glorious veggies!) to cook, and so I shall. Hopefully with the aid of my trusty air conditioner, I won't melt.

For the past couple weeks, I have gotten a very nice bunch of beets in my CSA share. Beets are really cool veggies, partly because they're brightly colored (in fact, they'll stain your clothes, countertop, etc. if you're not careful). They're also great because you can eat the whole beet - greens, roots, and even stems, if you like, and they're good for you.

 (Betanin, via Wikimedia Commons)

Beets are red (and sometimes yellow) because they contain pigments called "betalains," named after the latin word for beet (beta). These are water soluble red to yellow pigments that occur in plants including beets, Swiss chard, and some cacti, among others. Betanin, one of the betalains derived from beets, is used as an industrial food dye. These dyes are also powerful antioxidants, and may help protect your body from oxidative stress that occurs naturally and causes aging and cancer, but there isn't a lot of scientific evidence to back that up. About 10-15% of the population has a higher level of oxalic acid in their intestines, protecting betalins from being broken down. This allows them to be absorbed by the body and passed as red or pink urine, a condition called Beeturia (it's not harmful, so don't worry if this happens to you). TMI? I think not... it's science!

Anyways, beyond the ubiquitous roasted beet and goat cheese salad (which is admittedly tasty and good for hot weather), my favorite thing to do with beets is make risotto. This dish takes a little while to prepare and it uses the oven more than you might like in summer, but I think it's worth it. It's creamy and delicious and a delicious summertime dinner paired with a glass of dry white wine. Also, bright pink!

Recipe and pic after the fold...

The Science Behind Poaching an Egg

(via Tastespotting)

Poached eggs are delicious – at least I think so. I suspect that a number of other people do, as well, yet they remain relatively unpopular when compared to other methods of egg preparation. This may be because oftentimes the result of boiling an egg without its shell resembles Egg-drop soup more than Eggs Benedict.

Science to the rescue! Actually, poaching an egg is not that difficult, especially if you think a little bit about what’s going on inside your pot. With a little bit of know-how behind you, preparing perfect poached eggs, without space-hogging and expensive unitaskers, is no problem.

What’s going on when you cook an egg? The answer is all about proteins. Egg whites are made of proteins and water. Proteins themselves are large (macro) molecules that consist of long chains of smaller molecules called amino acids folded up into complex structures. When proteins are subjected to heat, they denature, that is, the chains unfold and lose their structure. This often causes the proteins to lose solubility (they can no longer be dissolved in liquid). In the case of ovalbumin, the main protein component of egg whites, this causes the egg white to solidify and look white and cooked. The key to perfect poached eggs is to have this happen as fast as possible when cooking the egg, before the egg white has a chance dissipate into the water in the pot.

How to do this? Well, it has been shown that ovalbumin is more easily denatured at acidic pH¹. This is the science behind why vinegar is often added to egg poaching water. This recipe outlines the basic approach I take. A simple experiment shows that adding 1 tsp. (4.9 mL) of white vinegar (5% acetic acid v/v) in 2 quarts of NYC tap water (1.9L) changes the pH from 6.75 to 3.43 at room temperature (25C) (Remember that pH 7 is neutral, lower pH is acidic, and higher pH is basic or alkaline). At a simmer (95C), the pH of tap water is changed from 6.84 to 3.87. This more acidic pH, combined with the heat of simmering water, rapidly denatures the ovalbumin in the egg whites, creating a coating of cooked egg that the interior of the egg is trapped in while cooking. This prevents the egg from falling apart and the result is a perfectly poached egg.

Poached Egg Protocol:

Materials: 1-4 fresh eggs (egg white proteins break down over time, resulting in a runnier white that spreads out more in the pot), 2qt or larger pot, small bowl, white vinegar, slotted spoon, paper towel

• Bring ~2qt. water to a low simmer (NOT a vigorous boil) and add 1 tsp. white vinegar.


• Crack one egg into a small bowl before sliding it into the simmering water so as not to break up the egg on it’s way into the water.


• Repeat for subsequent eggs, spacing eggs out from each other so that they heat quickly and evenly and don’t stick together.


• Cook eggs 2-3 minutes (or until desired done-ness level). Eggs will continue to cook as long as they are hot, so expect them to cook a little more after they have been removed from the pot.


• Evacuate eggs to a paper towel on a plate using a slotted spoon.


• Bon Appetit!

¹Koseki et al. Conformational Changes in Ovalbumin at Acid pH. J Biochem.1988; 103: 425-430