This isn't a story about Korean food. This about catching one of 2012's hottest food trends, Kimchee (Kimchi, 김치). Yes, as reported in Australia and Canada, America will soon be replacing kraut and slaw with the more exotic fermented cabbage to garnish our favorite 'Dude Foods.' Huh. Kimchee came on to my cultural crossing flavor radar last year when the chef, at our humble NW Indiana Brewpub, swapped out the red slaw on our bbq sammie with housemade spicy goodness.
Up to that point I thought that making kimchee was a long process taking months or years involving clay jars and holes in the ground. At the restaurant we made it in 4 days. I started making it at home and I put it on everything.
Kimchee on my pizza
Kimchee on my schwarma
Kimchee on my smörgås.
For the kimchee we were making at work, we started by putting thinly sliced Nappa cabbage in a 5% brine, and let it sit on the counter for 24 hours. Then we made what Dave Chang in Lucky Peach #2 calls "The dressing": A puree of red Thai chiles, ginger, garlic, honey and fish sauce. After draining the brined cabbage we tossed it with the dressing, then let it sit for 4 days.
Most recipes call for ground chili flakes called gochugaru (kochukaru, 고추가루). I picked-up a bag to see if it would make any difference for my batches at home. Tasting this particular sample (pictured above) was pretty unremarkable, a cross between crushed red pepper and paprika. Also not spicy at all. While I haven't tried any other brands, and I'm sure there are better, I think half sharp paprika is an spot-on substitute.
I used a combination of both in my batches.
So there are many places you can find a recipe for kimchee, in an effort to stay ahead of the trend, how about a sausage with the dressing on the inside?
Hello hot link.
Kimchee Hot Link
per 1000g Pork shoulder, cubed and chilled
300 ml cabbage jus
20 ml fish sauce
15 g salt
40 g fresh ginger minced
24 g garlic minced
20 g gochugaru
6 g half sharp paprika
10 g whole brown mustard seeds
20g milk powder
For the cabbage jus: Cabbage has a particular sour/peppery taste, that I wanted in this sausage. Take the whites from a head of bok choy and puree it in the blender, it's ok to add a little water to get it going. Strain the resulting mash through muslin. After cleaning out the blender, add in only 100ml of the jus, salt, fish sauce, garlic, ginger and spices and give the blender a whirl to make a smooth dressing.
Toss the pork with the dressing and allow to marinate for a few hours.
Grind the pork mixture into a mixing bowl, then beat in the remaining jus and milk powder. Continue to mix to achieve a nice paste. Stuff into prepared hog casings. Try to let the links hang for a day before cooking.
What to do with a hot link, I could just put it on a bun, but wait there's more.
While I couldn't find any corroborating references that this is actually made in Korea, but I found this interesting shape on the website My Fabulous Recipes.
Then I did a steamed one, and then with the help from Asian Dumplings, by Andrea Nguyen, I went dumpling crazy.
I made a little rolling pin from a dowel.
I cut the hot link mixture with some tofu and formed some dumplings
Steamed, jjinmandu (찐만두)
Boiled, mulmandu (물만두)
Fried, gunmandu (군만두). These ended up looking like gyōza (餃子). I think they are supposed to be browned on two sides, I'm having trouble reading my translation.
Anyway you slice it, get ahead of the trend and make kimchee hot links today!
Cheers.
Further Reading:
Kimchee's new chapter
Korea's traditional condiment blurring culinary borders by Bill Daley, The Chicago Tribune, 21 September 2011
"Paechu and White Kimchi" by Dave Chang, Lucky Peach Issue 2 Fall/Winter 2011
The kimchi chronicles : Korean cooking for an American kitchen, by Vongerichten
Asian dumplings : mastering gyōza, spring rolls, samosas, and more, by Nguyen
Also check out Nguyen's website, Asian Dumpling Tips
Korean translations via @KoreanFood and Wikipedia
28 February, 2012
Kimchee hot link
25 January, 2012
The Chicago Hot Link
If you want to make Chicago Style BBQ, then you gotta make hot links. I have always liked having sausage as part of a BBQ spread, but I never realized the hot link is part of what defines our regional style. In this episode I have two hot link recipes to share and I'll talk a little about why I think they represent the sausage known as the Chicago hot link.
I made my first hot links in 2007. I molded the recipe from several online variants which I later learned all came from a single recipe in Hot Links and Country Flavors, Bruce Aidells. At the time most of my searching associated the hot link sausage with Texas style of BBQ. I always wondered how did a Texas sausage end up in BBQ joints in Chicago? Turns out it didn't, The Chicago hot link was born right here, founded on a tradition that came up out of somewhere a little east of Texas. This revelation came to me in the form of a video titled "A Barbecue History of Chicago" by Michael Gebert. In it Gebert presents a thoughtful history of Chicago BBQ and defines the BBQ Style of our region. Take the time to watch it.
Since I first saw the documentary last September, I've been mixing batches sausage and searching the internet trying to find he right link. I have had a few hot links around town and they all can be described, as they were on one food forum, as a "Spicy breakfast sausage." But before I could work on that, I came across another description a hot link containing only salt, garlic and crushed red pepper flakes. I'm sorry I have since lost the page where I read this (it's in the LTHForum somewhere), but author claimed to have fashioned these hot links at Hecky's in Evanston. Hecky's is a special place for me because it was the first place I had BBQ in the Chicago area way back in 1990. Misty reminiscing aside, I liked the idea of of those three ingredients making a tasty sausage. Well, it didn't work, batch after batch, it always seemed to be missing something. I finally got it right, with a few more ingredients thrown in.
Chicago Bacon Hot Link
Per 1000g of Meat
80% pork shoulder
20% bacon
16g salt
10g fresh garlic, minced
10g paprika
7g ground black pepper
7g mustard powder
5g sugar
2g red pepper flakes
20g milk powder
100 ml water or beer.
Hog casings soaked at least a half an hour.
Cut pork into manageable cubes toss with the salt. Dice the bacon. Put both in the freezer for half an hour. When the meats are crunchy but not quite frozen, run them through the grinder. Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment or a big wooden spoon beat in spices and milk powder. Gradually add liquid and continue to stir until you get a nice paste. Stuff into hog casings, twist into links (or not) and let them hang in to fridge for at least 24 hours. Slow cook hot links over a gentle wood fire into done, about half an hour depending on your fire.
Substituing Chicken for the pork and cured jowl for the bacon also makes a nice link, here's one stuffed into a lamb casing for a bite sized portion.
I realize bacon may be a surprise ingredient for a hot link. I use it to get more smoky flavor, without having to hot smoke sausage for a long time. I cooked the chicken hot link pictured above in the oven, and the bacon gave it a fresh off the smoker taste.
I really like the Bacon garlic hot link, but for that authentic South side flavor, you've gotta go for with the spicy breakfast sausage.
Chicago Sage and Beef Hot Link
Per 1000g of Meat
60% pork shoulder
40% beef chuck
20g salt
7g paprika
7g ground black pepper
5g sage
5g fennel
3g coriander
2g allspice
5g sugar
20g milk powder
100ml water or beer
Hog casings soaked at least a half an hour.
Cut up the pork and beef and toss with salt. Put both in the freezer for half an hour. When the meats are crunchy but not quite frozen, run them through the grinder. Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment or a big wooden spoon beat in spices and milk powder. Gradually add liquid and continue to stir until you get a nice paste. Stuff into hog casings, twist into links (or not) and let them hang in to fridge for at least 24 hours. Slow cook hot links over a gentle wood fire into done, about half an hour depending on your fire.
Of course these sausages get a better with age, after cooking let them hang in the fridge unwrapped for a couple days, then reheat when you're ready to serve. Or you can chomp on them cold, or roll them in bread dough, and you've got a party in a bun.
Anyway you put it, The Chicago Hot link is a tasty part of our food history that you can now make at home.
Cheers.
26 February, 2007
Hush yer: Hot Links
What's a party without sausage? I had bought some pork shoulder for S to make this crazy good Lasagna from Jamie Oliver's book, Jamie's Dinner's. Look it up, it's really good but it's not simple.
Anyway I've got some shoulder left over, I'm making BBQ, how about some hot links? Let's go to the tape:
1.6 kg pork shoulder cubed30 g salt
18 g paprika
8 g sage
8 g crushed red pepper
6 g anise seed (a couple of pulses in the spice grinder)5 g ground black pepper
2 g dried basil
2 g dried oregano
2 g ground cumin
45 ml cider vinegar
135 ml water
Mix all the dry ingredients with the pork and run it through the grinder. With the paddle attachment add the water and the vinegar and mix until the ingredients start to come together, about 1 minute.
Stuff into hog medium casings and twist them into pairs so that they can can hang. Hang in the fridge to dry overnight. Hot smoke to an internal temp of 150F, 1 to 2 hours.
The recipe I used was adapted from a lazy one that I kept finding on the net over and over again. I couldn't find any others. I would like to fine tune tune it a bit, but it is still real good. serve it next to the brisket swimming in bbq sauce.
It's a long day to Oscar night, better start with a good breakfast. Look for part three for early bird specials.
Cheers.
