all creatures great and spicy

If shannon didn't have quite such a good turn of phrase i might not take her berating so seriously. But here she is reminding me that i have a blogging public and making me feel all guilty about neglecting you all... And if that wasn't enough she told me there's a blogging explosion and I'm missing out. If guilt wasn't enough of a motivating force, fomo^* sure is.

If I’ve been absent it’s only because I’m confused. It seems even this kind of vague and constantly qualified writing requires some sense of certainty and that, I just don't have.

But for now, let me tell you about my pets. Darling Satan (my cat) may still be with his foster family but since I've taken on my house's obsession for preserving I have a whole little menagerie to look after.

There's the sourdough starter, he likes to be fed rye flour every day and given a good belly scratch (ok, just a stir really). Then there's the sprouts (millet and rye berries at the moment) - they need a little wash every day. Out the back black olives are happily swimming in their bucket but they like their water changed every second day. And this weekend I started a new pet – little kim chi! She’s pretty low maintenance but I think it’s good to check in on her every few days or she might get sulky and go mouldy.

Adam inspired me to try my own kim chi because I totally scoffed the batch he made a couple of weeks ago – delicious. So here’s a quick recipe, because kim chi is the bestus most delicious thing ever. And it stops you getting bird flu.

For a ridiculously big batch you’ll need some ingredients roughly like this:

• 2 big heads chinese cabbage (wom bok)
• 1 large daikon radish
• 1 carrot
• ginger to taste
• chillis - 3 small ones?
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 onion

You can also add spring onions, jerusalem artichokes, celery or whatever you have around.

You'll need good big jar, crock or bucket. Leftover catering supply buckets from a deli or café are good because they’re made of food grade plastic

• Chop your cabbage and daikon up - big chunks is fine.
• Now make a brine with 3 tablespoons of salt and a litre or so of water - just boil, dissolve and let it cool.
• Cover the cabbage and daikon with the brine. Press it down with a plate and a weight to keep it submerged. If you're using a jar wedge something in the top to keep your goodies underwater.
• Leave overnight or for a few hours. Drain the brine off but keep it somewhere.
• Taste your cabbage - it should be softened a little and salty. We want noticeably salty but not grossly so. If it's not salty sprinkle a little salt on, if it's too salty soak in fresh water for a couple of hours before you continue.
• Slice the carrot and onion, crush the garlic and ginger and chillies and mix them all together with the cabbage and daikon.
• Put back in your container and squish it down real hard with your weight – I use a big 4 litre jar filled with water on top of the plate. Brine and juices should come out to cover it all. Leave it for a few hours as more brine will come out. If it’s still not covered add a little of the reserved brine.
• Stick your weight back on and cover with a cotton bag or something to keep flies out.
• Wait. The kimchi should be ready in 3 to 10 days depending on the weather. Stir the brine on top occassionally to keep mould from forming. Make sure all the bits are submerged and taste regularly so it doesn’t get sulky.

Ok, so that’s a bit of a basic recipe done from memory. Hopefully it makes enough sense to follow. The thing is, kim chi is one of my favourite things but i never thought i could actually make it. Turns out it's really simple. It even tastes good after a day when it's just lightly pickled. Also if it does taste a little fizzy after a while don't worry, that's just the bacteria getting active and it will actually taste better again a few days later when they die off.

For an even simpler method you can see this site which has very endearing photos. I didn’t know that in korea they have kim chi gloves for mixing the chilli through.

^*fomo - fear of missing out. as in "i didn't go to the party last weekend and i had the worst case of fomo."

to warm your toes

And so, the temperature drops on the abruzzo club clock (8 degrees last night) and our correspondent's mind turns to keeping her toes warm... Yes folks Melbourne autumn - sure feels like winter.

When I can't find a lovely lady to keep me warm I find that zupa ogorkowa (pickle soup) is the next best thing. I made some for darling Bindi, who has been in the surgical wars and she was as pleased as could be. I used the last of the summer's homemade pickles, added a little celery but no flour so it was nice and brothlike.

Another good way to keep warm is of course, in front of the oven. For Asha's Mexican dinner I made a batch of spicy chocolate gingerbread. The plan was to amp up the chilli flavours but instead, due to a bit of vagueness and ignorance I ended up with a crazy black almost liquorice flavoured cake. See, I just don't know that much about molasses and didn't realise how strong blackstrap molasses is until Adam raised his eyebrows at me chucking half the jar in. He had me totally freaked out, telling me nobody but him was gonna be crazy enough to appreciate the heavy liqorice flavours. But it mellowed out in the oven and was a big hit. It's moist and just doesn't taste like it looks.. People were impressed and said it tasted "adult". Personally I'm not so much into being an adult, unless it's in an adult bookstore way.. But the cake rocked. I made it with a ganache chocolate topping because I've found the gingerbeer icing disappointing...

Now, I'm off to figure out what you can bake with tamarillos..