My mom loves almost anything cabbage - especially sauerkraut. So, a while back, when we saw someone on one of the cooking-competition shows use kimchi, I said, "You know, with the way you like cabbage, you should try kimchi, some time. It's kind of a 'Korean sauerkraut,' in a way. It’s not my thing, but I think you'd like it."
Well, on my recommendation, when I mentioned that I had seen it in the refrigerated section of the produce aisle, she bought a jar of it.
She didn't like it.
I liked it more than expected, but still not very much, so there it sat in the fridge while we periodically pondered whether or not just to throw it out.
During one such period of pondering, I happened to be eating some leftover pizza for lunch and watching the Food-Network show Unwrapped while my mom was out visiting a friend of hers in an assisted-living facility. On the show, one of the products they showed being packaged was the very brand of kimchi we had in the fridge and, get this: the owner of the company mentioned a few possible uses for kimchi, including how much he liked to put it onto pizza!
Naturally, I went to the fridge right away, took out the kimchi and put some onto what was left of my slice of pizza.
It was delicious, but that was the last of the leftover pizza, so the rest of the still-almost-full jar of kimchi went back into the fridge to await further inspiration or eventual disposal.
A couple of weeks later, just a few days ago, I started thinking, again, of ways in which we could salvage the kimchi or whether it was finally time to dump it. That was when I remembered Seoul Sausage, from a couple of years ago on [i]The Great Food Truck Race[i] and the hugely successful "Flaming Balls" they had made from rice and kimchi.
Of course, their recipe wasn't available anywhere, but I did find THIS ONE from someone who said the idea had come from the show.
Yesterday, when I got back from a morning of job applications (that Mexican place STILL isn't ready and it's hard to say if it ever will be), I noticed in the fridge a bit of leftover "Mexican" rice that my mom had made and I decided it was time to make some use of the kimchi.
Since I didn't have the exact ingredients from that website's recipe, I improvised, mixing together the leftover rice (about a cup - maybe a little more), an equal amount of chopped-up kimchi, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, rice vinegar, Sriracha, Thai red-curry paste (didn't have any gochujang), a finely chopped hot dog (just improvising, so didn't have any pork already marinated), some panko and an egg, then formed the mixture into balls, gave them a standard, three-station panko breading and deep fried them.
WOW! I have no idea how close these were to the recipe or to the ones from Seoul Sausage, but they were delicious and certainly made good use of the kimchi we were almost ready to ditch.
Once again, necessity was the mother of invention and improvisation led to something scrumptious.
Well, on my recommendation, when I mentioned that I had seen it in the refrigerated section of the produce aisle, she bought a jar of it.
She didn't like it.
I liked it more than expected, but still not very much, so there it sat in the fridge while we periodically pondered whether or not just to throw it out.
During one such period of pondering, I happened to be eating some leftover pizza for lunch and watching the Food-Network show Unwrapped while my mom was out visiting a friend of hers in an assisted-living facility. On the show, one of the products they showed being packaged was the very brand of kimchi we had in the fridge and, get this: the owner of the company mentioned a few possible uses for kimchi, including how much he liked to put it onto pizza!
Naturally, I went to the fridge right away, took out the kimchi and put some onto what was left of my slice of pizza.
It was delicious, but that was the last of the leftover pizza, so the rest of the still-almost-full jar of kimchi went back into the fridge to await further inspiration or eventual disposal.
A couple of weeks later, just a few days ago, I started thinking, again, of ways in which we could salvage the kimchi or whether it was finally time to dump it. That was when I remembered Seoul Sausage, from a couple of years ago on [i]The Great Food Truck Race[i] and the hugely successful "Flaming Balls" they had made from rice and kimchi.
Of course, their recipe wasn't available anywhere, but I did find THIS ONE from someone who said the idea had come from the show.
Yesterday, when I got back from a morning of job applications (that Mexican place STILL isn't ready and it's hard to say if it ever will be), I noticed in the fridge a bit of leftover "Mexican" rice that my mom had made and I decided it was time to make some use of the kimchi.
Since I didn't have the exact ingredients from that website's recipe, I improvised, mixing together the leftover rice (about a cup - maybe a little more), an equal amount of chopped-up kimchi, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, rice vinegar, Sriracha, Thai red-curry paste (didn't have any gochujang), a finely chopped hot dog (just improvising, so didn't have any pork already marinated), some panko and an egg, then formed the mixture into balls, gave them a standard, three-station panko breading and deep fried them.
WOW! I have no idea how close these were to the recipe or to the ones from Seoul Sausage, but they were delicious and certainly made good use of the kimchi we were almost ready to ditch.
Once again, necessity was the mother of invention and improvisation led to something scrumptious.
If blueberry muffins have blueberries in them, what do vegan muffins have?
2 words caught my eye tho - Kimchi and pizza! 
