Kimchi: The Beginner’s Guide to Fermenting
You may have noticed that we, The 3 Spoons, have developed an obsession with fermentation - the most ancient and natural practice of preserving food. By delving into the making of beer and sourdough bread, we’ve been indoctrinated with its health benefits, but even more fascinating is its crucial role in the history of human civilization. This issue, we are exploring the afterlife of food - the different methods of natural preservation - and thought it fitting to start with something our dinner table is rarely without.
In our household, there are a handful of things that you will always find: Keen’s mustard, freshly roasted coffee beans, cornichons...and kimchi. Our avid consumption of kimchi is arguably comparable to most Korean Canadians. Unusual, given that neither of us is Korean. Given the speed at which we can finish a 1.2 kg tub of kimchi, I’ve begun to make my own.
The Art & Struggle of Sourdough
There's flour everywhere. It's pervasive. It's in my hair and smeared across my apron. There's a fine dusting of the stuff on every surface of my house - cooking space or not. But it's not this wheat invasion that's concerning me; it's the amorphous mass of flour and water in front of me, mocking me. I'm trying to make bread, and it's going horribly.