Kidney Bean and Salchichón stew

I had a big chunk of salchichon left over in the fridge from a Christmas hamper that I was given. I found this recipe and it was delicious. Even though I was trying to get rid of the sausage when I tasted the end result I was thinking about what sausage to buy next to make this again. Very cowboy.

Ingredients

Ingredients:

1 tin of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 medium, or one large potato, peeled and chopped into bite sized chunks
Tin of tomatoes
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp sweet paprika
4 inch piece of salchichon sausage chopped into bite sized chunks
1 tbsp oil
1 litre of chicken stock

Method:

Heat the oil in a large thick based saucepan. A cast iron pot is ideal if you have one. Cook the sausage for about 10 minutes over a medium heat until it is crispy. Try a bit to make sure it is not still rubbery. Add the spices and fry them for a minute until they release their fragrance. Add the potato, tin of tomatoes and tin of kidney beans and the stock. Give it all a good stir. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes.

This is the finished article. Would go well with some crusty bread and a green salad.

How to make kimchi

I decided to make some kimchi having read a bit about it. The Koreans credit is with the revival of their nation. Tall order for a food, but worth a try I thought.

Recipe

4 tablespoons of salt
1 litre of water
1 Chinese cabbage (Napa cabbage), sliced into rough 1cm discs
5 radishes, thinly sliced
3 chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
5 cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated

Add the salt to the water and mix until dissolved.
Submerge the cabbage, carrots and radishes in the brine and hold down with a plate. Leave this over night.
Next strain the vegetables, but reserve the brine for later.

Make up a sauce. There is a lot of variation between different kimchi recipes, but I prefer the combination of chillies, garlic and ginger given in the list above. Mix them into the drained vegetables.

Put the vegetables into a sealable glass jar. I use a Kilner, but anything with a reasonable seal is fine. The reason for the seal is that you don't want the brine to evaporate. If it does the cabbage rots with nasty consequences for your kitchen. A hard smell to get rid of. You only make this mistake once.

Press the veg down into the jar, flattening out the surface. Pour enough of the brine back in to cover the whole lot. Next you need to weigh down the veg to stop them surfacing. For this I use a jam jar with no lid. Make sure that everything is good and clean first. Lower the jar onto the surface of the vegetables and gently press to rise the brine level up. Seal the jar and leave it on a counter top in your kitchen for about a week until it sours. Once it is sour transfer it to the fridge and eat it at your leisure. It should keep for a good while at this stage, but mine never makes it beyond a week :)

When you are waiting for the kimchi to sour make sure to check it every day. My 'checking' involves taking a good big forkful out to have with my lunch. Kimchi is great as an alternative slaw. Very healthy too. Once you do this check press the rest of the kimchi back into place and replace the jar. Always make sure to use clean hands and utensils when touching the kimchi.

My first effort at this stank the house out. The second was lovely until it soured, then it was really good. My third go is nice (not soured yet), but I added finely chopped onions at the sauce stage and they have made it into a bit of a mess. Bit like brewing, so practice makes perfect.

How to make beef stock from scratch

I have wanted to do this for a while, but could not get my hands on the right beef bones - most butchers make excuses about them being all gone already. Not my butcher in Finglas though. Glad to help and chopped them up nice and small to go in the pot. So here goes.

Get about 2 kg of beef bones - large marrow bones are the ones to get. Place them on a roasting tray along with a couple of halved onions (don't peel them, just take off any dirt) and a bulb of garlic sliced across the middle to expose the flesh of all of the cloves. (Here is a post showing a picture of what I mean about the garlic) and put in a 200 degree C oven for about an hour until well and truly roasted - maybe even a bit burned at the edges.

Scrape all of this off the tray into a large pot (your biggest) and cover with water. Add in some roughly chopped carrots, a leek halved lengthways, a tablespoon of peppercorns - don't crush them and a teaspoon of salt. Bring the whole lot to the boil and let simmer for about 4 hours. Strain it while still hot and throw away all of the solid bits. Let the liquid cool overnight and then skim it. Mine had about 3 mm of hard fat on it at that stage. Then you can reduce the stock by simmering it with the lid off for an hour or 2. Split into batches and freeze until you need it.

There is quite a bit of work in this, but the end result smells quite good (if a little bit weird). I have not tried it in anything yet, but will make a beef stew soon to see how it tastes. This uses a lot of cooker time and is probably one to do if you have a lot to do in the kitchen anyway. Better still if you were using the oven anyway and just slid the bones in beside the other stuff for 'free' roasting.