Today in the Kitchen: Kim Chee, Butter and Paneer

The middle of the day is way too hot to be outside working, so our outside chores take place from about 8 am to 11 am, and again from around 5 pm to whenever. Hopefully before 10 pm, but you never know.

Butter

So in the hot middle of the day we try to find something inside to do, like nap. Or, like today, make things in the kitchen. Today ED started by setting a few quarts of cream out to come to (less than) room temperature. 65 degrees is ideal, but ours very quickly rose to 72 today, causing a great deal of frustration for ED. Nevertheless she got it churned and in the fridge to cool down so she can work it later.

While she did that, I went and pulled the overgrown spring radishes from the carrot bed, where they had been planted to mark and shade the carrot rows. I grated those and mixed them with other stuff, and made a batch of kimchee (recipe to follow).

Making kim chee

And finally I decided to use up some milk and make a batch of paneer, another exercise in frustration, because I can never seem to add enough of my acid ingredient (lemon juice or vinegar) to make it separate all the way! Here’s how  it went: I brought two gallons of milk just to a boil, turned it off, and added the juice of a lemon. Nothing. I then added the juice of half a lemon. Nada. So then I added about a quarter cup of bottled lime juice. At this point I started getting some curdling, but nothing to write home about. So then I added a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, which I really didn’t want to do, because I so much prefer the flavor made with just lemon or lime juice. Got a little more curdling. Finally I just broke down and dumped a quarter cup, or maybe more, and that finally did the trick: white curds in clear yellow whey. But good grief! All the recipes I have call for such dainty little amounts of lemon juice or vinegar! Should I be using older (hence more acid) milk? All suggestions welcome!

Kim Chee (Today’s Version)

I head of Napa Cabbage, shredded

5 medium carrots, grated

Lots of big, overgrown radishes (Maybe 15), grated

5 or 6 big green onions, chopped

2 tablespoons grated ginger

5 big cloves of garlic, chopped finely

2 tablespoons Celtic sea salt

1 tablespoon cayenne

Several vigorous dashes of fish sauce

Mix all ingredients together in a big bowl. Pack into wide-mouth quart jars with your fists, pounding a little to release enough juice to cover. Leave out on kitchen counter (in a pyrex baking dish or something to catch any overflowing juice) at room temperature for a few days, and then store in the refrigerator. We put the jars in plastic bags in the fridge so that everything doesn’t taste like kim chee. It’s an especially revolting flavor for ice cubes.

This made 2 1/2 quarts.

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