How much is a lot? A gallon? Ten gallons?

Kimchi is great on sandwiches in place of peppers. Especially good with black bread. :)

I'm not sure which part of the fusion quesadilla you didn't like, but gooey cheese wouldn't have been my first choice. Therefore, assuming it wasn't the Mexican flavor that you didn't like, how about burritos? Kimchi, chicken, tomatillos, herbs, corn kernals, wrapped in a wheat flour tortilla and grilled. Kimchi, spiced ground goat or lamb, onions, red peppers, cilantro. Even just kimchi, beans and rice.

Sautéed with small diced fresh vegetables served with pan fried noodles.

Okay, this one may just be for stoners (not my kind of thing), but I've heard of Kimchee Rangoon, that's chopped with garlic and herbs, stuck together with cream cheese and fried in a wonton wrapper.

Kimchi tastes really wonderful as a side dish for fried rice. The acidity will balance out the "fried" flavor. Just delicious.

We have about a dozen packages plus a kit to make about two gallons more. For me, who has used to it almost like a condiment for rice, it's a lot.

I should have mentioned I've had a kimchee burrito (ok -- it was more like a sour salsa) and I love bulgogi tacos (and also some other fusion cuisine -- just had some tasty kimchi aoili).

Noodles sound like a good idea, and fried rice is on the list. I'll have to go pick up some tofu and scallions and try soup.

Korean restaurants here do a sort of giant pancake which is all kinds of chopped vegetables, meat if you want, and kimchee if you want, fried in a pan with a very eggy batter poured over and allowed to set. I love them :-)

Buy a kimchi refrigerator.

Kidding. :-)

But it is true that a kimchi refrigerator is an important appliance in a Korean home kitchen.

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful: refrigerator

When I opened the page this morning, the post right below this one was:
What's the weirdest thing you've put on a pizza?

Sorry I don't have any ideas at this point (other than not being able to get kim chi pizza out of my head).

LOL! I come from an eclectic place. Kimchi pizza sounds pretty normal. :) I didn't think of it when Gooster asked, but it's a real thing. Kenji Lopez-Alt has an article about it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kimchi pizza pictures

Kevin does not like the Korean fusion burritos either, and there is a food truck here that serves them. However, kim chi could be used on fish tacos instead of cabbage. I always substitute lettuce on fish tacos, but I think kim chi would be acceptable.

Hungarian cabbage rolls (with ground meat and rice) would be good, but it might be difficult to stuff kim chi, if the pieces are not big enough. When I make cabbage rolls, I add Korean chili flakes to them, and it resembles kim chi somewhat. You could just make meat balls with rice and serve them with a kim chi sauce. I use a small can of tomatoes when I make mine.

Lars

@dcarch: It's sitting in my garage refrigerator, for good reason! Wow, I won't be storing a cake or anything open out there, for a while. If it gets bad, I think I have an old dorm fridge I can fire up.

@colleenoz -- I know what you are talking about. I think I saw a recipe -- reminds me of okonomiyaki except with a kick.

@pillog, cloudswift -- I think I've seen kim chi pizza before. Might be good with bulgogi, scallions and a soy based sauce.

Lars -- I think it would work well on a fish taco. I've had them on bulgogi tacos. Mixed in a meatball or stuffing sounds tasty, maybe with a soy-sesame glaze.

I'm also giving a lot of it away to coworkers and neighbors -- but I have the kit to make two gallons more!. I have three flavors -- regular, ghost chili and vegan.

Vegan? Isn't regular kim chi vegan? I didn't realize it had animal products.

gooster, yes, it's very like okonomiyaki, which I also love.
Funny okonomiyaki story, DH and I went to an upmarket food market here, and at the back there was a little Japanese stall. I was about to order gyoza when I saw they had okonomiyaki. Yes! I said excitedly, Okonomiyaki! I'd like one of those. The proprietor looked pleased as I don't think many people order them (they're pretty new here). Oh, have you been to Japan? he asked, your pronounciation is very good (Aussies often have trouble with foreign languages). No, I just like food, and languages, I smiled. The okonomiyaki was very good :-)

Okonomiyaki is popular here as well, and there is a restaurant in Little Osaka (West LA) close to us that we like to go to, but more frequently I make it myself. Here is my recipe for that:

LARS' OKONOMIYAKI

Sauce
1/4 cup ketchup (use sugar reduced Heinz)
1-1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp Mirin
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp soy sauce

Batter
1 cup cake flour (or okonomiyaki mix)
2 tbsp grated Japanese Yam or Taro root, or 2 tbsp potato or tapioca starch
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup dashi (3/4 cup water plus 1 tsp instant dashi)
2 eggs
1-1/2 to 2 cups finely shredded Napa cabbage (about 1/3 head)
2 green onions, finely sliced, including tops
2 tbsp minced benishoga (pickled red ginger)
2 thinly sliced sausages or teriyaki meatballs (about 7 ounces)
1/3 cup Tenkasu (Tempura bits) - can substitute Rice Krispies
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil (or olive oil) for sauteing
6 strips bacon, cut into 3” pieces (Optional)

Toppings
(Okonomiyaki sauce, above - I buy it already made now)
1/4 cup katsuobushi (bonito flakes), chopped
Kewpie Mayonnaise
(or 2 tbsp mayonnaise with 1/2 tsp wasabi or Sriracha sauce)
2 tbsp toasted and crumbled nori (or sesame-nori Furikake)

In a small saucepan, combine the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Cook over low heat for three minutes, remove the pan from the heat, and set aside.

Sift the flour, starch, and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the dashi and eggs, and whisk until you have a smooth batter. Adjust the liquid, if necessary, to become pancake batter consistency. Add the cabbage, benishoga, sausages/meatballs, and tensaksu and stir until evenly combined. Divide batter in half (each half will be about 1-1/3 cups).

Heat a griddle (or two very large iron skillets) and add the vegetable oil, evenly distributing. Remove excess oil and reserve it for oiling the griddle later. Pour 1/2 of the batter into a circle, and spread the circle to a 6 to 6½” diameter, using spatulas to push the outside edges back into the correct diameter and to keep the thickness even. Repeat with the remaining batter. Add bacon strips to cover the top of each pancake (if using). Cook the pancakes over medium heat for about 3 minutes; flip, and cook for 4 more minutes. Flip pancakes again (bacon side up) and cook for 3 more minutes or until firm and well browned. Can be flipped multiple times to get even doneness.

Remove to plate and spread reserved okonomiyaki sauce thinly over the top surface of each pancake. (You will need only half of the sauce made and can reserve the rest for the next batch.) Sprinkle bonito flakes on top of sauce and press in lightly, to keep in place. Drizzle with Kewpie Mayonnaise (or substitute made), and then sprinkle on the crumbled nori or Furikake. You can use the Furikake of your choice, but it should definitely have nori and sesame.

Cut each pancake into six wedges and serve hot. Can be reheated on the griddle if needed.
--------------
You can possibly adapt this to kim chi.

Lars

@cloud_swift: apparently, the normal type has fish sauce or shrimp or something similar.

I'm looking at recipes for kimchi jeon (kimchi pancakes), but I think I'll try the fried rice next (had it with plain rice -- it was delicious)

This post was edited by gooster on Wed, Jan 21, 15 at 0:03

Gooster, did you make the kimchi you have? Or did you acquire it with the kit? It sounds like you took a cannonball dive into the kimchi pond!

A variety you didn't mention is a kind the grandmother at the Korean neighbors makes: the kind that makes your eyeballs sweaty and bloodshot. :) I like garden variety kimchi, but I can't even smell hers without the cilia in my nasal passages going on strike, complete with picket signs and hobnail boots. :)

There is an article in today's NY Times on kimchi, along with a few recipes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cooking with Kimchi - New York Times

@pillog: Oh no! I received a bunch of free product from the owner of an artisinal kimchee maker. I've been giving it away but I also got a kit to make more, so I'll be attempting it this spring. The version I had last night was made with ghost peppers, and was excellent.

@diane_nj: great! what great timing. The soup and pancakes are definitely things I want to try, along with the Korean fried rice. Although I've been to Korea, my exposure to the cuisine tends to end at Bulgogi and bibimbap.

We visited this restaurant a couple of weeks ago and the sliders with a chopped kimchi-diced bacon topping were sensational! BTW, have no idea what the "crispy potato fondant" on the current menu is; our sliders came with fries.

This young chef was voted a Rising Star in NYC and came west to open his own restaurant in Berkeley. We thought it was mostly good, not great (UC Berkeley is a very price-sensitive area) but wow, those sliders were some of the best burgers we've ever had. Great beef mix, properly salted beforehand, and the kim chi topping was perfect. I would have dropped the bacon; it was superfluous with good kim chi.

Here is a link that might be useful: Joshu-Ya Brasserie's Kobe Beef Sliders

Odd question, but has anyone with chronic sinus infections put kim chi up their nose???

Apparently it's supposed to have specific pro-biotic bacteria that will help cure sinus infections....

I have a GF with that ailment and she's considering it...

AnnieD, My first reaction was that kimchi was not "clean" enough to risk what else might be in it and that it would be impossible to tell if yours had it or not, and that if there were something, they would have isolated it. Still, I did a quick search to see what you were talking about and found a blog that does identify the specific probiotic, and says that scientists are working on using it for a treatment. It also says what I suspected, that it's not every jar of kimchi, and it's not actually about sticking cabbage up your nose.

I haven't read it thoroughly, nor the linked research, but what they're saying is that there are specific kinds of kimchi (and other substances) that have this particular strain, and that it's used around the nostrils in a similar way to using essential oils. Makes much more sense. They also say, which makes sense, that it's not a permanent cure for those with the tendency, but will work if new infections occur.

I can't even tote up what I would have given to have something that worked like that. I've lost a lot of my life to respiratory infections. I've had success in the last couple of years with ingesting highly refined (over 80% pure of the operative substance, carried in olive oil) wild Mediterranean oregano oil. I don't think this is a cure though. It just knocks it back when it flares up, so that it never gets to the dire stage. I also take very high quality probiotics, which seem to have helped my immune system (which lives in the gut). It's a specific probiotic that's in the kimchi, but if your friend isn't also taking probiotics for the gut, she should.

All of this is interesting, but largely unproven. I will say that the blog I linked reads like there's some sense there. It's written by a psychologist, not a medical doctor, but seems to be looking for true meaning and good science, rather than just parroting twaddle. It's worth doing a lot more research, but sniffing kimchi probably wouldn't hurt much considering everything else that's out of whack for your friend.

Thanks, plllog...that's what I figured...the side effects of that would probably be minimal compared with antibiotics, antihistamines, decongestants and all sorts of other stuff. Certainly worth a try. I wouldn't think you have to put the cabbage up your nose, but maybe wipe a little of the juice around with a q tip or something.

Would you mind linking the blog? I'm wondering if it's the same one I was reading....

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Sat, Jan 24, 15 at 10:06

It probably is the same one. It's the psychologist who has been studying this and curing her family. The link is embedded up topic (and on the link highlight below).

Re application, you did ask "has anyone put kimchi up their nose?" :) She uses a finger to apply the juice half an inch up in the nostril. The kimchi she uses is professionally made, but fermented, not pasteurized (or the probiotic would die), vegan kimchi, but she still had the reservations about random bacteria that I did. I get the desperation! If one has acute, chronic and intractable sinus infection, a little excess bacteria in the face of a possible cure is just not that big an issue.

Everything she says in the blog matches up with my own experience with similar issues (minus the kimchi treatment), including eating things that will improve the systemic flora, and seems to have a lot of general good sense. Similar to my experience, her family also have recurrence after viruses, whether it's recolonization or reawakening of the same old infection. She reports that as time goes on, it requires less and less treatment each time, which makes sense if it's actually doing what she says.

If I were still in that stage, I'd try it. :)

But I've got to say, you definitely should get the prize on interesting things to do with kimchi!

Here is a link that might be useful: sinus kimchi blog

Thanks...that's the same one. There are others that refer to kimchi for this purpose. Also crushing up a pro biotic pill and irrigating with it...

If she's right about the specific probiotic that sinuses need, then crushing a pill won't do it. All of the research goes back to the same studies. This blog has the links.