Small Snacks with Kimchi

Kimchi (김치 in Korean) is a traditional Korean side dish, fermented and usually made with napa cabbage with red pepper, but also often made with various other vegetables (cucumber, mustard greens, scallions, radish... etc.) or in non-spicy form.

Since, it is a 'fermented' side dish, the taste keeps evolving through its life cycle and eventually becomes slightly funky. It is still edible, but many like to use over-fermented kimchi when cooking stew, pancakes or some other dish.

Today, I want to show you two kimchi dishes - Kimchi mung bean pancakes and Kimchi quesadilla - where you can use those over-fermented kimchi. Kimchi mung bean pancake is a very simple dish. You just need to mix slices of kimchi and pork with coarse mung bean paste and pan-fry it. Kimchi quesadilla is a Korean-Mexican food, more popular on the west coast of the US and often found in food trucks.

Enjoy these small kimchi snacks at your next beer party.

Small Snacks with Kimchi
(Yield: 4-6 servings / Cooking time: 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
Kimchi - Mung Bean Pancakes
+ 100g Kimchi
+ 1/2 cup dried and peeled mung beans soaked in water overnight*
+ 30g bacon (or thin slices of pork belly)**
+ 1 Tbsp sweet rice flour
+ 3-5 Tbsp water


* Dried mung beans need to be rehydrated overnight. Soak a half cup of mung beans in 2 cups of water overnight.
** Pork belly might be a more traditional choice, but bacon will add more flavors!

Kimchi Quesadilla
+ 150g kimchi
+ a few sesame leaves (perilla or Korean shiso leaves)
+ 50g cheddar cheese
+ 50g queso fresco
+ 5 baby Portobello mushrooms
+ 8 sheets of small tortilla
+ vegetable oil


Procedures:
Kimchi - Mung Bean Pancakes
1. Slice bacon and kimchi thinly.


2. To render the fat and crisp up the bacon, it is very important to cook the bacon slices over low heat. When the bacon slices are cooked crispy, drain the fat over paper towel and cool to room temperature.


3. Drain rehydrated mung beans and grind the beans with food processor to coarse paste. Please add 3 Tbsp of water while grinding mung beans. Add 1 Tbsp of sweet rice flour to the grind mung beans.


4. Add cooled crispy bacon and kimchi. Add a couple of Tbsp water if the mixture is too thick. Mix well to combine all the ingredients.

5. Coat a pan with little bit of vegetable oil, and spoon the mung bean mixture from #4 over pan. Cook both sides of pancakes until golden brown.


6. Cool the kimchi pan cakes over wired rack.


Kimchi Quesadilla
1. Prepare each ingredient as follows:
- Kimchi: slice thinly.
- Baby portobello mushrooms: clean outside with dry kitchen towel and slice thinly.
- Sesame leaves: clean and drain the water, then slice thinly (chiffonade).
- Cheddar cheese & Queso fresco: grate cheddar cheese, and crumble queso fresco.


2. Drizzle oil over pan and sauté sliced kimchi. When kimchi is caramelized, add sliced mushrooms. Sauté until the mushroom is cooked.


3. Heat a griddle, then place a few tortillas. Spread sautéed kimchi & mushroom, sliced sesame leaves, and grated cheese. Cover it with another tortilla. Flip the quesadilla and make sure each side is lightly browned.


4. When the quesadilla is ready, place them over wired rack to cool off before slicing.


Enjoy~