Yesterday I had a dentist appointment to get six cavities filled. Six! I don't hate my dentist or anything, she's really nice, but right before the appointment I decided to go get Korean food. I had a hankering for a lunch full of veggies, and ended up with delicious bibimbap and SIDE DISHES. Then my dentist had to work on my kimchi mouth for two hours. Sweet revenge, or sweetest revenge?
Later that night, Cranky Post-Cavity Me asked The Husband to get mashed potatoes and kimchi from the store. I don't know why, it sounded good? He went to the regular supermarket and couldn't find the kimchi; I had to settle for mac 'n cheese, and as such woke up today obsessed with fermented cabbage. Apparently it's one of the healthiest things you can put in your freaking body, but I just like it on principle. Fermenting makes things better (See: wine). Also it tastes good.
I left work early and went to the Japanese supermarket and stocked up on a lot of random shit, ya'll, up to and including a grown-ass jar of kimchi. Here's what ended up happening:
1. Cook about a cup of pearl barley and some red quinoa in the rice cooker with twice as much water.
2. Cut the tops off four green peppers and clean them out. Make sure they can stand up on their own; if they can't, cut a little off the bottom until they're steady.
3. Brown lean ground beef, 1/4 of an onion chopped, and any useable part of the pepper tops. Maybe add some salt, if you're in to that.
4. While that's happening, bring a lot of salted water to a boil in a Dutch oven, put the peppers in for 2-3 minutes, then remove pepps and discard H20.
5. Add about 3 cups of the barley-quinoa and as much kimchi (with liquid) as you want. Stir.
6. Stand peppers up in (now empty) Dutch oven. Scoop mixture into them, and further anchor their uprightness with any additional mixture in the bottom of the pan.
7. 350 for 10 minutes with the lid on, 15 minutes with the lid off.
8. Put in face.
Notes
This recipe is loosely based on rice-and-beef stuffed peppers that my mom used to make, inspired by kimchilust and composed of a lot of shit I already had around the kitchen. I googled generic stuffed pepper recipes for the oven temp and bake time.
I got mild kimchi, and was unpleasantly surprised at how bland it was. Next time I'll go for spicy, and while making this recipe for the first time I added a tablespoon or so of sriracha to the beef mixture. It was a good choice. If you're feeding people who are boring, mild kimchi will give you the taste without the heat.
If you don't have a Dutch oven, any baking dish or pan will do. Just cover it tightly with aluminum foil for the first 10 minutes, and remove it for the last fifteen.
If you don't have a rice cooker, go out and buy one.
Lately I've been trying to come up with a dish I could make when I have guests over. Something that doesn't take a super ton of effort, is easy to serve, looks awesome and that every other friend hasn't already served when they had me over to their house (lasagna). I'm going to have to try this out on some unsuspecting girlfriends.
Now it's time for Pinterest and box wine.
