Former co-worker Sjoerd got in touch with me last month and asked me if I’d be interested in developing a pairing to go with his own indie beer brand, Will Sark. Sjoerd developed Will Sark with his friends Will, Anthony and Peter. Together they created a craft beer with a playful design. It’s a light, fresh and fruity gose beer brewed in Lochristi in Belgium and available in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Now, to be perfectly honest I’d never done a food and drink pairing before. But because I do like my beers fresh and crisp for summer, the sound of Will Sark appealed to me. Sjoerd was kind enough to send me some samples. So off I went, sipping and thinking of things this super fresh summer beer would pair nicely with.
You can order Will Sark from their webshop, at Brander Wines in the Netherlands or ask your favorite local beer specialist to start stocking them.
Umami all the things
Will Sark is a a very crisp, fresh beer and I really wanted to something to develop something to cut through those flavors somewhat. I also wanted it to be more of a snack than a meal, because when I think of summer I think of drinking and grazing with friends.
So here’s what I came up with. Kimchi ‘poffertjes’ (Dutch silver dollar pancakes) with kimchi, smoked oysters, Kewpie mayo and imitation caviar.
I fell in love with smoked oysters after Suresh recommended them to me and discovered they are now easily available in Holland. I really felt the smokey umaminess of the oysters would go a long way of cutting through the acidity. Then I basically built the remainder of this snack around that. I choose Kewpie to enhance the umami even further and get a bit more grease in. And then finally added carbs to bulk it up, kimchi to add a sour note and imitation caviar for an extra salty punch. Together with Will Sark this is a flavor bonanza for your taste buds.
On to the recipe.
Kimchi poffertjes with smoked oysters
Equipment
- Very large bowl (if making your own kimchi)
- Food processor (if making your own kimchi)
- Mason jar or other large glass container (if making your own kimchi)
- Chopsticks (if making your own kimchi)
- Large bowl
- Whisk
- Frying pan or poffertjespan if you should be so lucky
- Small ladle or squeezy bottle
Ingredients
To make your own kimchi (store-bought is fine too, see notes)
- 1 large head Napa cored and roughly sliced
- 1 small daikon thinly sliced or julienned if you're a pro
- 8 spring onions greens roughly chopped, whites reserved
- 2 T - 30 g salt
- 8 cloves garlic smashed and peeled
- 1 1/2" piece of ginger peeled and grated
- 1/2 c - 125 gr gochugaru coarse Korean chili powder, except no substitutes!
- 2 T - 30 gr white miso paste red works as well
- 1 T - 15 gr sugar
- 1 c - 235 ml water
To make the Dutch poffertjes batter (store-bought batter is fine too)
- 1 c - 250 g flour
- 2 tsp - 10 g baking powder
- pinch salt
- 1/4 c - 50 g butter melted
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 c - 125 ml kimchi liquid or as much as you can squeeze from your kimchi
- 7/8 c - 225 ml milk adjust the quantity depending on how much kimchi juice you were able to squeeze out
- butter or sunflower oil for frying
To finish
- 2 tins smoked oysters drained
- Kewpie mayo to taste, mix a pinch of MSG into an American style mayo if you can't find any
- imitation caviar optional, to taste
Instructions
First, make your own kimchi (store-bought is fine too)
Day 1
- Place 1 cored and roughly sliced Napa cabbage in a large bowl with 1 thinly sliced small daikon and the roughly chopped greens of 8 onion greens and sprinkle with 2 T - 30 gr of salt.
- Mix to get an even coating of the salt on all the leaves and leave to sit at room temperature for 1 or up to 12 hours to drain out the liquid. You should be left with about at least 1/4 or 1/2 c of liquid while the cabbage should be completely wilted.
Day 2
- Mix together the whites of 8 spring onions with 8 smashed and peeled cloves of garlic, 1 1/2" inch of peeled and grated ginger, 1/2 c - 125 gr of gochugaru, 2 T - 30 gr of miso and 1 T - 15 gr of sugar in a food processor until you get a thick paste.
- Mix together the cabbage and gochugaru paste. Rub each leaf individually so all the cabbage leaves are all thoroughly coated.
- Add 1 c - 235 ml of water to the mixture and mix well before tasting. The liquid should be as salty as the sea, so add more salt if necessary (generally I've found this not to be the case).
- Now, place your cabbage in a mason jar or other glass container with a good seal. Make sure you pack it together tightly and use a chopstick to release any air pockets at the end by pocking the air pocket with the chopstick, allowing liquid to fill its place.
You now have two options to eat this kimchi:
Kimchi for impatient people
- Move your kimchi to the fridge straight away and try it daily until it's reached the level of fermentation you enjoy (or until it's finished, basically). I tend to move it to the fridge straight away and just start eating, because I have no patience.
Kimchi for patient people
- Leave at room temperature for 24 hours before moving it to the fridge and leaving it there for a week before you dig in.
Make the poffertjes
- If you are using a ready-made poffertjes or pancake mix replace 1/2 c - 125 ml of the liquid from the instructions with kimchi liquid and add a pinch of of salt, otherwise your poffertjes will taste stale.
- Mix 1 c - 250 g of flour in a bowl with 2 t - 10 g of baking powder and a pinch of salt.
- Add 2 eggs, 1/2 c - 125 ml of kimchi juice and 7/8 c - 225 ml of milk and whisk before adding 1/4 c - 50 g of melted butter and whisk again thoroughly to an even consistency.
- Let the batter rest for 20 minutes or so.
- Take your smoked oysters, kimchi, Kewpie and imitation caviar out of the fridge to let them get to room temperature.
- Now grease up your poffertjes pan or frying pan with butter or oil and heat over a medium heat. Use a small ladle or squeezy bottle to portion the batter into the pan. Fry the poffertjes in portions (as many as your pan will hold), until you are out of batter. If you do not have a poffertjes pan, a poffertje should be about 2" - 5 cm in diameter.
Assemble
- You can be as neat and tidy or slap dash with this as you want. Or even just serve the poffertjes and toppings separately so people can concoct their own little piles of deliciousness. But the way I went is: 1 poffertje - some kimchi - 1 smoked oyster - a dollop of Kewpie mayo - a small helping of imitation caviar.
Notes
- A poffertjespan is a specially made frying pan with little 'holes' to make the right sized poffertjes, if you do not have one you can just make tiny pancakes
- If using store-bought kimchi, I find the kind that comes in a bag rather than a jar tends to be of better quality and holds more liquid
- Obviously you want to eat this in one sitting and the kimchi poffertjes are best when still warm
- You will be leftover with kimchi but there's no harm in that, you can use it to make kimchijeon or kimchi mac and cheese
- If you make your kimchi based on this recipe, it will keep for up to 1 month in the fridge
