Acorn Squash Kimchi and one Crazy Dinner Party

by Maybelle's Mom

Thursday October 02, 2008, 8:24 PM

What do you do to commemorate the end of summer? I went a little nuts and decided to have a 10 course meal inspired by works of Art.

You have likely had this experience...you offer to do something that you full well know you can't deliver. Sure, I can do that, you say.

Well not too long ago, Foodbuzz sent out a request for proposal from their featured publishers of which my blog, feeding maybelle, is but one. And, then late on one friday afternoon about 1 month ago, I got a response that they had selected my 10 course dinner inspired by art featuring the season's best of Ohio produce.

It was a monster endeavor that took about one week of cooking and planning. And, then afterwards, one week of being seriously burned out. But, the meal was super successful.

And, after all that work, we had some surprises in terms of our guests favorite dishes. In one course, we decided to create our rendition of a Renaissance meal in which dinners were required to eat only those items which fed their humors. There was the theory that each person could be classified in one of four types (or humors): melancholic, sanguine, choleric, and phlegmatic. Food became like medicine to keep your personality in check. So for this course, we made 12 dishes and every humor had to eat the three alloted. Read the full post to figure out your humor and what you would have eaten.

These dishes were to be prepared as either hot/wet; cold/wet; cold/dry; hot/dry. The choleric dishes were to be cold and wet, and immediately when reading about the cold and wet, my husband suggested kimchi. We made A LOT of kimchi this summer. Good kimchi, like Ramp kimchi. Bad kimchi, like rhubarb kimchi. And, then everything in between. So, when we turned to the kimchi ingredient, we went with acorn squash.

The results were so good that I have gotten requests from many of the guests for the recipe. And, it couldn't be easier.

It is at this point I should make one disclaimer--I am not Korean and have not lived in Korea; so this is not traditional kimchi. However, this is made with red pepper specifically for kimchi purchased at a Korean grocery store.

Recipe:
Acorn Squash Kimchi
Slice 1 small acorn squash as thinly as you can.

Make a paste from
4 cloves garlic (ideally Korean garlic), minced
1 T ginger minced
1 T sesame seeds
3 T ground chili pepper--ideally the red pepper specifically for kimchi
1/3 cup sesame oil
2 T olive oil

Slather with the acorn squash with the paste.

Place in a jar. Top off with olive oil to sort of seal the container. Refrigerate 4 days and then eat. Lasts about 1 week in the fridge.