Not much knitting on the Stillness Shawl MKAL– only half-way along the purl row. C. heroically purposes to take me to Kirkmichael Wednesday-Saturday. That should see the job done. And maybe I'll do a bit more this evening.

 

I gave her the latest sourdough loaf. She speaks well of it:

 

Th crumb looks good, but why is it so dark? Perhaps it’s a matter of studio lighting. The flour I used is about half wholemeal, but that looks too dark, even so.

 

I made the kimchi – successfully, I think. One of my Korean instructresses on YouTube likes to sit down with a plate of plain boiled rice and a generous helping of absolutely fresh kimchi, when the job is done. I prefer to wait for fermentation, but I can see where she’s coming from. This batch is crunchy but not chewy the way the wrong-cabbage one was.

 

The great thing about kimchi – I’ve said this before – is that you don’t have to cook it. There are three elements, each somewhat time-consuming: the bowl of chopped and sliced veggies; the bowl of Napa cabbage, salted; and a bowl of gloop – a porridge made of rice flour and a food-processor full of ginger, garlic, onion and exotics, including gochugaru chilli powder for which substitutions are not allowed.

 

But then you just mix them thoroughly all together and just stuff into a jar. I’ve taken a picture but it’s stuck in the iPad as occasionally happens.

 

My one serious deviation from the recipes is to cut the cabbage into chunks at the beginning. The proper Korean way is to cut it in half and then salt each leaf separately, leaving them attached. That looks to me like far too much work. At the end, you’re supposed to smear the gloop between the leaves in much the same way.

 

If I ever meet a kimchi expert, I’ll ask why my way is wrong.

 

Reading

 

I’m enjoying my second reading of The Belton Estate, encouraged by Shandy’s message about forgetfulness. I know I’ve been here before, these are familiar people – but I have no idea what’s going to happen. Surely she must marry X and not Y? I trust Trollope can be trusted on so important a matter. I have no memory of the outcome.