At our cooking class last night, we feasted on a cold carrot ginger soup. several kinds of Kimchi, bean spouts marinated in a soy, sesame, & herb marinade (pictured above), edamame salad with carrots & scallions along with kalamata olives, and several kinds of cheese. Yum!

Mike started off the class with a demo on making 2 kinds of Kimchi (which is, essentially, a dish of fermented vegetables with varied seasonings), one with Napa Cabbage, the other with Daikon Radish. They’re currently sitting on our back porch, where they’ll have a day or two to ferment before we seal the jars and store them in the fridge.

After the Kimchi, Mike showed us how to make salad dressing. Some helpful tips to remember:

1. Only use ingredients that you like – ingredients that taste good, and have a presentation that you like.
2. Generally, dressings that work have a 2:1 oil to vinegar ratio.
3. If the vinegar tastes a bit sharp, add some agave nector or honey to sweeten it.
4. Mustard is great in dressings but can thicken them up a bit. If this happens, simply add some water and/or oil to improve the consistency. 

After making the dressing, Mike combined it with some chopped carrots, scallions and edamame beans for a salad.

Then Mike explained how to make the delicious carrot ginger soup that we had enjoyed during the cooking demos. The basic recipe is below:

Ingredients:

• 6-7 carrots peeled
• 1/2 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
• 1 stem lemongrass, chopped
• 1 medium piece of ginger chopped fine
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 1 onion
• vegetarian stock
• homemade coconut milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine the vegetables and vegetable stock in a pot and cook for 45 min- 1 hour or until tender
2. When tender, add the coconut milk while using an immersion or stick blender to puree ingredients.
3. Once the ingredients are pureed, strain the soup to catch any remaining vegetable pieces and serve.