kimchi garlic bread

Kimchi garlic bread and chili.

I had had kimchi garlic butter in mind for a long time, because Skimkim sells a kimchi butter, but it really front-burnered when Caitlin responded so positively to the kimcheese I made. Kimcheese is like pimento cheese or Kentucky beer cheese, made by simply blending together sharp cheddar cheese and kimchi liquid - ideally you use well-aged kimchi liquid, so you get the pungency and deep garlic tanginess mixing in with the sharp cheddar.

I wasn't actually sure Caitlin would like it, since she doesn't like pimento cheese and I was seeing this as something similar. But it was a big hit and we've had kimcheese burgers a couple times since.

The kimchi garlic butter is the same basic idea. I chopped a bunch of fresh garlic, put it in a pan on low heat with a stick of butter, added some kimchi liquid, simmered until the liquid had cooked off (if you're not confident of being able to judge this, just pour the garlic butter into a measuring cup before adding the kimchi liquid, return it to the heat with the kimchi liquid, and stop simmering when it has returned to the original volume), and blitzed it with the immersion blender.

The garlic is much more pronounced than the kimchi pungency, which is just a supporting player here - partly because my kimchi is young, partly because garlic is simply a stronger flavor than cheddar cheese. But it definitely works.