TrumatterLiving: For the six thousand days of January
Guksu & Kimchi recipe to warm your soul, 2 skin and haircare product recco and a grand DIY idea- all for dealing with the six thousand days of January.
June comes with its beautiful sunshine and fades to a grey, rainy July. Swiftly comes August with all its decadent colors and September peeks from behind. October brings along with it the great weekend of the year and November and December are friends whose hands I would like to hold longer.
And January? January comes with six thousand days. Of nothing.
You would think- or hope- that you are almost past it but the calendar, as if to mock your drudgery, would read the 5th of January. Like an invisible jail in which you are trapped and time just doesn’t move.
And I think, this is when we must become the Mantis
You have seen the Kung-Fu Panda I presume? Because if you haven’t you are doing a great disservice to yourself. Surely its animated and is intended for UG but its full of lessons.
Okay, I will tell you a bit anyway.
So Mantis is like super fast. He is strong, agile, fast and soooo fast that he moves with lightning speed while delivering his killer kung-fu moves. The world around him moves in slow motion, he is THAT fast.
But one day, while fighting the wool stealing crocodile bandits, he gets caught. Because he was so impatient in delivering justice he didn’t pay attention to the sheep’s word- that there are traps. Soon enough, the ugly creatures trap him in a cell that he, no matter how much he tried, could not break open. He tries every trick, runs from one corner to the other in utter madness and yet… He just couldn’t change the course of things.
Dejected, he drops all his plans and just lies there, waiting for something to happen. And then one day, something amazing happens.
As he lay prostrate in his cell, looking at the sky, for the first time in his whole life, the sun moved faster than him. And as he follows the movement of sun through days, he goes into a state of trance. It is here that he figures what has been missing from his life. It’s patience!
With his new found wisdom he lay still in his cell pretending to be dead. The crocodiles spot him still and motionless and opens the cage to dispose of him. And he rises like a true warrior and beats the living daylight out of them. He has learnt the most important lesson of being patient
And hence, in January, be Mantis.
Don’t restart. Don’t put yourself through lofty challenges. Just reset and have patience. After the whole busy rush of festive hormones January can feel like Mantis’ cage but just have patience. Take it as it comes, allow yourself the time and the door will open. Your hormones will settle. Everything will fall into place.
Make this very cool Guksu as you wait
Guksu is a Korean noodle soup and its absolutely delicious. It combines a few simple, humble ingredients and look simple too but the flavours are so stunning: it gets its pungency from the Kimchi, smokiness from sesame seeds, umami from seaweed and heat from gochujang. The very mention of it makes my mouth water!
Okay, here’s how to make it
Guksu Recipe
The stock
In a pan add 2 liters of water, 1/2 kg chicken (on bone), one large halved onion, 6 cloves of garlic, 1” ginger, 1 carrot, 1 diced radish - sliced, salt and pepper. Boil till the water is half. Keep removing the gunk that floats of top or your broth will be muddy. You need a clear broth.
Note: The recipe that I actually read called for anchovies and kelp. I didn’t have either. So you can skip chicken and add those two to the rest. The original recipe also called for no carrot but I find it adds sweetness.
This would take about 2 hours. Please make sure your gas is on medium. Strain and keep.
Next, get the ingredients done.
Roast sesame seeds to a light golden, cool and grind.
Roast Nori sheets and crumble
Thin wheat noodles or any wheat noodle- boiled and strained.
In a bowl: Mix 2 tbsp kimchi + 1 green onion- chopped + 1 tbsp gochujang or Korean hot pepper paste + sesame oil + 1 tsp honey. (Kimchi recipe is given below)
Make poached eggs: Oil a bowl and microwave for 10 seconds. Add egg and microwave for 30 seconds or till the white is set! You can make a simple sunny side up anyway you want but dont fry the edges.
Optional: Sliced boiled chicken
Assemble your bowl of Guksu
Mix it all up! And enjoy.
Kimchi Recipe
Kimchi is a fermented side dish. We all know about it. And most restaurants give you cabbage with sweet and sour sauce in the name of Kimchi. Haha. Eeeps. Honestly, Kimchi if made properly taste amazing and can be the base of many, many Korean dishes. As a matter of fact, hot gobindobhog rice and kimchi is one of my favorite one pot meal.
Here is how I make it.
Salting cabbage
Step 1: Get 2 large Napa cabbage. Cut into one half, and then half of each half longitudinally. Keep the base of the cabbage intact. Basically you will split it in 4 halves but all 4 parts will have their base stalk intact
Give it a wash and salt it.
Take 1/2 cup salt and sprinkle in between each leaf. Repeat with all 4 halves. Keep them in a large bowl.
Toss it every half an hour. You will give it 4 turns. 2 hours.
Then discard all the water, give it a thorough rinse, squeeze water out.
Cut the end parts- only 1”.
Prepare the porridge
In a sauce pan add 2 cups water with 2tbsp rice flour. Put it in medium heat. Once it starts to thicken, add 1 tbsp sugar. The porridge will start to become slightly runny and that is ok. Cook till the porridge reaches a soupy consistency. Like sweet corn chicken soup. Turn off the heat. Cool completely.
Prepare the seasonings
In a blender add 10 to 12 chopped garlic + 1 medium onion + 2” ginger. Blend well. Add this to the rice porridge along with 1/2 cup fish sauce and 1 cup gochugaru (Korean hot pepper flakes)
Prepare the vegetables
1 large raddish + 1 large carrot + 5 spring onions. The first two will be match stick and the last one will be chopped.
Assemble your Kimchi
In a large bowl mix porridge with seasonings and vegetables. Give it a good mix with your hands. Next, spread kimchi mixture in between the cabbage leaves generously. or just give all a good toss. Adjust salt if you need more.
Take an airtight “dabba” and add your Kimchi. Label it.
Keep it in room temperature for a day and half and then you can refrigerate it. Unless you are in Canada. Then just leave it anywhere you want
2 really good skin & hair things
I recently started using 2 things which seem to have brought good changes in my hair and skin. Both instagram finds, both brilliant.
One is the foxtale Milky Way rapid spot reduction drops. I use it two times a day and my acne marks have started to fade. Wuhoo!
The second is Avimee herbal’s Keshpallav hair oil. I bought it because one cute old grandpa and gramma was selling it on insta and it has reduced my hairfall to 0. I kid you not. Its bloody brilliant.
Get them over the weekend, nurture your body while you become Mantis.
A grand DIY project idea
As the festive decor gets packed in containers, the house can start to feel a bit bare.
January is a great time to get in some fresh or faux foliage as they instantly add cheer to your space. I wanted a large ficus but unfortunately the available ones were too expensive. So I DIY’d one! Take a look here.
Want to see more DIY’s from our little home? You’ll find it all in our website or on our instagram
Happy Friday everyone!
Have a gorgeous weekend