Ingredients:

• 2 heads napa cabbage
• 1/8 cup soy sauce
• 1/8 cup fish sauce
• 3 tbls sugar
• 3 tbls kosher salt
• 3 bunches of scallions
• 4 large carrots
• 1 large daikon radish (2" diameter X 7" long)
• 1 habanero 
• 1 1/2 dried congo chilies from Uncle Eddie or 3 tbls congo pepper paste
• 5-inch ginger piece
• 12 garlic cloves
• Vegetable culture starter or 2/3 cup Kimchi juice from the last batch
• 1/2 cup Korean chili powder

Ingredients:

• 75 grams dried Congo chiles from St. Eddie's garden, crushed
• 11 cloves of garlic, minced
  
• 1 tbls kosher salt
• 1/4 cup Kimchi juice
• 1 bottle of Sweet Riesling

Instructions:

• Combine all ingredients in a half-gallon mason jar. 
• Add lid with airlock and store at room temperature for 3-6 weeks.

Ingredients:

• 3 heads of cabbage. I like mixing the red and green cabbage.
• 3 tbls kosher salt
• Vegetable culture starter
• 1 tbls cumin seeds
• 1 tbls caraway seeds

Instructions:

• Chop the cabbage and combine with salt and spices. 
• Vacuum seal cabbage to allow the salt to draw out the liquid from the cabbage. Let sit for 1-2 hours. 
• Once the cabbage has wilted, combine with vegetable starter in two half-gallan mason jars. Then push all the ingredients below the liquid level, seal and store for 1-2 weeks at room temperature. 
• Cook up bratwursts on the grill and serve at a campfire in the spring sunshine. 

I love how that bright pink sauerkraut dresses up an otherwise beige plate. Plus, the probiotic benefits of the condiment is awesome. I am aiming to eat fermented foods with every meal. It's a delightful shift!

This winter was dark and mild, and we were inside a lot. Adam served up a tasty Vietnamese noodle soup time and again over the months. Here is a post dedicated to the juxtaposition of Alaskan winter days and Vietnamese beef broth soup. 

Matt's ice candles are the last vestiges of the glowing sun, 
illuminating the impassive dusk that shrouds us 
all from the convalescent, radiating warmth of a far-away season.

…and then there is Pho, the belly-warming, soul-soothing broth soup, which is offered as compensation. 

Adam has adapted his recipe from Cook's Illustrated Vietnamese Beef Pho recipe, which was published this winter. We do a few things differently:

• Roll the ground beef into meat balls and keep them to serve in the final dish instead of throwing them away. 
• We add cilantro and jalapeños to the bowl. 
• We double the amount of vegetables in the bowl that we add the broth to. 

This quick, at-home broth is what I prefer to any kind of Pho I've had in restaurants. It warmed us up, and we must have served it for dinner and get-togethers for 10 meals. 

Not that we won't have it again anytime soon, but I'm ready to say thank you and good-bye to the recompensing soup and hello to the stalwart sun of spring.