A new study published by the Journal of Medicinal Food found that adding kimchi to your daily diet helps keep your cholesterol levels in check. In the study conducted by Korean scientists, subjects who ate fermented cabbage daily saw drops in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol (or “bad” cholesterol), and fasting blood glucose levels after just one week.

Participants were asked to eat a varying amount of kimchi a day then monitored for variances in their cholesterol levels over a week. Those who ate the most (about half a pound a day) saw the greatest drop in cholesterol though those eating as little as an ounce a week saw improvements. Though both groups saw benefits, subjects who had the highest total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels had the largest dips in those readings in both groups.

Kimchi has long been touting for being full of vitamin a, b and c, as well as probiotics that aid digestion and fight disease. Not only is there now multiple studies that tie kimchi and probiotics to reducing cholesterol, but it feels like not a day goes by where the “good bacteria” found in fermented foods are shown to prevent diseases as far ranging as yeast infections and even cancer. So go ahead, there’s no guilt in going on a kimchi binge!

True to her practical and non-intimidating manner, she looks for a solution to her winter root veg “doldrums” developed from using the same vegetables in the typical stews, gratins or sautees. Craving to make a spicy and zingy pickle, she turns to kimchi as her model as she shows how (check out her video here) she brines, spices and then jars red radishes to make her “bright, spicy” kimchi. She even uses gorgeous watermelon radishes and opts to throw in a stalk of lemongrass just cause she had some.

It’s a reminder that kimchi – the concept of fermenting vegetables in a pungent sauce of chile peppers, garlic, ginger and “saline” (either in the form of fish sauce or, as Melissa opts, chopped anchovies) – has truly caught on. We’ve always championed the fact that you can kimchi just about anything from fruits to root vegetables to hearty leafy greens. The key is to finding a vegetable that’s able to take on the flavors of the brine while maintaining its crunch and texture. Though Melissa chooses to age her radishes just one day, the fermentation from waiting a few days only contributes to the complexity and flavor of the pickle. It just goes to show there really isn’t anything that doesn’t improve with a little age.

For a recipe for French Radish Kimchi from The Kimchi Cookbook, click here

Image: New York Times.

Thanks Mrs. Obama! Any time you want to talk kimchi (or perhaps share a recipe), you know who to call!

Here’s the White House’s recipe for the curious.

Kimchi is the new culinary star according to the New York Daily News! Check out the amazing spread on this weekend’s cover of the NY Daily News!

Her primer, “The Kimchi Cookbook,” takes the traditional Korean condiment to new heights, showcasing its versatility as both a simple pickled vegetable and complex flavor enhancer.

Happy 2013, kimchi fans! We hope you ended the year with a bang and are ready to usher in the year with a renewed outlook on the delicious foods to come. Judging from the predictions made by the expert prognosticators out there, it’s going to be a big year for fermentation! Along with pig’s tail, long-aged meat, and artisanal soft serve, Julia Moskin of the New York Times weighs in with her predictions for what will be gracing your plates and fermentation is high on her list -

FERMENTATION Chefs, remember when making a batch of pickle chips for your house burger was considered advanced artisanship? Now, pickling is baby steps; fermentation is where it’s at. (Fermentation is one method of pickling; it generates living bacteria.) Your peers are contemplating long-term bacterial activity like year-old kimchi, and on projects like pumpkin fermented with espelette pepper and scallion. David Chang has turned a whole chunk of his Momofuku empire in New York over to a fermenting lab.

As does Bonnie Wolf over at NPR, who predicts Asian food will not only dominate in 2013 and dishes like kimchi fried rice and Vietnamese pho will be our next go-to comfort foods, but that fermented foods like kimchi will take center stage.

Speaking of kimchi, we’ll see a lot more fermented food. Last year, we canned; this year, we ferment. Think sauerkraut. Or, if you’re under 30, kombucha, which — for you old folks — is fermented tea. Fermented foods produce probiotics — good bacteria.

Whether you’re about kicking off the new year with a cleanse or with a checklist of the new dishes or restaurants to hit this year, we’re betting you’ll be getting some of the good bacteria and probiotics from your homemade or purchased kimchi. It’s time to start living these trends!

From being warned to “never share kimchi with others” by her mother to running a successful company doing exactly that, Lauryn has come a long long way! As profiled on Sunday on MSNBC’s “Your Business with JJ Ramberg“, MILKimchi, the company she started in 2009, is quickly becoming the “next big thing” primed to take its place next to tacos, salsa and hummus in the American diet.

If you ever wanted a behind-the-scenes look at the business – from the making of the kimchi to the running of it – look no further. As the segment shows, Lauryn built the business around her mom’s beloved kimchi recipes but made it accessible to a wider audience by using a savvy mix of education and focus on quality ingredients. This may be your mamma’s kimchi but definitely not the way she ate it! BY introducing the world to dishes like Grilled Kimcheeze, kimchi fried rice, and Kimchi chimichurri,the world is hooked and can’t get enough!

Another awesome night spreading the good word about The Kimchi Cookbook! Many many thanks to Jimmy & crew at Jimmy’s No. 43 for hosting an incredible night of kimchi, beer, and good cheer! Friends and fan were on hand to sample favorites like kimchi grilled cheese, vegan coleslaw and kimchi brussels sprouts, straight from recipes from the cookbook.

All the dishes were a hit but especially revealing was how well they went with the selection of beers ranging from a Belgian saison, Green Flash IPA, and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. Goes to show that complexity and balance in flavor will always stand up to and enhance quality beverages. Cheers!

Have folks out there been watching David Chang’s new PBS show “The Mind of a Chef”? Narrated by Anthony Bourdain, it’s a travelogue cum cooking/eating show that follows Chang’s eating adventures around the world. True to form, he uncovers the funk, bizarre and delicious in every episode, eating with some of the culinary greats, finding unlikely ingredients, and demonstrating ingenious cooking techniques, all in his irreverent style.

A recent episode was dedicated to “rotten” stuff; the delicious fermented, petrified food that we all love but don’t necessarily fess up to. The episode features “stinky, delicious kimchi”, katsuobushi (deliberately rotten fish so integral in much of Japanese cooking), XO sauce Chang makes from scratch, and rotten bananas (“don’t cry over rotten bananas!”), the base for Christina Tosi’s awesome-looking banana cream pie.

“Old, rotten, moldy, fermented, these are words that on the surface do not sound very appetizing, but in many cases they are critical in making something delicious.”

Couldn’t agree more! Of course a food show on rot wouldn’t be a food show on rot if it didn’t include kimchi, the mother of rotten food.

A bizarre and hilarious demonstration on making kimchi (“When you make kimchi you have to think happy thoughts!” Agreed!) covers the nuts and bolts plus the very vivid depiction of kimchi going underground to ferment and mature to its stinky, umami-rich goodness. How is it be that something that smells so bad and putrid tastes so good?! Essentially it reverts back to the increasingly incontrovertible fact that molds and microbes equate to flavor and the reason why we’re so intoxicated by it. It’s the overarching secret ingredient behind the foods featured on this episode as well as the stuff we love to eat: cheese, kombucha, dried meats, wine, beer, you name it.

Be sure to check out the episode here before it expires… It’s a treat!