Kulfi —rsquo; A Sweet Pause at the Two-Year Mark

The second anniversary of Banchan Labs. Two years. From a garage in Capitol Hill with Grace and Mina to a warehouse in SoDo with six employees and 6,200 subscribers and Jisoo's kimchi in development. Two years of shipping Korean food in boxes to families who eat it and cry and write me emails saying "this changed my kitchen." Two years of Grace's corrections and James's spreadsheets and Yuna's logistics and Tess's customer service and Mina's packing and my recipes. Two years.

James made a presentation — a slide deck, at the kitchen island, because James will never not make slide decks. Year one: 300 boxes to 4,000 subscribers. Year two: 4,000 to 6,200. Revenue up 85%. Customer retention at 91%. Referral rate at 27%. The numbers are good. The numbers are better than good. The numbers say: this is working. The kimchi company is working. The thing I left Amazon for is working.

Grace said, at the celebration lunch on Friday, "Two years is nothing. I have been fermenting kimchi for forty years. Two years is a baby." She is right. Two years is a baby. The company is a baby. The baby is growing. The baby — the company, like Hana — will one day stand on its own and walk into rooms without holding anything and I will stand at the door and watch it go and the going will be the proof that the building worked. But for now, the baby holds on. The baby needs us. Grace needs us. Jisoo's kimchi needs us. The six thousand families need us. We are needed. Being needed is the best business model.

The recipe this week is the celebration dish: doenjang jjigae. What else? The stew that started everything. The stew I cried over in college. The stew I made in the Capitol Hill condo and in the Busan apartment and in the SoDo kitchen and now in the Wallingford kitchen with three onggi pots and a six-burner Bluestar and a daughter on a step stool saying "cook." The stew is the same stew. I am not the same person. I am better. The stew made me better. The stew holds everything I was and everything I am and everything I am becoming. Two years. Many stews. One thread. The thread holds. It always holds.

After the slide deck and the numbers and Grace’s forty-years-of-kimchi speech, we needed something cold and sweet and a little extravagant — something that felt like an exhale. I made kulfi the night before the celebration lunch, pouring it into molds while Hana slept, thinking about what two years actually means when you measure it not in subscribers but in late nights and corrected batches and emails from strangers who cried at the dinner table. Kulfi is patience made edible: you cook it low and slow, you freeze it, you wait, and then it’s exactly what it was supposed to be — which felt right for a company still very much becoming what it’s supposed to be.

Kulfi

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min + 8 hrs freezing | Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, lightly crushed
• 1/4 cup shelled pistachios, finely chopped, plus more for garnish
• 1/4 cup blanched almonds, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon rose water (optional)
• Pinch of fine sea salt

Instructions

1. Reduce the milk. Pour the whole milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently and cook until the milk has reduced by roughly half, about 20—25 minutes. Watch carefully toward the end to prevent scorching.
2. Build the base. Remove the pan from heat. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, cardamom, saffron, and salt until fully combined. The mixture should be fragrant and a pale gold color from the saffron.
3. Add texture. Fold in the chopped pistachios, chopped almonds, and rose water if using. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Fill the molds. Pour the cooled mixture into kulfi molds, popsicle molds, or small paper cups. If using paper cups, insert a popsicle stick once the mixture is partially frozen (about 1 hour in).
5. Freeze. Cover molds tightly with plastic wrap or foil and freeze for at least 8 hours, or overnight, until completely solid.
6. Unmold and serve. To release, run warm water briefly over the outside of the mold for 10—15 seconds. Invert onto a plate or serving board. Garnish with a few extra chopped pistachios and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 275 | Protein: 6g | Fat: 15g | Carbs: 31g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 85mg