Kimchi (Part 1)

Experiment: Kimchi

Introduction:
I saw a few Kimchi recipes on a few blogs a while ago. I never knew that I could make Kimichi at home! So after I saw those recipes, and knowing that the ingredients are quite accessible, I decided to give it a try. I modified the recipe a bit (because I don’t have some ingredients), but hopefully it’ll still taste good!

Materials:
1/2 Korean cabbage (about 500g)
1/2 Korean raddish
1/4 onion, chopped
2 tbs chopped ginger
2 tbs chopped garlic
4 bunches of green onions
4 tbs salt

Kimchi sauce:
6 tbs crushed red pepper (or red pepper powder)
6 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
1/2 tbs sugar
2-3 tbs sesame

Korean Cabbage:











Crushed red pepper:

Procedure:

1) Cut the cabbage into small pieces. (OR just leave the leaves as they are. There are many different ways.)

2) Put the cabbage into a big bowl, sprinkle the salt onto the cabbage. Mix the cabbage and the salt together until the cabbage leaves are soft. I think I left the cabbage in the big bowl for roughly an hour.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3) Wash away the salt from the cabbage leaves. Taste the cabbage leaves (the acutal leaf part) and see if it’s still salty. Keep washing (or soak the cabbage in cold water) the leaves until it’s not salty. And then air dry the cabbage for about 2 hours.
 

 
 
 

4) While you’re drying the cabbage, it’s time to prepare the other ingredients. Cut the green onions into 2-inches pieces. Cut the Korean raddish in half. Grate half of the radish, and thinly slice the other half of the raddish.

From top left clockwise: chopped onions, chopped ginger, thinly sliced Korean raddish, grated Korean Korean raddish, choped garlic and green onoins

5) Mix all the Kimchi sauce ingredients together in a bowl. Taste it and see if you like it. You can add more crushed red pepper if you like it really spicy.

6) When the cabbage leaves are dry, then you’re ready for the mixing! Simply put all the ingredients in a biiiiiiig bowl, and mix them together. Mix them well! It’ll start to look like kimchi. 

 

7) Put the mixed kimchi in a container.

8) Put saran wrap on top of the kimchi. Cover the lid, then put it in the fridge for 7 days.

Result:
It’s not ready yet! I’ll post it again after 7 days… but… OH! I’ll be out of town… so maybe I’ll post it after I come back… hehe!

Discussion:
1) I didn’t know that the leaves would shrink so much… I think I should’ve used ONE whole cabbage instead of half.
2) I saw in a recipe that you can add shrimp paste in the kimchi sauce as well. Too bad I don’t have it at home! I really like the smell of shrimp paste.

3) You can also add grated apple, thinly sliced cuccumber, and thinly sliced carrots in the kimchi as well… I don’t have it at home. But I’ll definitely try them next time!