I’ve been looking for water kimchi (mul kimchi), nabak kimchi, dongchimi, white kimchi etc… recipes in both English and Japanese.
English ones are often by Korean or others who are interested in Korean food and I also looked at Japanese recipes because they often have different recipes of Korean diaspora there who moved there a while ago and have something a bit different from actual Korea. (And that I can read Japanese but not Korean).
One thing I noticed that all the major Japanese recipes I can find online, uses rice water instead of water. All other ingredients are not different from English ones I can find. Like use salt, sugar, garlic, pear/apple etc… But for some reason Japanese ones mention to use rice water. It also explains that you rice water even helps with fermentation.
This is rice water as in, water used to rinse the rice before cooking, not to be confused with the glutenous rice paste for cabbage kimchi. They say use the second rinse water and avoid the first as it is dirty.
All this is cool and makes sense, but I find it so weird no English recipe mention anything about rice water. Do Korean language recipes ever mention this?? Or does anyone know anything?
by beautydiscover
3 Comments
Koreans use rice water too. But It is not necessary. It tends to make the broth sweeter and also aids in fermentation.
Sometimes wheat flour is used too.
The one downside to using it is it makes the water murky and in the summer it can make it ferment too quickly.
Koreans will use the word pul or 풀 which means glue when referencing the porridge used in kimchi.
Here’s a recipe https://youtu.be/nqsoMyxHTbc?si=KM33YkWnZ7mP_-UY
All JJigae, Guk(Soup), Kimchi have rice water-based recipes for 감칠맛
My mom never used rice flour and neither do i but some people do. It’s not necessary