My Kimchi recipe
1 head of Napa cabbage
1/2-1 cups of coarse sea salt or Korean coarse sea salt
1 medium carrot
1 small Korean radish or daikon
1lb of Chinese chives
1 Apple
1 thumb size ginger
1 Korean pear
1 garlic bulb
1 medium onion
1-2tbs of Korean salted shrimp
2 cups of Korean red pepper flakes
1 banana
1/4-1/2 cup of fish sauce
2 tbs of MSG
2 large potatoes or ½ cup of glutenous rice flour + ½ cup of water
1 bunch of green onion
¼ cup of anchovy stock or make your own stock with dry shiitake mushrooms, anchovies and konbu seaweed
Pick out good ingredients
Make sure the cabbage is not soft or airy when pressed, has a white bottom and green leaves. It should be firm.
Make sure the Korean radish is not flimsy. Pick the one that is half green.
Brining
Cut and wash 1 head of Napa cabbage
Make brining liquid (not too salty) and soak the cabbage in the brine liquid for 1-2 hours until the cabbage is flimsy.
Preparing veggies
Thinly slice carrots
Cut radish into thin quarter moons
Cut green onions into 1 inch pieces
Cut chives into 1 inch pieces
Anchovy stock, homemade. There’s also cubed stocks:
Add 4 de headed and de gut anchovies and 5 dry shiitake mushrooms into a pot on medium low heat. Stir until fragrant. Then add ½ cup of water. Simmer for 10-15 min then strain.
For cube or package stock, just add 1-2 dashi stock cubes or package into hot water.
Starch binding liquid
Boil and mash your potatoes.
If don’t want to use mash potatoes, on a stove, pour in 1:1 ratio of water and glutenous rice flour, mix on medium low until thickens.
Fruit binding:
In a blender, add the apples, Korean pears, garlic, ginger, onion, banana and salted shrimp. Blend until smooth.
Mix fruit + starch binding liquid + anchovy stock + radish, carrots, chives + green onion
Season to taste to your liking. Add fish sauce, sugar and msg. The paste should taste between a balance of sweet and salty. Not too overpowering. If it’s too salty, add more sugar. Vice versa. Adjust to how you like it.
Preparing the clean jars
Make sure you clean the airtight jars well, it should be dry. If you have a kimchi container that’s great.
Cleaning the Napa cabbage after brining
To check if the cabbages are ready and well brined, take a stem piece and try to break it. If it’s flimsy and unbreakable then it’s ready. Rinse the brined cabbages twice in water and make sure to squeeze out any excess water. Let it dry for 15-30 mins.
After 15-30 min, mix the kimchi sauce with the dry-ish cabbages. Make sure you massage it in well. Store the kimchi in a warm place for 1-3 days until it gets sour, or “ripe”. After that, put it in the fridge.
Enjoy!!
(P.s, I’m not Korean but, I tried). If you’re Korean lmk if this recipe is legit.
by StrikingManner