On a Wooden Block

Tea freak, teaware admirer and keyboard masher.

Kimchi

So, the time has arrived that I talk about Kimchi. It's great.

That's all, see ya!

Alright alright, how do you make kimchi. I'm by no means a chef or anything, but I like kimchi. And if I want to buy it from my local asian store... it's HELLISHLY expesive. Imagine 30-35 ron for 200-300g of kimchi. Where when I make my own, 20 ron max for around 3kg. Also, mine is way better, I'm serious.

There are a shit ton of kimchi recipes around the internet but I'll share with you my take on it and the experiences I've had with it. I usually skip sugar or any "empty" carbs when I cook. That's why never make a rice flour porridge for it, but you can definitely take that approach! For the rice flour alternative, Maangchi has a good recipe.

The very first kimchi recipe I tried (and the one I am mostly going with) was from Joshua Weismann and it was this video. The recipe is also on his blog (https://www.joshuaweissman.com/post/kimchi).

What can easily be substituted in his recipe are:

  • daikon radishes (aka white radish) for black radish (cut them thin though, they have a special spiciness to them) or even simple radish (cut it thin as well)
  • asian pear for an apple or normal pear, lol
  • sometimes when you really can't find spring onions... leek also works. Spring onions though strictly superior.

And what you can add are yellow onions, they work very well in the sauce. For grams, look at the blog post of Joshua Weismann, it's a good starting point, you don't have to be too accurate.

Usually my choice of ingredients are:

  • Napa Cabbage: 2 big pieces
  • Iodine Free Salt: enough, you'll see later on
  • Carrots: 2 medium/big pieces
  • Black radish: 1 piece, or half of a big white radish
  • Green onions: around 6-7 medium pieces.

And for the paste:

  • apple: 1 medium/large
  • yellow onion: 1 medium, can be skipped, but it's better with
  • garlic: ~30g-50g
  • ginger: ~70g-80g
  • fish sauce: ~100ml-120ml
  • korean red pepper flakes: ~80g

Highly important to have good pepper flakes that taste good, not just seeds that are JUST spicy. It also helps with the color, the beautiful red color can't be achieved with seeds.

What can be skipped in my opinion are the carrots and the radishes, but the kimchi will be WAY sadder. The crunch of the radish and carrots simply make life worth living. So, try to get at least one of them.

Well then, how do you make kimchi. I highly suggest watching Joshua Weismann's video and making his, and then if you want extra steps, here.

  • As a first try, I suggest cutting the cabbage as shown in the video, bite size pieces, it'll be easier. Shove them in a bowl and salt them heavily, think oversalted, and add a bit more.
  • Let the cabbage sit for around 1 hour, 2 hours even, or 30 minutes if you're too hurried.
  • Until then, prepare the other vegetables, cut things in strips, if they're too thin you won't feel a bite to them. I usually do something like batonnet. If you're using black radish, cut it to fine julliene, or if you enjoy the taste, bigger. The veggies of one of my batches were cut like this.
  • Shove the ingredients for the paste in a food processor and make the paste. If the ingredients are too dry and not mixing well/paste is too thick, add more fish sauce.
  • After the cabbage soaked for 1 hour or however much you decided to let it, wash it thoroughly under running water to wash all the excess salt. The amount of salt that we need is already absorbed in the cabbage.
  • Combine everything and put in a glass jar, or plastic box (food safe and BPA free) and push it down so to pack it tightly, not overly violent. Cover with lid, not fully, if the bacteria needs to fart, let the farts escape. You can also close the lid fully, but be careful of pressure building up. You'll close the lid fully (airtight) only when putting it in the fridge.

You can of course eat some of the kimchi right away. Let the rest stay happily outside at room temperature to ferment for around 3-4 days (taste at 3rd day and see if you like the amount of acidity) and then let it rest in the fridge for around a week and you'll have the best kimchi possible.

How long does it stay in the fridge? I'd say definitely at least 6 months. I had only one kimchi that lasted 6 months, because it was an enormous amount for a single person to eat. It does become more acidic with time, because it ferments more.

What can you do with the kimchi? I usually eat from it when making rice bowls, stir-fry and when I need an acidic companion to some dishes like french fries, jajangmyeon, dumplings. It goes on almost everything, it's seriously delicious.

How does fermentation work? We'll explore that some other time, I have to talk about it quite a bit, I'm in love with it. But I can't ever explain it better than the book The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz.

That's my take on kimchi, it's worth trying it at least once in your life, I fell in love instantly (I usually fall in love with fermented foods, so it's not new). If you want something easier, I'd suggest sauerkraut (salt, cabbage and patience).

Around one year ago (3rd of April 2020) I made a batch of kimchi, and I apparently took pictures. The color came out something like this, that's what you're aiming for. The most recent batch looks something like this.

Alright, yeah... that's it.