A Korean meal is not complete without kimchi, the national dish that consists of fermented vegetables with a fresh sour taste and a lot of fire due to the added red pepper flakes. Sesu from the blog SESU chops shares with us the recipe for homemade kimchi.
Below you will find a recipe of baechu kimchi. This is a simplified version because classic kimchi is made from a Chinese cabbage cut into quarters and carefully cured without tearing the leaves, after which you have to put a pepper paste between each individual leaf. A difficult and time-consuming job, so.
That's why today I give you the recipe of a kimchi that tastes exactly the same as the classic version: mak kimchi, which can be freely translated as 'quick kimchi without worries'. You can immediately cut the coal into brittle pieces, pickle and season. Easy!
INGREDIENTS
2 Chinese coals
175 grams of coarse sea salt
10 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 full tablespoon of grated ginger
3 or 4 tablespoons Korean pepper flakes (depending on your taste: I use about 30 grams)
12 grams of rice flour
2 teaspoons of sugar
75 ml of water
50 ml of fish sauce
500 grams of daikon (or ordinary radishes), sliced julienne
5 spring onions, cut into slanted rings
1/2 winter carrot, julienne sliced
1 small leek, cut into slanted rings
Chili for make Kimchi
Pay Attention!
You need a very big bucket. If you do not have one, you can work with two of your biggest pans.
Make sure your preserving jars are sterilized.
Use gloves if necessary (eg large amounts of chili -> not nice if you want to take off your lenses in the evening, for example)
Cut the coal into quarters and remove the hard core. Cut the parts into bite-sized pieces. Wash the cabbage in cold water and let it drain. Drizzle the cabbage leaves with salt and massage it briefly. Add water until the leaves are underneath and leave for 2 hours, but shake every half hour. Then rinse the cabbage well with water. The leaves should taste slightly salty, so it is useful if you taste. If the leaves are very salty you need to rinse the cabbage again. Drain the cabbage afterwards and start on the kimchi paste.
Mix the rice flour with the water and bring to the boil while stirring. Add the sugar and cook for another minute. Allow to cool. Note that you still occasionally stir to prevent sheets.
Mix the onion, garlic, ginger and fish sauce into a paste in the food processor. Add the cooled rice flour and stir in the red pepper flakes. Stir well and add the julienne sliced carrot, spring onion, daikon and leek.
The mountain of salted cabbage is now ready to be turned into kimchi. Add the kimchi paste little by little to the cabbage and massage well. The pasta must cover the cabbage leaves well. Fill the preserving jars with the kimchi. Make sure you press the vegetables well and that an inch remains under the edge of the pot. The top must be well covered with the paste so that your kimchi stays longer. Close the pots.
Leave the pots at room temperature for one or two days. Open after a day and press the vegetables well. Close the pot well again and then store in the refrigerator or outside in the garden. Although this easy-to-use kimchi is easy to make, it may be a more difficult task to force yourself to stay away for a few weeks: your kimchi will taste the best after two / three weeks.
HOW DO YOU EAT IT?
You can eat kimchi 'loose', but also process it in countless ways in rice dishes, stews and soups. But first things first: make your own kimchi before you drop bags and pots at the Toko every week on autopilot.
