Kimchi & Kaktugi
from maangchi.com
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 chinese cabbage
- 1 medium-sized radish
- salt
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 onion
- 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
- 1/4 cup glutinous rice flour
- 1.5 cups water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup fish sauce (or less, depending on your taste)
- 1 - 1.5 cups hot pepper flakes (according to your taste)
- a bunch of spring onions (chopped and sliced)
NOTE #1: if you're only making kimchi, this porridge recipe is enough for 2 Chinese cabbages.
NOTE #2: add the fish sauce and hot pepper flakes according to taste! Everyone has different preferences ;)
DIRECTIONS:
- Cut the cabbages in half, and then slit each half through the core. [picture 1, 2]
- Soak each piece of cabbage in cold water. Drain and generously sprinkle with salt (the stem should get more salt than leaf part), set it aside for 2 hours. [picture 3]
- Skin the radish and cut them into 1 inch cube shapes, generously sprinkle with salt and also set aside for 2 hours. [picture 4]
- 2 hours later, turn the pieces of cabbage and radish over so they get salted evenly.
- Another 2 hours later, the cabbage and radish should look softer than before, and it should have shrunk. (The total salting process will take 4 hours)
- Rinse the salted cabbage and radish with cold water 3 times.
Porridge Paste: - Using a food processor, blend the garlic, ginger, and onion into a paste. [picture 5]
- Combine the glutinous rice powder and water and cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
- When you see some bubbles, pour in the sugar and stir for another minute. Let cool. [picture 6]
- When the porridge has cooled down, add in the fish sauce, hot pepper flakes, garlic/ginger/onion paste, and spring onions. Mix well and your Kimchi paste is done. [picture 7]
- Spread the Kimchi paste onto each leaf of the cabbage. [picture 8]
- Mix the leftover paste with your radish cubes (kaktugi).
- Put it into an air- tight sealed plastic container or glass jar.
- You can eat it fresh right after making it or wait until it’s fermented.
[To Ferment: leave the sealed Kimchi container at room temperature for 1 or 2 days. Refriderate after it has reached desired sour taste]
Oh I love LOVE korean food, too!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing...
/Fiona
wow, this is HARDCORE. 4 hours just for salting?? T__T
ReplyDeletehaha, now that I live alone, it finally hit me that I can eat kimchi whenever I want :D my roommates last year would have killed me. one of them can't even stand the smell of tuna....and she thought cooked spinach smelled weird too...