I'm always on the lookout for the perfect cabbage kimchi recipe, and this one's the best so far. It's taken from "The Book of KImchi," published in Korea. I recommend it to anybody seeking out a kimchi recipe that produces restaurant quality kimchi.
Deconstructed, here's how kimchi breaks down:
sea salt, dried chili pepper flakes, sugar, ginger, garlic
watercress
green onion
julienned radish
napa cabbage after being soaked in a sea salt brine for at least 6 hours
1. Start by selecting a good napa cabbage that is heavy and firm. Remove the outer leaves and reserve. Cut the cabbage with knife 1/3 of the way into the base. Use hands to tear the remainder of the cabbage into two pieces. Sprinkle sea salt into the inner leaves.
2. Create a salt brine by mixing three handfuls of sea salt with water (I used filtered) in a ceramic or glass (not metal) bowl large enough hold the submerged halves. Mix the salt in thoroughly with clean hands. Submerge the two cabbage halves. Place the outer leaves on top. (If necessary, place a plate on top of them and weigh the plate so that the entire cabbage is submerged.) Allow to sit in the brine for at least 6 hours in a cool place. Overnight is convenient. (Never use a metal bowl as it'll react with the salt.)
3. Rinse the cabbage halves in cold water and drain thoroughly. Now it's time to measure out the basic seasoning ingredients. I have struggled with recipes that call for "x" number of grams of this and "x" number of oz. of that. Dispense with this nonsense. Instead use a breakdown of ingredients by percentage. Using the weight of the cabbage as a "100" value, counterpoint seasoning ingredients as such: 20% julienned daikon radish, 3% green onion, 3% watercress, 2-3% chili pepper flakes, 1.5% garlic, 0.7% ginger, 3-5% fish sauce, 2-3% salt. This is the standard breakdown for a basic cabbage kimchi. (In other words, if you have a 100 lb cabbage (haha) you would use 20 lbs of green onions in your seasoning. Make sense? Note that not all the salt is used in the seasoning -- most is used in the brine. In the case of a one-cabbage kimchi, you would only used about 1 tsp sea salt in your seasoning. The reason is the fish sauce is already very salty.)
4. Combine 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, chili pepper flakes (see above), 1 tsp pine nuts, fresh ginger (see above), fresh garlic (see above), anchovy sauce (see above -- this is my preference for fish sauce but you can use others), watercress (see above), green onions (see above), julienned daikon radish (see above). Clean hands thoroughout and mix with your fingers.
5. Now you will need to cut out the hard base of the cabbage halves with a knife. This is done because it will go bad if not cut out. Now pack the reasoning between each leaf of the cabbage halves. With done, wrap one outer leave around the exposed interior portion tightly. Place into a sealed, ceramic cannister. Repeat. With the removed, exterior leaves, use these to cover the cabbage halves. Sprinkle a little sea salt over them and add just a bit of fish sauce as well.
6. And now for kimchi's "big secret." Have you ever noticed that kimchis made at home never, ever taste as yummy and savory as restaurant or store-bought kimchi? The secret is pre-refrigeration fermentation. Before the seasoned cabbages are placed into a refrigerator, they are allowed to ferment for 40 hours before being refrigerated. This "activates" the fermentation which is what makes kimchi special. Place in a cool spot for 40 hours and then place into the refrigerator. You can enjoy your kimchi in just a matter of days, depending how "fresh" or "sour" you like it.
Additional Tips
Most people don't have a Korean store immediately available in their neighborhood, so if you're interested in making kimchi, I suggest Kgrocer.com. I've received nothing but superior service from them and they have everything you'll need, minus fresh ingredients.
If you're shopping for kimchi ingredients in a real store but you don't know what to look for, print out the following products:
salted anchovy sauce for kimchi
I don't recommend using Thai fish sauce as its very sweet and the taste of the final kimchi will never be "right." But there are lots of Korean options to anchovy sauce, including croaker and baby shrimps.
chili flakesI really don't like Wang brand, so try to find a Korean brand instead. The color of the chili flakes should be a bright red. Also, don't be confused by the packaging. Look for packages of flakes regardless of what the packaging indicates. Chili powder is available in Korean markets but this is used in stews generally.
Another tip for great kimchi is the use of an air-tight ceramic cannister. These can be purchased at a Korean market but I have yet to see any available online. The plastic top creates an air-tight seal, perfect for the fermentation process and also good for keeping smells at bay.
Good and luck and happy kimchi-making!
Comments
Now that is a delicious looking kimchi, worthy of Thanksgiving. I'm so discouraged from trying to make it though because everytime I do it turns out nasty.
I'll file this recipe away for later, though. :-)
Posted by: Dave T | November 23, 2006 10:37 AM
Mmmm.Looks great.I could eat a bowl of plain rice just by looking at the last pic:)
I've never come across watercress as a kimchi ingredient...interesting!
Posted by: KT | November 24, 2006 11:40 AM
Do you have a picture of the cannister? It must be pretty large, or not?
Posted by: The big H | November 27, 2006 01:10 AM
OK; this is my second comment to this post. Sorry for spamming, but I'm curious about the chemical process. Is it really fermentation? As far as I know, fermentation convertes sugar into alcohol. But kimchi isn't alcoholic, right?
/henrik
Posted by: The big H | November 28, 2006 12:49 AM
Hey Henrik: this weekend I'll snap a photo of the cannister for you, but in the meantime, yes, there is real fermentation involved:
"Lactobacilli are heavily involved in the fermentation of kimchi, which results in a higher lactic acid content in the final product than in yoghurt."
This process totally changes the flavor of the kimchi. If you taste it fresh, then a week later, then a week later, and so on, the taste will becoming progressively more sour. Eventually you need to throw it away as it'll become too sour to enjoy.
Posted by: Evil Jonny | November 28, 2006 05:49 AM
OK, so your post made me crave kimchi. Not having the time to make my own, I went to the little Korean restaurant in my neighbourhood and took some home. Fantastic flavour! Now I've found an ecological vegatable farmer that makes kimchi, Tistelvind, which I must try to get the stuff from asap.
http://www.arirang.se/vega/vega_takeaway.html
http://www.tistelvind.se/h1-Kimchi.html
Posted by: The big H | November 29, 2006 12:40 AM
Henrik: excellent and good to know you can buy it in bulk locally. Now try the bibimbap -- you'll love it!
Posted by: Evil Jonny | November 29, 2006 05:54 AM
I am so excited about trying this!
Posted by: Preya | December 29, 2006 10:56 PM
Heya, I made my 3rd batch of Kimchi and it so utterly flopped (the first 2 were successful!) Not sure exactly what happened.
Does the type of cabbage make a difference? This time around, I used the same type of cabbage but grown in China (the other time, it was grown in Australia but I couldn't find any this time round). They look about the same, but the Chinese one was harder and didn't seem to dehydrate so much after the same amount of soaking.
The kim chi after 3 weeks ended up being VERY mushy, even the stems! My other kimchi kept for 6 weeks without a problem.
Does the amount of time the kimchi spends in the salt water matter? Is there a particular "look" to the kimchi before it can be preserved? Or should there still be a fair bit of salt? I cut down on the salt by giving it a rinse before mixing it with chilli because I wanted to eat more of it but didn't want sodium overload.
It's a long comment, I know but heh, I'm sure you'll understand my frustration. Any ideas what went wrong?? Now it's like 3 heads of cabbage I'll have to dispose of :(
Posted by: Dawn | January 31, 2007 02:24 AM
Dawn:
I've had mixed results with different types of cabbage. Napa cabbage is the ideal type and also it should be heavy to the touch with all the weak leaves removed from the exterior.
My guess is that if your cabbage did not "dehydrate," as you say, and you also rinsed it quite a bit, it did not have enough salt content to remain preserved and just went bad.
The cabbage should be soaked in the salt brine for at least 6 hours but probably better overnight. Don't skimp on the salt because this is the preservative portion of the recipe. And a thicker cabbage may have required more salt.
After the cabbages have soaked in the brine, you should only lightly rinse them. I think this is the source of your problem.
Other problems may have been: use of the wrong type of salt. (Should be only sea salt from a Korean grocer. Never use normal or iodized salt.) Never let metal touch the ingredients and don't use a metal bowl to mix the ingredients. It reacts with the salt.
Posted by: Evil J | January 31, 2007 08:28 AM
hello everyone--this is my first post to this site, after only my second visit! btw, i love the Kakdugi recipe.
my mother is korean and has been credited to having one of the best kimchi recipes. her secret? she uses brine shrimp and anchovy sauce, jalapeno peppers (sliced and added among the whole vegetables), pureed white onion and a pureed granny smith apple for extra sweetness.
Posted by: Cindy | April 12, 2007 12:04 PM
Lactobacilli are also fun to play around with homebrewing beer! If you have enjoyed a flemish sour ale, or any ale labeled "sour", such as Rodenbach, Dutchess De Bourgogne etc they are soured using a combination of L.Bacilli and Lambic cultures.
Posted by: Brian | July 9, 2007 09:02 AM
Brian: too bad you're not my neighbor. I'd gladly swap some kimchi for homebrew... drool!
Posted by: Evil J | July 9, 2007 05:53 PM
Hello,
Can Kimchi be a vegetarian dish?
Thanks
Posted by: Yingxin | July 18, 2007 12:45 AM
It's bit weird..... In Korea, people use Japanese parsley(Oenanthe javanica) instead of watercress. In fact, it is hard to find watercress in Korea, except in major cities.
Posted by: Lee | August 31, 2007 11:18 AM
Hello, I was pleased with your site and this recipe. I enjoy kimchi and will make this soon. However I would like to know how to convert into teaspoons. As an example, say the napa cabbage was 2 lbs. Therefor 2 x 0.7% for ginger equals 0.14. Now how many teaspoons would that be????
Posted by: Charles H. Rooney Jr. | April 29, 2008 05:58 PM