Kimchi is a original product of Korea, and there it is eaten together with allmost anything as a side dish. Several research studies has proven that kimchi is one of the most healthy foods in the world.
When cabbage ferment it creates a lot of new lactic acid bacteria, which is the reason why kimchi is so healthy.
It's quite easy to make kimchi, and you dont need any specific skills in order to make it. The most important thing is a little bit of time and some patience. The first taste of homemade kimchi can be tested after a couple of days.
Preparing the cabbage
The first step in making kimchi is to prepare the Chinese cabbage with salt.
- 1 kg Chinese cabbage
- 50 grams of salt
-1.5 liters of water
Mix water and salt. Afterwards you need to slice the cabbage into bite size pieces, so it's easy to eat the kimchi with a fork or chopsticks, when you need to taste the final result.
Place the cabbage into the bowl with salt water. Leave it there during the night or for about 12 hours. You don't have to be very precise about the duration, the most important thing is that the cabbage gets soft and flexible like a piece of rubber. Turn the cabbage from time to time, so every piece of cabbage gets soaked with salt water.
Making the sauce
The next step in making a kimchi is making a potent sauce made out of chili, garlic, and ginger.
- 1 dl of water
- 15 grams of rice flour
Heat water and rice flour until it becomes very thick and sticky. Take it off the heat and leave it to cool. While the rice mixture cools prepare the other ingredients for the sauce.
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 2 teasppon of ginger (about a piece of 5 x 1,5 cm)
- 100 grams of onion (about a medium size onion)
- 180 grams of apple (about 1 apple)
- 2 thai chili
- 50 ml of fish sauce
Mix all the ingredients with the cooled rice flour mixture. Using a blender mixes everything quickly and very easily.
50 grams fo Korean chili flakes (gochugaru)
Final step of the sauce is to add Korean chili flakes. The chili flakes adds a lot of red color to the sauce. You probably need to go to an Asian supermarket to get those kind of chili flakes or order the flakes online.
Making the filling
You are almost finished now. The final step is to prepare some extra filling for the kimchi.
- 350 grams of daikon radise
- 300 grams of carrots (about 3 pieces)
- 3 spring onions
Slice the daikon radise and carrots into small sticks similar if you were cooking wok food. Take the spring onions and slice into 3 cm long pieces.
Putting everything together
Take a big bowl or a large pot (5 liters) and pour the sauce into the bowl/pot. Add cabbage and the other vegetables. Put on gloves (for protection and easy clean of your hands) and mix everything very well together.
After the mixing you need to put the kimchi into an airtight glass contianer. It's very important that the container is airtight else the kimchi can be infected by other bacterias. Also when the kimchi starts to ferment, the kimchi will release gas, which can be a little bit smelly. After filling the glass container with kimchi put the container into a plastic bag, which also helps keeping the gas inside instead of making everything in your refrigerator smell of kimchi.
Press cabbage and vegetables into the glass container and make sure that there is some liquid on top of the kimchi.
Done. The kimchi making process is complete. Now you just have to leave the glass container on your kitchen table for 1 or 2 days. When the fermentation begins you'll see small bubbles inside the glass container.
Fermentation will make the cabbage more sour. After 1 or 2 days you can put the kimchi into the refrigerator, which will slow down the fermentation process.
Try to taste your kimchi. The taste will develop over time. So the longer you keep the kimchi - the more complex the taste will get.
Kimchi can be eaten together with many things
There are really no special rules about what you can eat together with kimchi. But it's offen eaten together with rice dishes or noddle soups as a side dish. Enjoy.