There are many different kinds of kimchi, and Koreans eat kimchi everday. There is a song “I Can’t Live Without Kimchi” in Korea. Moms love to have a good kimchi refrigerator. (I want to have a kimchi refrigerator also~ ) You might think I’m joking since it sounds kind of funny, but it is true and it shows Korean food culture. It shows how much Korean people love kimchi and how important it is in Korea. I can eat many kinds of American food with kimch, like boiled spaghetti noodles, hotdogs, hamburgers and so on. Today I will post napa cabbage kimchi. I might have to make a separated category for kimchi someday.
Wikipedia says, Kimchi, also spelled gimchi or kimchee, is a traditional Korean fermented dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings, most commonly referring to the spicy baechu variety. Kimchi is the most common banchan, or side dish in Korea. Kimchi is also a common ingredient and combined with other ingredients to make dishes such as kimchi stew (kimchi jjigae) and kimchi fried rice (kimchi bokkeumbap). Kimchi is so ubiquitous that the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) developed space kimchi to accompany the first Korean astronaut to the Russian-manned space ship Soyuz.
Read more from Wikipedia…

Short Korean Lesson: *^^*

• SutGaRak (숟가락) = Spoon
• JeotGaRak (젓가락) = Chopsticks

Main Ingredients:

• 1 Large Napa Cabbage
• 2 Cups Korean Radish
• 1 Cup Garlic Chives
• 5 Green Onions
• 1 Onion
• 2 Hot Peppers

Salt Water for Cabbage:

• 10 Cups Water
• ½ Cup Coarse Sea Salt (For Salt Water)
• ⅔ Cup Coarse Sea Salt (For Sprinkling)

Sauce Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Water + (3 Tbsp Water and 3 Tbsp Sweet Rice Flour)
• ¼ Sweet Apple + ¼ Onion
• 1¼ Cup Red Pepper Powder for Kimchi
• 1 to 2 Tbsp Sugar
• ¼ to ⅓ Cup Fish Sauce
• 3 Tbsp Minced Garlic
• ½ Tbsp Minced Ginger
• ½ Tbsp Salt
• 2 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

Yield: About 1 Gallon

Remove any bad parts from the napa cabbage.

Divide 1 the napa cabbage into 4 pieces. Some people divide it half, but I prefer 4 pieces, since it’s easier to put in a jar and cut later.

In a huge bowl, combine 10 cups of water and ½ cup coarse sea salt to make salt water. Stir until the salt is dissolved.

Prepare ⅔ cup coarse sea salt. Divide the salt evenly for 4 pieces of cabbage. Sprinkle the salt inside each leaf. Put more salt on the thicker parts than the thinner parts. This step is important to make kimchi. The right amount of salt and time to marinate the cabbage will change the results of your kimchi.

Dip the cabbage in the salt water. Put some heavy thing (like big pan with water) on top of the cabbage to keep them under water. That will help them get salted better. Leave them for 4 to 5 hours until the cabbage leaves become a little soft.

Rinse the salted cabbage twice in water.

Drain the water, and set it for about 2 hours until the water drips out. Or you can squeeze the water out, after sometime.

Mix 3 Tbsp of sweet rice flour and 3 Tbsp of water.

In a pan add the mixture and 2 cups of water. Boil it until it makes bubbles on medium. Keep stirring it so that it will not stick to the bottom. (It took about 10 minutes for mine.)

Cut the radish very thinly into 2 inch lengths.

Cut 5 green onions the same length as the radish.

Cut the garlic chives into 1½ inch Pieces.

Cut 2 hot peppers thinly and slice ¾ onion thinly.

Grind ¼ of an onion and ¼ of an sweet apple.

In a big bowl, add the rice flour mixture, 1¼ cup of red pepper powder, and 2 cups of radish. Mix well.

Then add the rest of the ingredients: chopped onion, hot peppers, garlic chives, green onion, onion & apple mixture, 1~2 Tbsp of sugar, ¼ to ⅓ cups of fish sauce, 3 Tbsp of minced garlic, ½ Tbsp of minced ginger, and 2 Tbsp of sesame seeds. Mix all of the ingredients well. Taste it and salt it to your tastes. I added ½ Tbsp of salt.

Spread some of the mixture into each leaf of the cabbage. Make sure all of the surfaces get covered in the sauce.

Wow, at last, it’s done !!!

I prefer to use a glass jar to keep kimchi since the kimchi has a strong smell. It is easier to remove the smell from glass jars than from plastic containers. Keep the kimchi at room temperature for about a day, and then put it in the refrigerator. You can eat kimchi before it’s fermented, but it tastes best when it’s properly fermented. (In about 1 week, depending on the refrigerator’s temperature.) Even old (sour) kimchi can be a delicious dish, if you cook it and make fried kimchi rice, kimchi dumplings, kimchi jeon, Kimchi soup, and so on. Enjoy!!!

Tips for delicious kimchi: *^^*

• Good ingredients are important, especially the Red Pepper Powder and Napa Cabbage.
• Getting the right amount of salt for marinating the napa cabbage in salt water is very important. You don’t want the kimchi to be too salty, but if it doesn’t have enough salt, it becomes sour too quickly, and it produces too much juice later. Use coarse sea salt not normal salt.
• Depending on personal taste, it’s good to add raw oyster or salted shrimp (SaeUJeot) also.