Yesterday, my husband and I went to a farmer’s market. They always have very fresh fruits and vegetables. I love to go there. Anyway, I found these fresh cucumbers for pickling, and decided to make Korean cucumber kimchi. The price for one cucumber was 25 cents. When I told them I wanted 20 cucumbers, they only charged me $2 for all of them. @.@ Big~~~ discount! In this case, we say “ASSA!” in Korean. hehe … I already got a request for this dish from some people, so I hope people will like this recipe.
Yield: 2 Dozen Servings
Short Korean Lesson
- JaDu (자두) = Plum
- BokSungA (복숭아) = Peach
Video Instructions
Main Ingredients
- 24 Cucumbers for Pickling (About 3 Inches in length)
- 1 Cup Coarse Sea Salt
- 10 Cups Water
- 2 Cups Garlic Chives
- 1 Cup Green Onions
Sauce Ingredients
- 1 Cup Red Pepper Powder
- 6 Tbsp Fish Sauce (or a little Salt)
- 6 Tbsp Water
- 2 Tbsp Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Minced Garlic
- 2 tsp Minced Ginger
Directions
Clean the cucumbers. Normally, we use special cucumbers for cucumber kimchi called “summer cucumbers.” They have a light color and they are thin. I could not find them around here, but these pickling cucumbers worked good.
We are going to stuff the cucumbers. Cut off both ends of the cucumber. Then cut an x in the cucumbers, lengthwise, all the way down to about half an inch from the bottom.
Boil 10 cups of water with 1 cup of coarse sea salt.
Pour the boiling salt water on the cucumbers. Set it aside for about 50 minutes. This step is important because helps the cucumbers stay crunchy after the kimchi has been made.
After 50 minutes, rinse the cucumbers in cold water once. Drain the water.
Next, we will make the filling. Chop 2 cups of garlic chives into ¼-inch pieces. If your garlic chives and green onions are thin and soft, you can cut them longer than that.
Chop 1 cup of green onions into ¼-inch pieces. For better color, you can add some chopped carrots also.
In a bowl, add 1 cup of red pepper powder, 6 Tbsp of fish sauce (or some salt if you are a vegetarian), 6 Tbsp of water, 2 Tbsp of sugar, 2 Tbsp of minced garlic, and 2 tsp of minced ginger. Mix all of the ingredients together.
Add the garlic chives and green onions to the sauce.
Mix well.
To fill the cucumbers with the sauce, open the cucumber gently.
Put some of the sauce mixture in it.
Rub the surface of the cucumber with the sauce.
Put your cucumber kimchi in a container. I prefer to use glass containers to keep my kimchi. Set them outside (room temperature) overnight, and then put them in the refrigerator.
Kathy says
March 20, 2018 at 6:36 PMHi Aeri,
I am planning to try this but I am wondering about a couple things. Do you literally put this outside or do you mean on the counter? Also, I have made several fermented items but all ferment longer than one day. Is one day long enough? Also, can you just cut the cucumbers into Spears?
Thank you for your help.
Aeri Lee says
March 27, 2018 at 1:13 PMhi Kathy,
I meant in your kitchen.. yes on the counter.. As you eat cucumber raw.. this kimchi you can enjoy both ways.. eat fresh before it gets fermented or after fermented.. for one day, it will be still like a little salad… but it tastes good.. You can cut the way you want.. but then.. when you eat kimchi later, you will not get the filling evenly with your kimchi… but if you want.. you can.. hope you like this recipe.. please let me know how it turned out later..
Zarina says
December 21, 2016 at 2:13 PMHi Aeri,
Is it okay to just use salt instead of sea salt?
Thank You 🙂
Aeri Lee says
January 2, 2017 at 8:21 AMhi Zarina,
Yes, you can..but that case you have to adjust the salt amount for the recipe, since sea salt and normal salt have different volume and saltiness.
harmony says
August 20, 2014 at 7:34 AMI love oi sobagi. 🙂 A couple of questions, if you don’t mind. First, I will be making these without going to the Korean store, so I need to substitute for buchu. Could I just use more green onions? Or perhaps American chives? And second, when I make baechu kimchi I usually cut down on the hot pepper powder some so that my children can enjoy it more. How spicy is this recipe compared to your baechu kimchi, so I can know how to adjust it? Thank you!
Aeri Lee says
September 3, 2014 at 10:52 AMhi harmony,
Yes, use more green onions.. they are similar in how spicy it is.. so you can adjust it to your taste. Thanks
jeremy says
April 12, 2014 at 10:23 AMmy wife loves kimchi and i am going to try this recipe for the first time. the only question i have is, when i set it in the glass dish do i cover it with a lid or just let it sit outside uncovered?
Mike Buford says
February 1, 2013 at 4:20 PMI have made this year after year with recipe after recipe but none were quite right. My search is finally over. This is it.. Thank you!! Awesome!!!
Fatiha says
September 25, 2012 at 2:59 AMThank you for this recipe and this wonderful blog !
Natalie says
April 19, 2012 at 1:16 AMHi Aeri, may I ask why do we need to use cold water to rinse the cucumbers? Is there a special reason why? Thank you. Nat
Aeri Lee says
May 31, 2012 at 11:14 AMhi Natalie,
It’s for good texture of the cucumber kimchi.. as I poured hot water first and rinse them in cold water later..it’s just part of the process.. thanks
Pauline says
February 8, 2012 at 11:58 PMHi Aeri, I really love all your recipes. Especially the daikon radish, I make it almost every week. For this particular recipe, is it possible for me to slice up the cucumber and prepare it the same way or is there a different sauce that I will use for the slice cucumber?
Aeri Lee says
February 16, 2012 at 6:40 AMhi Pauline,
Sorry..I have several radish recipes..so I can’t guess which one you are asking to use the sauce for sliced cucumbers.
kim says
December 10, 2011 at 2:11 AMHello Aeris.
My cucumber turned out really salty. Is there a way to fix that?
Aeri Lee says
December 10, 2011 at 6:02 AMhi kim,
Sok the salted cucumber in cold water …. so you will lose some saltiness from the cucumber.. thanks
jin park says
September 3, 2011 at 7:59 PMhi aeri
안녕하세요 . 저는 현재 미국 유학생이고.
궁금한것을 영어로 잘표현이 안될거 같아서 이렇게 올립니다.
소금을 절여놓은 이유는 물이 덜 생기고 오래먹기 위해서인가요?오이가 24로나와있는데 전 저 혼자 먹을거라서 일주일 먹을치만 있으면 되어서. 오이를 줄이면 소스 양도 줄여야 하나요?
그리고 coarse sea salt 이거 미국 마트에서도 파나요? 아님 그냥 소금물로 해도 되나요?
오늘 처음 왔습니다 ^^ 액젓은 구할수가 없기때문에. 한국 마트를 가지 않은이상은 그냥 소금으로 해야 할듯.
Aeri Lee says
September 12, 2011 at 5:11 PMhi jin park,
뜨거운 소금 물에 오이를 절이면 오이가 아삭한 질감을 잘 유지할수 있기 때문이구요..물론 소금은 간으로 다른 김치들을 소금에 절이는것과 같은 이유로 하는것이구요. 레서피를 원하시는 양만큼 절반.. 또는 1/4 .. 1/3 이렇게 쪼개시면 됩니다. 소스 양을 오이양을 기준으로 나누신다고 보면 되요. ^^ coarse sea salt는 우리나라 굵은 소금인대요. 미국 마트에서 파는 것은 한국 굵은 소금보다 결정체가 더 작답니다. 그냥 소금으로 하셔도 돼는데.. 물에 소금을 타가면서.. 소금물이 입맛에 조금 짜다 싶을정도로 넣으심 됩니다. (못먹을 정도로 짜게는 말구요. ) 뙤 뵈요.. 공부 열심히 하세요..화이팅 !!!
Krystal says
July 27, 2011 at 6:22 PMHi Aeri,
I am a vegetarian, and I was wondering about how much salt should I add in substitution for the fish sauce? I don’t want it to turn out too salty! I also have made kimchi without the fish sauce but haven’t quite perfected it yet. So an approximate substitution would be great! I love your website! I have used so many of the recipes! Thanks!
Aeri Lee says
July 28, 2011 at 4:16 PMhi Krystal,
Fish sauce has extra flavoring.. so if you skip and use salt.. my suggestion can be this. If you have dried shitke mushroom and kelp.. boiled them and add some salt depending on your taste.. don’t make it too salty but just good for your taste. use that broth instead of fish sauce. If you don’t want that.. just use salt.. and the amount will be again.. as much as you want for the saltness.. the cucumber is already salty.. so after you make the kimchi paste dip small piece of cucumber in that paste and try it.. and add salt from that point.. thanks
Jessi says
July 25, 2011 at 8:18 AMHi Aeri 🙂 I love love your site!
I made this yesterday, and this morning there is a lot of water in the container..Is this OK? Will it still taste fine? Or is this supposed to happen? haha I’ve never made this before so maybe it’s normal.. Thank you and God Bless you 🙂
Aeri Lee says
July 28, 2011 at 4:18 PMhi Jessi,
Yes, usually kimchi especially cucumber kimchi gets water while it’s fermenting..that’s kimchi broth.. it’s okay..but to avoid to get too much water, you drain the water as much as you can .. after you soak the cucumber in salt water.. anyway.. i think your kimchi is okay. ^^ God bless you.
Evelyn says
July 11, 2011 at 7:31 PMHi Aerie,
May I know how long can we keep this MuChim in the fridge if we are not able to finish it with 2/3 days? Thks!
Aeri Lee says
July 13, 2011 at 9:24 AMhi Evelyn,
as you know, cucumber changes the texture and flavor if you keep sometime after you cook… but this kimchi recipes is fermented dish, so you can keep for weeks.. ^^ thanks
Miya says
June 7, 2011 at 4:32 PMHi Aerie – I made this over the weekend (quite easy to do) and I used red pepper powder I bought at a Korean Market. They have great flavor, but there is almost a “fishy” taste…it’s very faint. Is that normal? Is it from the fish sauce or possibly the powder I bought? Thanks for all of these great recipes!
Aeri Lee says
June 16, 2011 at 4:43 PMhi Miya,
Since I didn’t try your red pepper powder, I can’t tell well…but I guess it’s your fish sauce .. that gives fishy taste in your kimchi. I don’t think that hot pepper powder has fishy taste. Sorry for poor answer.
November says
May 3, 2011 at 10:35 PMHi thanks for the recipe! I’m not korean, my husband is. He sometimes misses his Korean food, so your website really come in handy! I just made a batch now 😉 hubby doesn’t know, I can’t wait to surprise him heh heh 😉 one question though, once leave it outside overnight, how many more days do I need to wait until it’s ready to eat? Or can I eat it now? Thanks!
Aeri Lee says
May 11, 2011 at 7:32 AMhi November,
You can eat now and can wait for a little longer.. few days before eat. Thanks. ^^ I hope your korean husband loves your Korean cooking..
November says
May 12, 2011 at 2:32 AMHi Aeri,
Thanks! It was great! 😛 Hubby was shocked ha ha 😀 We enjoyed it so much, they were gone in 3 days! Thanks so much for the recipe! I love your website 🙂