Today we will experience a quick and easy way to make fresh and great tasting kimchi, if there is such a thing. 
In the past, I posted a recipe for making a more traditional napa cabbage kimchi.
The last kimchi recipe I made was “whole cabbage kimchi,” which is called PoGi (포기), or Tong Baechu (통배추). People use that method for making winter kimchi. It is only cut into four pieces. This time, we will cut the cabbage into bite-sized pieces. This will make serving easier since you will not have to cut the kimchi. This way of making kimchi is also good if you only have one or two heads of napa cabbage. There are some more differences between the two recipes. You can figure out what they are. hehe.. Try this recipe someday. I hope you like it as much as I do.
Yield: 1 Gallon
Short Korean Lesson: *^^*
- NalSsi (날씨) = Weather
- GaeJeol (계절) = Season
Main Ingredients
- 2 Napa Cabbage Heads (about 4 lb each)
- 1 Onion
- 4 Green Onions
- 1 Handful Garlic Chives
Cabbage Brine Ingredients
- 1⅓ Cup Coarse Sea Salt (Sprinkle)
- 20 Cups Water
- 1 Cup Coarse Sea Salt (For Salt Water)
Kimchi Paste Ingredients
- 20 Dried Red Hot Peppers
- ½ Cup Cooked Rice
- About ½ Cup Fish Sauce
- ¼ Cup Water
- ½ Onion
- 14 Garlic Cloves
- 1 Piece Ginger (Unshelled Brazil nut sized, cut into 3 pieces)
- ⅔ Cup Red Pepper Powder
- 2½ Tbsp Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
Directions
Remove any bad parts from the napa cabbage.
Divide the cabbage into 4 pieces.
Remove the heart from the cabbage. (Now the cabbage has a broken heart. ㅋㅋㅋ)
Cut the remaining cabbage into 2 inch pieces. Cutting the cabbage will reduce the soak time of the cabbage. Plus, it’s easier to mix the cabbage with the kimchi paste.
Put some cabbage into the big bowl and sprinkle 1 handful of coarse sea salt onto the cabbage. In the same way, add another layer of cabbage on it and sprinkle more salt. I used 1⅓ cup of coarse sea salt in this step. Keep adding more layers in this prescribed manner until the supply of cabbage has been exhausted.
In another bowl, pour 20 cups of water and 1 cup of coarse sea salt. Stir it until the salt dissolves.
Evenly pour the salt water into the cabbage bowl. Soak the cabbage in the salt water for 3 hours. Every hour, mix the cabbage (up and down), so all the cabbage can get well salted.
After 3 hours, rinse the cabbage in cold water 3 times.
Drain the water for about 2 hours.
Wash the dried hot peppers once. Remove the stems from the peppers if they are present. Cut them in half with scissors.
To make the kimchi paste: in a mixer, grind 20 dried red hot peppers, ½ cup of cooked rice, about ½ cup of fish sauce, ¼ cup of water, ½ of an onion, 14 garlic cloves, and 3 pieces of ginger. Leave out some of the fish sauce. You can add the remainder later to adjust the saltiness to your tastes. I used a little less than ½ cup of fish sauce for my kimchi.
Cut 1 onion, 4 green onions, and 1 handful of garlic chives as in the picture.
Pour the mixture into the big bowl, and add the rest of the ingredients for the kimchi paste: ⅔ cup of red pepper powder, 2½ Tbsp of sugar, and 1 Tbsp of sesame seeds. In this step, depending on your tastes, you can add some of the left over fish sauce you saved from the grinding mixture. Add the onion, green onion, and the garlic chives into the paste. Mix well.
Add the napa cabbage.
Mix the cabbage with the kimchi paste. Put the kimchi in a glass jar or container. Leave it outside (room temperature) over night, and then put it in the refrigerator. It will take several days to a week until it is properly fermented.
Of course, you can eat fresh kimchi with the freshly cooked rice. Yummy! hehe. If you are a vegetarian, you can substitute the fish sauce with salt and water. I recommend sea salt. Thank you for visiting my blog. I’ll be back with more delicious recipes later! God bless you all.
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Can this kimchee be used for kimchee jigae as well?
hi SMK,
Sure.. ^^ delicious ~~~ just make sure your kimchi is well fermented or sour enough to use for kimchi jjigae… hehe thanks
Hi Aeri,
Thank you so much for this delicious recipe. Now I can finally say I have my own kimchee recipe! Not only is it easy but so tasty!
hi SMK,
I love to hear.. it is easy but so tasty 
hehe.. thanks
hi. i just want to ask how can i reduce the sourness of the kimchi?
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
hi mari,
There are certain food is good to use old (real sour) kimchi.. like kimchi stew.. kimchi pancake.. or kimchi fried rice.. When you cook the sour kimchi with other ingredients.. it tastes better… ^^
aeri,
thank you so much for the delicious recipes. I have lived in Korea for two years and am going to see my family in America for Christmas. I’m making them DalkDoriTang, Japchae, and my favorite, royal palace DDeok. Have a Merry Christmas!
hi mike,
By now, you will be with your family in America. I hope you have a great time with them. and hope your family enjoy your korean food. Thanks.. please let me know how was the meal.. ^^ thanks
dear aeri, i’ve made my napa kimchi but it tasted weird. to be frank i didn’t use your recipe but i wondered, what does kimchi taste like?
is it supposed to be sour or sweet?
i don’t really understand the taste of my kimchi.. so i don’t know how to describe my kimchi.
can you tell me how it taste like?
curious
hi aifaa,
So you never tried authentic kimchi from Korean store or some Koreans made ??? Kimchi tastes different before it’s fermented and after it’s fermented.. before .. it taste like.. raw salty and spicy cabbage with garlic and fish sauce flavor…
after it is fermented it will not have the raw cabbage flavor anymore.. instead it will have spicy and a little sour (not much..) flavor.. it’s hard to describe the flavor actually.. try my recipe someday.. (It is important to use right kind of hot pepper powder.. for right flavor..)
can i use regular, round cabbage for kimchi?
hi rjay,
well… maybe not..because the texture and flavor will be different.
Finally a good replacement for sweet rice flour (which I cannot find anywhere). The fresh kimchi tasted really nice. I also don’t have gochugaru but I found some semi hot chiles, thin and long, that were very fruity and sweet but spicy enough and dried them myself specifically for kimchi.
Tastes really good for me although I never tasted kimchi before and don’t actually know what it is supposed to taste like
As for the tea, Koreans do grow green tea and its similar to japanese green teas.
hi argus,
^^ Good job !!! I’m happy to hear that you liked your kimchi. Even you don’t know what the kimchi taste suppose to be.. actually it doesn’t matter much..because you like what you made a lot..right ?? hehe.. I’m sure that it was close enough to original kimchi flavor. ^^ thanks
are you asking questions at the end ??
Koreans normally buy green tea powder or dried green tea leaves in a store for their tea…and I guess it’s smilar to Japanese green tea. ^^
Aeri, that is the Kim Chi I have been craving! Fabulous recipe and excellent instructions. My husband is from Delhi, India and I am Canadian and we both love Korean cooking. We haven’t been able to find cabbage Kim Chi nearby so this is wonderful, especially for the cold Canadian winters. My hubby ate a bunch before it got into the jars! Thanks and much peace to you, Sophie
Hi Sophie, ^^
thanks have a great weekend.
hehe.. your comment made me smile.. your kimchi must be good.. your husband ate a bunch before it got into the jars.. hehe..
Thanks so much for showing us such as delicious recipes. Everytime i read your blog my mouth becomes full of saliva thinking about the taste. Kamsa hamnida!!
hi karol,
Try many recipes from my blog.
Hehe.. thanks
I really enjoy your site! My friends and I are having a Korean cooking night this weekend, and I’m responsible for the kimchi. When you state coarse sea salt in your recipe, is it the same as kosher salt? I’m curious to know the brand you use to ensure I use the proper amount of salt. Most recipes I come across either call for table salt or kosher salt. I appreciate any guidance you can provide.
Hi Mark,
Nice to meet you. Yes, I think it’s same.. just kosher salt has different size.. and the coarse sea salt I used is big chunk salt. Here is a picture for you. I hope you enjoy your Korean meal with your friends. Thanks and if you have more question, please let me know.
http://kitchen.naver.com/food/viewDetail.nhn?foodId=263&foodMtrlTp=MA
dear aeri,
you are my savior!!! I love your website! i am 5 months pregnant right now and this baby is craving korean food like crazy! we spend about 60-80 dollars just eating out because I don’t know how to cook korean food. i learned to love it because we spent 9 days in cheju and chonju island. the food brings back lovely memories. thank you for putting your cooking online for people like me. the baby girl, her daddy’s wallet and I thank you!
hi Christine,
hehe.. your comment made me smile.. ^^ Congratulations on your baby.. ^^
I hope you can find some easy recipes on my blog..since it will getting more difficult to cook with your pregnancy.. maybe your husband can cook for you with my recipes..hehe
i hope you and your baby girl are healthy.. thanks
안녕 Aeri, I made kimchi and put it in glass jar. After a week there is a lot of kimchi broth inside, have I to leave it in?
As I’m vegan I used shouyu, konbu dashi and water. I don’t have a blender so I used rice flour and the korean red pepper powder for kimchi, anyway it tastes good.
By the way which tea or tisane is usually drunk in Korea during or after meals? I bought a corn tea called 옥수수차.
I know about a green tea called 녹차, is it more similar to chinese or japanese green tea?
Thanks for all,
best wishes.
Ste
hi Ste,
Yes, you can just leave the broth there.. you can use it later for different kinds of food
barley tea is normal.. sometimes we boil cooked the rice with some water in the rice cooker (usually pressure rice cooker in a stove) with a little bit of cooked rice in the bottom..after you make rice..and remove the most of the rice.. and drink them after meal.. yep.. corn tea is normal too. ^^ I think the green tea are similar in different coutries..
감사합니다.
Dear Aeri,
I am having trouble with the fermentation of kimchi. Sometimes I leave my kimchi in room temperature to ferment for too long and it gets bitter. How many days do you leave your kim chi out and keep it in the fridge? Usually the kimchi in restaurants have a sour and sweet taste and I don’t taste any bitterness at all. Do you have any tips that could help me solve this problem?
-thank you
hi angelina,
I usually leave my fresh kimchi in room temperature for over night or a day before i put it in the refrigerator .. in the refrigerator .. you can check 3 or 4 days later.. and 3 or 4 days later.. like this. usually for mine.. it takes over a week … if the kimchi is not fermented enough.. it doesn’t taste like the fresh one at all..and not sour either.. so it’s not good time to eat.. that’s what you said.. bitter taste ..something like that.. so just keep check and see how long it takes.. I will say.. about 2 weeks will be good time.. but before that check your kimchi sometimes..
Hi Aeri,
What a good idea to use cooked rice. I started making the tong baechu kimchi before I saw this one so I hope to make mak kimchi soon. Thank you for sharing all of your wonderful recipes.
hi csyama,
Yep.. cooked rice is very convenience for making kimchi.. hehe thanks
Hi, Aeri!
First i would like to say that i love your website! The first recipe that i’ve tried was the zucchini pancakes and now i wanna try this one. Only one problem, though: i live in Rio de Janeiro and there’s no way i can get red pepper powder or napa cabbage around here
Can i use regular cabbage instead? What is the difference bettwen the two (besides the shape xD)? Is there a way to replace the red pepper powder? If there is so, what can i use?
Also, using cooked rice instead of sweet rice flour is a great tip! (since i can’t find that around here too)
Thank you so much for all those great recipes. Keep it up!
God bless you and your family <3
hi Thaisa,
About your questions.. they have different flavor and texture.. normal cabbage has bitter flavor.. and it doesn’t work good for fermenting process like napa cabbage has.. and the red pepper powder is one of the most important ingredient for kimchi.. so I’m sorry I don’t know if you can replace it with something else.. where are you living ?? do you have any daikon radish ?? you can replace it to napa cabbage to make radish kimchi though..
Hi Aeri, thank you very much for your reply. It happens that the Nappa Cabbage was very easy to find. It’s called “acelga” here (even the name is easy!) and i was able to find it very quickly ^^
I’m still on the hunt for the red pepper powder but my mom said that she might know where i can buy it.
Thanks again
hi Thaisa,
great !!! I hope you can find red pepper powder also..and try this delicious kimchi someday.
Hi Aeri,
Thanks for a very detail recipe. I’d like to ask if I want to use salt instead of fish sauce, how much salt should I use for the same amount of napa cabbage? Sorry, I can’t taste to see how much salty fish sauce is …
Thank you.
Phillip
hi Phillip,
Oh.. It’s same with me… unless I make the kimchi and taste the paste again.. it’s hard to tell the exact amount.. what i can tell you is.. when you make the kimchi paste.. add 1/2 cup of water to the grinder with other ingredients… grind them without salt..then start to add about generous amount of 1/2 tbsp of salt to the kimchi paste.. and taste it.. if it’s salty enough it’s good.. you can adjust the amount salt there.. hope it works great.. ^^
p.s I checked my fish sauce container.. per serving (1 tbsp ) it contains 850 ml.. my recipe asks 1/2 cup of fish sauce .. which means 8 tbsp.. 8 servings.. so it was about 6.8 g of salt.. a little over 1/2 tbsp… ^^
Thanks for your response, Aeri. Wish you the best.
Hi Aeri!
I’ve made this twice now and each time the kimchi has turned out delicious. This will definitely be my kimchi recipe! Instead of using cooked rice, can I use sweet rice flour instead? If so, how much water and how much flour do I need?
hi SMCK,
wow.. great you like this recipe. Thanks for trying my recipe. Yes, you can use sweet rice flour instead.. you can look at my other kimchi recipe that is using sweet rice flour.. here is a link for you.
http://aeriskitchen.com/2009/01/napa-cabbage-kimchi-배추-김치baechu-kimchi/
hi Aeri ^^
i love kimchi and i love making it and i think your recipe is the simplest. you even use dried chilies. i like it. and you use cooked rice.i’m going to try your kimchi recipe. what i to know why do we have to put, in your case a cooked rice or sweet rice flour to make kimchi paste? what if i just leave it behind. will it effect the taste?
thanks…
i’ll tell you how my kimchi taste using your recipe. can’t wait! ^^
hi mizzmuna,
Yes, since I usually make small amount of kimchi (because of small family) … I really want to make it simple and easy.. quick.. not only flavor.. the rice flour helps fermenting process too.. I recommend you use it… yep.. please let me know how yours turns out.. thanks
Hi Aeri,
I tried making kimchi using this recipe. Didn’t have any dried hot peppers so I just added more red pepper powder instead. Is that okay? Anyway, I think I might have added a little too much fish sauce, it tastes horribly salty.. Will the saltiness go away if I put it way longer?
hi Alicia,
If you don’t have .. yes you can use red pepper powder instead .. my other kimchi recipe uses only red pepper powder.. oh.. how much more fish sauce you added… well..it will be still salty,,, what you can do is.. make it sour kimchi..and use it for kimchi soup or kimchi jeon.. later.. or.. you can add more fresh nappa cabbage in your kimchi.. or big pieces of korean radish between your kimchi piesces… it will help a little..
juhu, it was a big succes, but how long will it last in the fridge, it has started to smell a bit funny but still taste great!
i guess a bit fermented smell wont do any harm?
thanks!
hi Rune Brink Hansen,
great.. happy for your success.. yes.. even Koreans don’t like kimchi smell.. but love the flavor.. it can last as long as you want.. I mean.. if you like really old.. sour kimchi.. you can keep even months.. no farm from fermented smell.. thanks
Hello Aeri,
I’m going to make kimchi for the very first time this weekend. I first looked at your Napa kimchi and you included radish and green onions which I thought it was great. I think I prefer this recipe as it is bitesized, but was wondering if it would taste good if i include some radish too like with your other recipe
Thanks~~
hi K,
Yep.. you can add radish for this kimchi also. 
thanks..
Good luck for your first kimchi.
how do i know when the cabbage is properly fermented?
thanks for the recipe. i hope it tastes nice
hi Chantelle Ann,
Sorry for late reply. I missed your comment. Hm.. about your question, if you never tried fermented kimchi before..it’s a little difficult to describe the taste. When you make kimchi, it will be spicy, salty, and raw cabbage taste… but once it’s fermented.. (takes about 10 days to 15 days depending on the refrigerator temperature..) it has slightly sour flavor..but not much.. and not raw cabbage flavor anymore.. at the beginning.. the spicy flavor and cabbage flavor is seperated..then after it is fermented.. you can taste the spicy and other seasoning flavor in the cabbage.. I hope you can understand what I want to say.. thanks..
Thank youuu cant wait to try it, i loooove kimchi
hi Rune Brink,
I love kimchi too.. hehe thanks
thank you for the recipe. i’ve made kimchi before, but during the process i knew sometihng wasn’t right…i was right. it tasted horrible. can’t wait to try it. down part my family wants me to finish the horrible one i made
hi Chantelle Ann,
oh.. sorry to hear that.. it was not my recipe..right ?? Try mine.. I hope you and your family like it.. thanks
Hi, Aeri I love korean food and I made Kimchi before with sweet rice flour but never with cooked rice. Thank you for this new recipe, I will try it sometimes.
hi DBSK,
Yes, it’s more convenience to use cooked rice instead of sweet rice flour..so if you make small amount of kimchi.. actually it’s good way to go..hehe I hope you like this. thanks