First try at kimchi
We don’t eat a lot of kimchi (yet), but we like it for a few recipes and occasionally find ourselves buying an expensive pint from the grocery store. I finally got up the gumption to do a little research about it, and decided to try making my own.
Although there are some classic combinations, the essence of kimchi seems to be briefly brined vegetables (or fruit) combined with aromatics like ginger, onion, and garlic, and some spice, and then the whole allowed to ferment. So that’s what I did: I chose some vegetables, grabbed my trusty bag of korean red pepper flakes, and got to work.
The brine I’m using for this effort is pretty simple: 1 tbsp kosher salt to 1 cup of water. I had half a green cabbage leftover from another recipe, and chopped it coarsely. I put that in a canning jar and covered with brine overnight. The next day, I poured off the brine into another container, and put the cabbage into a large mixing bowl. At this point, the cabbage should be tasted for salt: if it’s to your taste, keep going. If it’s too salty, rinse the cabbage and continue. Then I added: 1 small onion, coarsely chopped, an inch of finely chopped ginger, and chili flakes. I didn’t measure the chili (or the ginger either, to be honest), I just spooned it in until my mouth started watering. Then I massaged it all together with my hands, and stuffed it into a quart-sized jar. I used a wooden spoon to pack the mixture in.
To finish, I wiped the top of the jar clean, and put a pickle weight on top of the mixture. Then I poured the reserved brine over, until the liquid just reached the top of the pickle weight. Then I put a lid on, and tucked the jar into a cool, dark corner. It started bubbling the second or third day, and I released the gasses periodically to avoid a smelly kimchi explosion in the kitchen. I let it ferment for two weeks or so, right there on the counter, and then started tasting it.
The ginger in this is quite noticeable, and is the dominant flavor for me. I didn’t put all that much chili in, so the husband thinks it’s just right. I’d call it mildly spicy, not too hot, and really delicious 🙂 I used it for the first time for a weeknight dinner, when we had this fabulous cold soba noodle salad from Bon Appetit.
