Starting to lose track, but I think it’s week 10 of the staying home initiative and quarantine due to COVID-19. It’s a bit wild and crazy of how quickly the whole nation, let alone the whole world changed.

I am sure like everyone else outside of working from home and taking classes to pursue my MBA, I have been trying to keep myself busy. With more time in my hands, one thing that has significantly changed is that I have been cooking more than normal and trying recipes that I never really had time for because life was so busy.

One new recipe that I tried and was honestly too afraid to try because it seemed so time-consuming is making kimchi. I didn’t do a big amount because I live alone and also made two types of kimchi that I like, not the normal napa cabbage kimchi most people know of. Fun fact if you didn’t know, there are actually 200 varieties of kimchi!

I can’t guarantee taste, but hoping it will turn out well! Recipe for the seasoning is based on the amount I made so feel free to change the amount/quantity if you would like to make more. One thing to note is for the seasoning/sauce, you can use if for any variation of kimchi you will like as it is the basis for most kimchi recipes.

Kimchi Seasoning Recipe (based on 1/4 lb of mustard leaf /gat+ 1.5 lb of young radish/yeolmu)

• Seasoning
• Rice paste (5 tbsp of rice flour and 3 cups of water)
• 1 2/3 c of grounded red pepper
• 7 long red chili pepper
• 5 tbsp of pickled shrimp (새우젓)
• 5 tbsp of fermented anchovy sauce (멸치액젓)
• 2 apples
• 1 pear
• 1/2 c of sugar
• 15 cloves of garlic
• 1 1/2 onion

*For the gat/mustard leaf and yeolmu and for anytime of vegetable you are using to make kimchi, you need to wash at least 3 times and then season it with coarse grained salt for at least 2 hours so the vegetable is a bit wilted. This step plays a big part of the pickling/fermenting process for kimchi

1. Boil 3 cups of water and add 5 tbsp of rice flour till it thickens. (Make rice paste ahead of time as it needs time to cool before you mix it with the rest of the seasoning)
2. Blend all ingredients except for the grounded red chili pepper
3. Add grounded red chili pepper to the cooled rice paste and mix the blended ingredients into the paste as well
4. Mix the vegetable with the seasoning and store in a plastic/glass container
5. Leave the container out for a day or two at room temperature and then store in the refrigerator