Right: yeolmu/young radish kimchi
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
- 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)
- Blend all ingredients except for the grounded red chili pepper
- Add grounded red chili pepper to the cooled rice paste and mix the blended ingredients into the paste as well
- Mix the vegetable with the seasoning and store in a plastic/glass container
- Leave the container out for a day or two at room temperature and then store in the refrigerator