anyone have a good kimchi recipe?

[Guest guest]

does anyone have a good kimchi recipe to share? i

have been playing around with making some, basing it

off the ingredients on a jar of kimchi i bought from

the grocery store (and guessing the amounts), which

has worked-out okay, acutally, but i'd like to get a

good, proven recipe if anyone has one to share.

thanks,

craig

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[Guest guest]

At 05:59 PM 5/26/2002 -0700, you wrote:

>does anyone have a good kimchi recipe to share? i

>have been playing around with making some, basing it

>off the ingredients on a jar of kimchi i bought from

>the grocery store (and guessing the amounts), which

>has worked-out okay, acutally, but i'd like to get a

>good, proven recipe if anyone has one to share.

>thanks,

>craig

Well, as a self-proclaimed kimchi addict I'll share mine. I've been using

Kyoko's, which is about the easiest I've found. I also perused about 20

other recipes, and it's pretty standard. It has more ginger than the one in

the store. Also I add anchovies and leave out the MSG.

http://web.tiscali.it/Kyoko_Hayashi/make_kimchi.htm

The steps are:

1. Chop a cabbage into quarters. Salt it liberally. Let it set overnight or

for a day, til it gets limp and shrinks. She uses 4 cabbages at a time, but

I'm still experimenting so one is good.

2. Make the " sauce " . This is red pepper, about 2 t salt, 1 t sugar (it

ferments away), 5 cloves of garlic, and inch or two of ginger, about 3-4

green onions chopped into 3-inch pieces, 4 grated carrots. (I use more

carrots than called for). I add a Tablespoon of vinegar (rice or cider) for

good measure (to prevent mold and bad bacteria: it's probably not needed

but it makes me feel good. The Napa cabbage DOES mold sometimes before the

fermentation gets going). You can also add dried shrimp or other fish, or

fresh fish or squid. I started adding anchovies: I haven't tried dried fish

or shrimp yet. But the anchovies do add a nice flavor. The Korean recipes

often call for fish sauce or fermented fish for flavor, but most of the

sauces seem to have MSG which I don't like.

3. Rinse the salted cabbage.

4. At this point she stuffs the cabbage with the sauce. I chop the cabbage

into 1 1/2 " pieces and mix the sauce in. Either works.

5. Stuff the cabbage in a plastic bag. I put it under water and squeeze all

the air out the top corner, mushing it up a little. If you pound the

cabbage per the NT directions, you'll get mushy kimchi, and it's supposed

to be a little crisp.

6. I put the bag in a tupperware for " safety " . Let it set 2 days: then

smell it and let it go another day if it's not sour.

7. Put it in a jar in the fridge.

I think it would ferment fine in a jar too. Some directions I've seen use a

plastic bowl. The bag is really easy though, and the bags I use I feel

comfortable with (the don't seem to leak plastic smells).

So far all the batches have come out yummy! It's faster than most fermented

vegies. Much cheaper than the store version too. I made one batch into

Mexi-chi for tacos: instead of carrots and ginger I added onions, chilis,

celery, tomato -- your standard salsa ingredients -- to the cabbage. It's

really good on tacos (where ginger just doesn't fit!).

There is lots of info on the net about Kimchi. It's the national food of

Korea, and Kimchi plus rice is considered an OK meal. They have about 700

kinds, not all of them fermented. I have to say it is very filling, for

some reason: a meal with Kimchi just lasts longer than one without, esp.

with the fish. It's been very addicting though.

Have fun!

Heidi Schuppenhauer

Trillium Custom Software Inc.

heidis@...