Easy Kimchi recipe

Few weeks ago, I decided to make my own kimchi. I did it mostly because many Korean recipes that I wanted to try require the use of kimchi and store-bought kimchi are so rare here in SP. Many years ago, when I was still a secondary school student, I used to make bottles of kimchi and store them at home because I really liked them a lot. Even my grandmother likes it, so we are like two big fans of these pickled vegetables. Experimenting with it again now, I was half expecting it to fail. But thank God, it turned out to taste exactly how I would like it to be. I got this recipe for kimchi from Maangchi.com, a website owned by a cute Korean food blogger who generously shares all her recipes too. Of course, I did some alterations in the recipe as some ingredients cannot be found here in Malaysia. Still, thanks to her recipe, my bottle of kimchi turned out be quite pleasing and useful for many other Korean dishes. 

Ingredients:

500g of napa cabbage (or also known as chinese long cabbage)

1/4 cups of salt

For the porridge

1 cup of water

1/8 cup of glutinous rice flour

1 tbsp of sugar

For the kimchi paste

1 1/2 tbsp of fish sauce

3/4 cups of hot pepper flakes

4 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp of minced ginger

1 small onion

3-4 stalks of green onion

1/2 cup of radish (julienned)

1/4 cup of carrots (julienned)

These are the ingredients that I used. Quite commonly found in Malaysia.

STEP 1: SOAK THE CABBAGE INTO SALT WATER

Cut the cabbage into quarter portions like above.

Cut off the bottom and discard the bottom part.

Further slice the quarters into halves.

Then cut them up into bite sizes.

Add the cabbage pieces into a big basin and add water, just enough to cover the
cabbage pieces. Then add in 1/4 cup of salt and mix well. Let it soak for 1 1/2
hours (turning the cabbages every 30 minutes for even salting process)

STEP 2: COOK THE PORRIDGE

In a pot, boil 1 cup of water and add in 1/8 cup of glutinous rice flour. Add in
1 tbsp of sugar too.

You will notice that it will start to thicken after boiling for awhile.

Once it reaches a thick consistency, transfer to a bowl and let it cool down.

STEP 3: MAKE THE KIMCHI PASTE

From one medium radish, I used only the small part that I cut off above.

Peel of the skin with a vegetable peeler, then julienne the radish.

Similarly, julienne about 1/4 cup of carrots.

Cut up about 3-4 stalks of green onion. 

Also, peel 4 cloves of garlic and 1 small onion.
I like to put them all into one plate :)

With the help of a blender, blend the following:
1. 4 cloves of garlic
2. 1 small onion
3. 1 tbsp of ginger
4. 1 1/2 tbsp of fish sauce

This is how it should look like after blending.

STEP 4: DRAIN THE CABBAGE

After 1 1/2 hours, drain the cabbage and rinse it 3 times under running water.

It should feel soft now, compared to before the salting process.

STEP 5: MIXING TIME!

Grab a clean and big bowl (or basin) for easy mixing.

Add in the blended kimchi paste and also the bowl of cooled porridge.

Add in 3/4 cups of hot pepper flakes. (You can add more or less base on your liking)

Mix well and you will get something like this.

Now, add in the julienne carrots, radish and green onions.

Add in the drained cabbage too!

Mix well so that the paste coats all the vegetables!

STEP 6: BOTTLE EM' UP!

Put them into a glass bottle and leave them overnight for 24 hours.
This is to facilitate their fermentation process.
Tip: If your bottle is filled to the brim like mine, it is advisable
to put a plate underneath the bottle so that it can contain the juice
that might flow out during the fermentation process due to the gas produced.
Otherwise, you will wake up the next day to find the juice
overflowing the bottle, dripping all over the kitchen floor. ☺

After one day of fermantation, remember to put your kimchi into the fridge! The hot weather in our country will ferment it very quickly and prolonged exposure to warm weather might spoil the kimchi instead! According to Maangchi, if you leave your kimchi in the fridge, it will last forever. Though I doubt that, but I guess we can leave it there for a very long time as it is a fermented product anyway. Hope you enjoy this recipe :P

Happy cookin'☺