My father was stationed in Korea once upon a time and brought home a taste for Kimchi / Kim Chee.
My mother did make it a few times but from her description it sounded very complicated, and something no one should try without first getting a certification in Kim Chee Preparedness.
So when I no longer lived close to an Asian Market with gallon jars of it for a decent price, I learned either to do without, or pay $5 for a tiny little jar that would last me a week if I resisted the urge to eat it daily.
Then I got the book "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Ellix Katz, and have been making delicious Kimchi easily, ever since.
My mother did make it a few times but from her description it sounded very complicated, and something no one should try without first getting a certification in Kim Chee Preparedness.
So when I no longer lived close to an Asian Market with gallon jars of it for a decent price, I learned either to do without, or pay $5 for a tiny little jar that would last me a week if I resisted the urge to eat it daily.
Then I got the book "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Ellix Katz, and have been making delicious Kimchi easily, ever since.
Step 1: Assemble tools and ingredients
At its most basic, kimchee is chinese cabbage (can use napa, pac choi, or any chinese cabbage) fermented with garlic, pepper, salt, and ginger. Other ingredients such as daikon (or other radish), carrot, scallion / green onion or other onion, fish (in the form of dried crumbled fish, fish broth or fish sauce, or Hondashi fish broth powder), and even seaweed, are commonly used depending on preference.
Here I show Kosher Salt, scallions, daikon, fresh ginger, hondashi powder, dried pepper flakes specifically for making kimchee, fresh garlic, carrot, and a very large head of pac choi /bok choy.
You will also need a sharp knife, a large nonreactive mixing bowl, a smaller nonreactive mixing bowl, and glass or stoneware jars or crocks to hold the finished product.
You will need anywhere from several hours, to overnight, to soak the fresh chopped veggies in salt solution, and then anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks to ferment your kimchee depending on how warm the room is, how much salt to vegetables, and whether you had leftover kimchee "juice" to jump-start the fermentation with.
For those who want measured quantities either to follow, or to get a ballpark idea of what the proportions are:
For roughly two quart jars:
2 lbs chinese cabbage
1 whole daikon radish or several red radishes
1 to 2 carrots
onions and/or leeks, bunch of scallions, or shallots... as many or few as you like.
6-8 cloves of garlic, or as many as you like... your love of garlic is the only limiting factor
5-6 tablespoons of grated ginger, or grate up a 4 inch piece... again, more to taste if you like it especially
Seaweed if you like, but I didn't use it in this recipe
3 tsp. hondashi japanese fish broth powder ( or a handful of dried bonito, crumbled)
Brine will be 4 cups of water to 4 tablespoons of salt. If this isn't enough to cover the fresh veggies, then double the brine recipe.
Here I show Kosher Salt, scallions, daikon, fresh ginger, hondashi powder, dried pepper flakes specifically for making kimchee, fresh garlic, carrot, and a very large head of pac choi /bok choy.
You will also need a sharp knife, a large nonreactive mixing bowl, a smaller nonreactive mixing bowl, and glass or stoneware jars or crocks to hold the finished product.
You will need anywhere from several hours, to overnight, to soak the fresh chopped veggies in salt solution, and then anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks to ferment your kimchee depending on how warm the room is, how much salt to vegetables, and whether you had leftover kimchee "juice" to jump-start the fermentation with.
For those who want measured quantities either to follow, or to get a ballpark idea of what the proportions are:
For roughly two quart jars:
2 lbs chinese cabbage
1 whole daikon radish or several red radishes
1 to 2 carrots
onions and/or leeks, bunch of scallions, or shallots... as many or few as you like.
6-8 cloves of garlic, or as many as you like... your love of garlic is the only limiting factor
5-6 tablespoons of grated ginger, or grate up a 4 inch piece... again, more to taste if you like it especially
Seaweed if you like, but I didn't use it in this recipe
3 tsp. hondashi japanese fish broth powder ( or a handful of dried bonito, crumbled)
Brine will be 4 cups of water to 4 tablespoons of salt. If this isn't enough to cover the fresh veggies, then double the brine recipe.
hi, where did you get the glass jars with plastic tops?
hi, where did you get the jars with the plastic tops?
Hi, I too starting my first kimchi and made salty squid today(Hopefully it works)
You put honey in your paste but I warn you that honey is antiviral and anti bacterial, so it will prevent fermentation. Sounds like you put tiny amount and it won't be too much of a problem. I recommend you that next time not to use honey and instead use organic sugar. I make water kefir and heard someone killed the kefir gains by using honey. Good luck! Have an awesome day!
Any sugars you add will increase the acidity dramatically and speed up fermentation since there will be more food for the lactobacteria.You may end up with a more sour flavor. Also on the author's response, sardines work great!
I'm wondering here why anchovies shouldn't have mercury. What do you know that I haven't heard... can you expand on this...
Cause I'm thinking about it and okay so mercury since its a heavy metal is more likely to have a higher concentration in bottom dwelling fish...? ... I'm not sure ... Just trying to think this through logically.... and tuna also don't dwell at the bottom. My son just recently told me that the proportional amount of mercury in tuna is different in different species according to size...
Face palm... going to have to get that lecture from him again... didn't pay enough attention the first time.
Can you give me the anchovy lecture..I'm interested in your thoughts...
thanks
Apex predators have higher concentrations of mercury; thus the closer to the top of the food chain, the more mercury. Anchovies and sardines are far from the top. They also have shorter lifespans, meaning they have less time to accumulate mercury.
As a side note, the shorter lifespan means the small fishes replenish more quickly. Sardine and anchovy fisheries are much more sustainable than tuna or other large fish fisheries. I do love tuna, but I eat a lot more sardines. I know a lot of people are grossed out by sardines, but you can get boneless and skinless and mash it up with a condiment as a tuna fish sandwich replacement.
But I'm not saying that large amounts aren't bad for you. It's still a sodium salt of glutamic acid, and these salts among many salts are found to indirectly cause obesity (but I think there's obvious social reasons behind this). Glutamic acid though, is found in most cheeses, soy sauce, grape juice, peas, tomatoes, etc.
Anyway, I don't think a little ajinomoto or hondashi is going to hurt ya.
Dr. Russell L. Blaylock -- Excitotoxins [MSG, Aspartame]
Dr. Blaylock on Fluoride, Aspartame, MSG and Vaccinations (1)
Dr. Russell Blaylock M.D. is a retired neurosurgeon and author whose trailblazing research has tirelessly documented the fact that there is an epidemic of neurological disorders in the western world which are directly connected to toxins in our environment, and how this relates to the larger global eugenics program behind population reduction. In this fascinating interview, Blaylock reveals how depopulation programs forged by the Rockefeller foundation in association with the Nazis were the basis of modern day incarnations of eugenics like fluoride poisoning and vaccinations.
Disillusionment is a positive thing!
I had to add this. I play with my food a lot...
I also love kimchee soup, as do my kids.
Kimchi can be made easier and with fewer ingredients that you already
have at home, its gonna taste even better! my recipe is here
on my rawismyreligion.com blog
Thanks,
jlh357
Do you use a half cup of your cayenne and sweet paprika mix to this recipie?
I just made my first batch and used some red pepper flakes I had in the house. It's looking great so far and is fermenting very hard.
turning out great.
This is the best recipie I've come across and it's a great one. I will let you konw how I do with the cayenne and sweet paprika.
Thanks again.
I think I will try this without any of the "fish" sorts of things---husband loves things like this and our "local" Asian Markets are 1 1/2 hour drive away and the one and only time I got him "kimchee" packed in the nicest little ceramic jar the stuff smelled SO BAD the dog ran off. Prob just from some air leak or who knows but nothing like what he has had elsewhere and not a good sour smell--def a rotten eeewy smell. The crock was nice so I kept that tho!
I wish I knew some one who could take me for a "Guided Tour" of the Asian MArkets and tell me what is IN those packages! The people who run the one we have gone to might speak English--or might not!--and are not that friendly and when ever I have asked a Asian person shopping a question they just look at me like I have three heads. Sigh.
Maybe they know I have a secret wish to liberate the poor doomed turtles swimming in their bucket.
Thanks for de-mystifying this process tho! Oh--one way to keep the level of the liquid over anything pickling is to use a clean china plate weighted down with either a very clean rock; a glass jar filled with water on top of the plate; or (I have not used this) a plastic zip bag with water in it. This allows you to see what is happening on top without messing around with the product. Cover the whole affair with a cloth tied around the side or weighted down with small weights sewn on the edge to keep out dust and bugs and critters. My great great grandmothers trick for her famous pickles. And yep I was lucky enuf to actually live with great great grand ma when I was a kiddie and remember the pickles!
BTW...I was reading some of the posts, I make my fermented vegetables in sealed quart jars and keep my house between 70-72 degrees. I open the jars every day to release the gas and I let them ferment for 7 days...the only drawback is that many times the jars leak so I keep my jars in a cardboard box that I discard after they are done fermenting.
thanks!!!
A Korean lady told me that refrigerators are actually too warm to keep kimchi in for very long, and that I shouldn't make so much at a time that we can't use it up in a couple of weeks, because trying to keep it for months in a standard refrigerator won't work. 33-34 degrees F is much better than 39 or 40 degrees F. On the other hand, making just enough for a few days, you can leave it on the counter. You just can't expect to keep it for too long. Souring can be quite good especially for adding to soups, but once it goes beyond sour, into sweet and alcohol-smell, that is spoiled. So if it sours, hurry and make soup!
You should be able to add a little less or more salt to taste. Just know that less salt will mean you need to use it up quicker.
I was so excited about making kimchee, I promised most of the first batch out to three young people at my church. Two have Korean ancestry and one, Japanese.