Thursday, August 15, 2013

kimchi (or as i like to call it - kymberchi - teehee!) - a how-to

we love kimchi. it not only tastes great, punches you in the head with it's kick, and is terrifically wonderful for your stomach flora - it just feels good to eat! kimchi is a traditional dish that koreans eat a ton of, and they eat it with every meal. there are a million different kinds of kimchi, which is simply fermented veggies, but i am providing a traditional kimchi that my korean teacher taught me many moons ago when i was on my korean language training.

this type of kimchi is normally prepared in a ceramic crock and then buried underground for a minimum of 3 months to ferment. sounds crazy but if you have ever had "proper", buried-in-a-crock kimchi - oh man there is nothing like it! and my friend Harry can attest to the fact that if you spill it - there is no smell like it on earth! but man is it deelish!

anyway - when my korean teacher left korea and came to canada with her husband and children - she quickly figured out that she needed to make kimchi regularly for her family as there was no where to buy it (that has since changed! i am glad to say that ottawa has several korean stores and markets and we were able to get really good kimchi all of the years that we lived in ottawa). anyway, i digress. here is the kimchi recipe that my korean teacher taught me. this stuff is awesome!

first off - here's your ingredients: 2 nappa cabbages, several small daikon radishes (or one big one), coarse sea salt (do not use table salt!), korean red pepper flakes, a quarter cup of thai fish sauce (i use 2 of my home-made concentrated fish ice cubes), a whole clove of garlic and a big knob of ginger.


cut the bottoms off of your nappa cabbage and then peel each leaf. trim any bad spots. fill a big pot, crock, or as i use a cleaned and washed cooler. add a cup of coarse sea salt and about a gallon of water. stir the water until the salt has dissolved. place all of your trimmed leaves in the water. use something to make sure that your leaves stay submerged in the salt brine - i use bottles filled with water. 

put your container in a cool, dark place for about 3 hours.

next up - grate your daikon radish. this kimchi i made a few days ago has some real spicy kick to it. it's because i used daikons fresh from the garden!


crush all of your cloves of garlic, and your ginger, using a garlic press into a big bowl.

 
add the grated daikon radish, cup of red pepper flakes and fish sauce.

 

rinse all of your cabbage leaves and green onion. rinse them 2 or three times. then wrap them in paper towel and a cotton towel - you want the cabbage leaves to be incredibly dry.

 

make sure to wear rubber gloves as the red pepper flakes burn. trust me. and don't wipe your eyes or nose. trust me.

 take each piece of cabbage and rub it with the sauce. rub it into all of the grooves of the cabbage both front and back. you will feel the cabbage leaf start to wilt. that's good. when the leaf is covered both front and back, fold it up and put it in your glass jar.


keep adding leaves and while doing so, press down as hard as you can so that the leaves start releasing their liquid. you will think that the jar is full and then realize that it is only half-full. you can fit a lot of cabbage leaves folded up like this in a jar.

 leave about a quarter inch of headspace at the top of the jar. keep pressing down on the cabbage as it will continue to shrink down. when you are pretty sure that your jar is full - cap it and put it somewhere cool and dark. i put ours under the bed.


every few hours, shake the jars. really shake them. you will notice that a liquid has now formed and that the cabbage has shrunk down. that's the fermentation part and that is a good thing. if you see bubbles - that's good too. you can let your jar ferment up to a week but i never last past 3 days. once you have decided to end your fermentation phase, put your jar(s) in the fridge. enjoy with every meal. this recipe isn't the crock recipe - if using a crock and the proper crock recipe - the kimchi will keep for a year or longer. this kimchi recipe will keep for about a month in the fridge.

give it a try. it certainly is an acquired taste - but if you acquire a taste for it - you'll want it all the time. i love kimchi!

here's breakfast this morning - zucchini/carrot fritters with sour cream and you guessed it - kimchi! it was awesome!

 

 we walk to the river everyday. it's good exercise and also a balm to our souls!


our dear friend W is always asking for updates on Frankie Blue Eyes, Mankly, Spanky Patoonch. here he is on his box on a shelf. all four legs straight up in the air. he's a bit of a nutjob our little Mank!


i spent some time this morning getting veggies cut up for shish-kebabs for tonight's supper. i marinate the veggies in a bunch of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, turmeric, cayenne, cumin, garlic and onion salt. jambaloney painted boards and windows to continue working on the greenhouse.


this saturday night is our big summer dance at our community centre. i can't wait - it's going to be so much fun! when jambaloney went back to ottawa last month, he and his mom bought me a beautiful dress and i can't wait to wear it! i can't wait to see all of our friends! the only drawback is that our brother G and sister C won't be there! we'll miss them but will see them at the end of the month.

ok - that's enough blathering for now eh? we're off to the river. have a fantastic day!

16 comments:

  1. Learning about how kimchi is made has been really interesting. I've never tried it. I hadn't heard of it until you talked about it here on your blog I think. I wondered exactly what it was. Thank you for explaining. Have fun at the river!

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    1. sweet Sue - i will be sure to bring you some when we come for our visit. you will either love it or hate it - that's normally the way most people respond! there are a ton of varieties of kimchi - i love all of them. and as ed says below, the various kimchis are served on small plates and everyone helps themselves to a little of each - i really enjoy the korean way of eating! see more info in my response to ed, below!

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  2. I love kimchi and korean BBQ. Unfortunately, the nearest korean restaurant is about 4 hours away so I don't get it very often. I also like Korean meals in general because they serve lots of different things in small amounts so you can mix and match to get that perfect mouthful!

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    1. ed - my next recipe post will be about korean bbq - also known as bulgogi. the secret to true and proper bulgogi is shredded japanese pear - crazy eh?

      i loved eating meals with my korean teacher and her family - all kinds of dishes spreading out all over the table - everybody reaching for their bit of each plate, everybody with their own bowl of rice - adding a bit of this or that to their bowl of rice - talking with food in their mouth - no one worried about sharing the food - what a beautiful way to enjoy a meal! koreans make soooo many little dishes for each meal - actually - i think most far-eastern asian cultures do that. i love to eat like that.

      sadly, here on our island, which is mostly english, scottish, irish and mi'kmaq - we don't have any far-eastern asian restaurants! so i have to make the food myself. still waiting for your wife's lumpia recipe, buddy!

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  3. You are the only person I've ever known who was not Korean and could make Kimchi. I like it very much but I just put it out of my head that they bury it and let it ferment.

    The way I started eating it was on that exercise in Korea I told you about. One of the guys in the GP tent was married to a Korean woman, and he bought a big jar of it in Yechon. It smelled like hell when he opened it, and most of the men in the tent wouldn't try it. But I did, along with a few others, and it was excellent. About two days later he spilled the jar on his cot all over his sleeping bag. It was the dead of winter, bitter cold outside, and we couldn't open up the tent flaps to air the tent out. Some people moved out and found empty racks in other units tents on the sly. I personally felt they were being a little fastidious for a bunch of guys who were taking a shower once every two weeks.

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    1. oh Harry - i laughed so hard at your story because i knew that it must have been properly fermented kimchi and that it must have smelled to high heaven - bahahahahah! i don't know how you guys survived that smell!

      i went to korean school for 3 years. we had 2 weeks off in the summer and one week off at xmas. other than that, it was 8-4 every single day - the CF trained us really well. my teacher was top-knotch. but every friday we had a pedagogical day - we could go to korea town and meet with folk, or learn how to cook korean food or whatnot. my teacher's parents came on many fridays and taught us a lot. but one of those fridays, my teacher taught us to make traditional kimchi. i observed every detail, wrote down every step and have been making my own kimchi ever since. it's soooooo very good for you! we love it!

      thanks for sharing your stinky story - bahahahahah!

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  4. Sweet Kymber,
    Thank you for the details on making kimchi. I would love to make it. Every time I mention the word kimchi, my husband, Bulldog Man turns his nose up. See his exwife used to eat it all the time when they were stationed in Japan. He couldn't stand the smell of it, so now I must suffer and not make it :-(

    Enjoy the dance this weekend, get Jam to take a picture of you in that new dress.

    Your Friend,
    Sandy

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    1. bahahahahahah! Bulldog Man sounds like he be hating the kimchi! if you ever come for a visit, i promise to sneak some down to the basement for you to try so that he will never smell it, nor see it! i never had, or heard of, kimchi until my korean course. then, all the different times we went to the korean restaurants - they always served a variety of kimchis. the recipe i provided is the standard kind of kimchi. and oh man - is it good. i love having a big bite from the jar each morning - before breakfast. jam cries. he loves hot sauce and spicy things and i don't - but i love a big bite of kimchi first thing in the morning. all of the probiotics in it are a very good way to start the day, in my mind! xoxoxo

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  5. Kymber, You have convinced me ! I love all types of cabbage. I will make some kymber-chi at earliest convenience !

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    1. oh Jane - there are a variety of ways to make kimchi - some spicy, some not so much, some like sauerkraut, some using other veggies - i love all of the kimchis! if you like cabbage and you like spicey-tasty-hot - you'll love this! you'll have to let me know when you make some!

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  6. I love cabbage....never tried kimchi. But I love some good Lumpia.

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    1. JUGM - give it a try, Gurl! hey, do you make your own lumpia? my friend W won't share his recipe, he's mean like that. and ed up above just never remembers! i need a good, trusted lumpia recipe!

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    2. No...i dont make my own. Wish i did though. I buy it from the navy base grocery store. So much diversity therr that you can buy all kinds of cool international foods. I keep my german friend atocked with all her yummy foods she is used too.

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    3. Yes i am still on my cell phone! Blasted typos!

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  7. Kimchi is awesome, but no one likes me once I eat it. Can't figure out why... :) oh well, it's a secret pleasure that I can satisfy once in a while.

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    1. Max - i'd still like you after you ate kimchi...but i eat so much of it that you probably wouldn't like me too much - bahahahah! you gotta come up here and try some of my kimchi - it's awesome, let me tell you!

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