Simplified Kimchi 韩国泡菜

Na Du Se Kimchi! 

I must say Kdrama not only successfully promoted Korea tourism worldwide; even the Korean food culture has now slowly blended into our daily cooking.

Today in this blog, follow up on my coverage of my Korea trip, I would like to introduce a simple way of making Kimchi. Kimchi is widely known as one of Korean famous signature foods. It is also of my favorite Korean foods.

During our Seoul and JeJu trip, we noticed nearly every meals we had regardless whether rice, noodle, BBQ or steamboat, various banchan or side dishes would be served along too. Amongst these banchan, Kimchi which regards as Korean National dish is most often served. 

Kimchi is a spicy, fermented pickled vegetable with variety of seasonings. The main vegetable used for this dish is napa/long cabbage and its key seasoning is the Korean red chili powder flakes and the common natural ferment agents comprising of fruit with citric acid such as ginger, apple and pear.  
The traditional Kimchi making is very tedious and time consuming with a long fermentation process. Shown here is a simplified version, introduced by Wai. She initially found this recipe on the Internet but at the end it was her Indonesia maid, who has mastered the skill of the Kimchi making process instead.

3 weeks ago, she invited us to her house to have our Korea photos sharing cum kimchi making session. I took the opportunity to record down the whole process. Shared below is the Simplified Kimchi Making video.

Here in Malaysia, it is not cheap to buy Kimchi over the counters. Furthermore, we will never know what sort of added preservatives are in it. This Kimchi making process is simpler than I expected. It probably can’t get any easier than this; no excuse not to try eh?

Simplified Kimchi     Ingredients Vegetables: 2 napa cabbage/ long cabbage 1 1/2 daikon radish thinly sliced 1 small or ½ medium carrots, sliced into matchsticks Few stalks of spring onion, cut into 4-5 cm in length Kimchi paste: 3 small apples cut into cubes 1 pear cut into cubes 1 1/2 bulb of garlic (9-10 garlic cloves), smash 2 1" pieces ginger, sliced 1 ½ onion diced Seasoning: 6 tbs. fish/anchovy sauce 6 tbs. Korean chili flakes (To your liking, depending on how spicy you can take, this measurement is quite mild) 2 tbs. sugar Brine cabbage 6 tbs. salt 2 and ½ bowl of water Directions 1. Cut off the stem part of cabbage. Cut each cabbage leaf in half or 3-4 sections (depends on the size). Place the cabbage leaves in a large mixing bowl. 2. Combine salt and water & pour over cabbages in mixing bowl; soak cut cabbage in salt brine for at least an hour. 3. After an hour, the cabbage will be shortened into half size. 4. Rinse twice and drain thoroughly. 5. Place drained cabbages in a large mixing bowl 6. To make kimchi fermentation paste, combine garlic, ginger, onion, cubed apples and pear in a blender and puree until smooth. 7. Add Korean chili powder flakes, sugar, fish sauce and pour the puree into the mixing bowl  8. Toss all together to coat evenly and mix well.  9. Adjust seasoning as you wish. 10. Pour the mixed kimchi into a bigger container with lid and leave at room temperature for 2 days 1 night to ferment. 11. The next day before the night, transfer into airtight glass container and refrigerate it. 12. Fermented Kimchi stay fresh in the fridge and it will continue to ferment in low temperature. 韩国泡菜 材料： 蔬菜类： 2长大白菜 1 ½白萝卜切成薄片 1小或半中型胡萝卜，切成火柴型 几根青葱，切成4-5厘米长 泡菜发酵剂： 3粒小苹果切成方块 1粒梨切成方块 1½ 粒大蒜（9-10个蒜瓣），粉碎 2 片1“姜，切片 1½粒洋葱切丁 调味料： 6汤匙。鱼露 6汤匙。韩国辣椒粉（根据自己的喜好, 此测量是轻微辣） 2汤匙。糖 盐水白菜 6汤匙。盐 2½碗水 方法： 1，将白菜切一半或3-4段，（根据自己的喜好，取决于大小） 2，将切好的白菜叶倒进一个大碗里，倒进盐水，浸泡在盐水中，至少一个小时。 3，一小时后，卷心菜将被缩短为一半大小。 4，冲洗两次，彻底沥干。 5，将沥干白菜倒在一个大碗里搅拌。 6，做泡菜的发酵糊，合并大蒜，生姜，洋葱，切块的苹果和梨进搅拌机，搅拌至光滑果泥酱。 7，在搅拌碗里加入韩国辣椒粉片，糖，鱼露，倒入果泥酱. 8。将所有在搅拌碗里的蔬菜类配料搅拌均匀。 9。根据自己的喜好调整调味料。 10，倒入搅拌均匀的泡菜进一个更大的容器，上盖，放置在室温下让它发酵至2天1夜。 11，第二天的晚上，转移到密闭的玻璃容器， 然后将它放进冰箱冷藏。 12，发酵的泡菜可在冰箱继续保持新鲜，它也会继续在低温发酵。