How To Make Kimchi

Hi everybody! Feel like you're up for a challenge and would like to try making something a little more complicated than Chinese fried rice? How about trying to make Korean kimchi with me? Come on, it's not as difficult as you think. Plus, if you really wanna learn how to cook, you have to be willing, right? Let's start.

I'm not Korean, so why in the world did I want to learn how to make kimchi? Well, it all started with my first trip to South Korea. Check out our travel page if you want to read those blog posts. 

Ever since I went to Korea, I ate their kimchi and I liked it. But I never thought I 'd really learn how to make it. Couple of years passed and I went to Korea again, this time in autumn, plus, I started watching more Korean dramas and variety shows. Kimchi is an everyday staple for them. It is never missing from any Korean meal. And everytime I watched dramas, I'd always see kimchi. So, I thought, how hard could it be to make it?

I started looking up recipes, but at first the process of making it turned me off, as it seemed too time consuming and complicated. But then, my curiosity got the better of me, and I started watching a video on YouTube how to make it. It didn't seem too hard. Lo and behold, I was ready to make it! So, now I am sharing it to you as well.

No two kimchi recipes are the same. The ingredients, the way it is prepared varies from each region. This recipe that I learned apparently is from the southern part of Korea.

As with all the recipes that I am going to post, the first picture is always the finished product, that way, you get motivated to make it.

You will need:

2 1/2 - 3 kilos Napa cabbage

2 medium sized carrots - julienned

1 medium sized white radish - julienned

3 stalks of green scallions ( they are also called onion leeks)

1/2 cup salt

1 big white onion, chopped

2 whole garlic heads, peeled

1 piece of ginger, about the size of your thumb

1 cup chilli flakes (can be bought in Korean stores)

1/4 cup glutinous rice powder

1/8 cup white sugar

1 1/2 cups of water

1/2 cup fish sauce (patis)

2 tbsp pickled shrimp

Here are our ingredients. In this picture I used 4 small carrots, and red onions instead of white. And please don't let the long list of ingredients turn you off. It's really simple once you know which goes with which, and I will try to make it as simple as I can.

First thing to do is chop the napa cabbage. What you do is cut it in half, then cut the half into two, so the whole cabbage is quartered. If your cabbage is big, you also cut the widest parts of the quarter piece into two and then cut it into bite size pieces, about an inch long each. Repeat the process until you have cut all the cabbage. You should have a basin or sink big enough to accommodate all of it.

This is the longest process so once you're done with this, you're halfway there. Just rinse lightly, and put them in a basin. Sprinkle the salt all over the washed cabbage, making sure that it is evenly distributed. After 30 minutes, mix your cabbage by hand to make sure that the salting process is even all throughout. Repeat the process 2 more times. So the salting process takes 1 and a half hour total. In the meantime, you can be preparing the other ingredients.

After the salting process is done, wash the cabbage. I usually wash it three times, to make sure that the cabbage is all clean. There is no need to squeeze the water out, and rinse gently so as not to crush the pieces. Leave to drain the excess water.

During the salting process, you can julienne the carrots, the white radish and the green scallions. Put them aside in a mixing bowl.

Here is the next thing to do while waiting for the salting process to finish. Chop the onions, peel the garlic and the ginger, put them in a blender, add the fish sauce and the pickled shrimp and blitz it for about 30 seconds until they are blended well. Set aside.

Next, put the water in a pan, add the glutinous rice powder and start stirring until it heats up and starts changing color. Lower the heat and add the sugar, and keep stirring until it becomes opaque in color. Turn the heat off and set aside.

This is what it should look like once it is done. This will be part of the sauce for the kimchi.

This is the chili powder. Add this into the glutinous rice mix once it has cooled down, and then add it into the blended onion mix.

This is what it should look like when they are mixed together. You're almost done!

The next thing to do is to  add the mixture into the julienned vegetables. You may want to wear the disposable gloves at this time as the chili powder may be too hot on your hands.

After all this time, your cabbage should be well drained already. What you need to do then is start adding the chili mixture into your cabbage and keep repeating it until it is evenly spread and mixed on your cabbage.

It should look like this once you are done mixing. The trick is to do it gently so as not to crush the cabbage so it should retain its crispiness somewhat but also wilted through the salting process. You are now ready to transfer it into an airtight container.

And this, my friends, is my freshly made kimchi. You can try to eat some immediately, although it will not be fermented yet. When you transfer it into the container, make sure you press down on your cabbage to get rid of all air, that way molds will be prevented from growing, especially if you make a ton that will last for a few months. This batch, it usually lasts me and my family a few weeks at most.

Once you have kimchi, you can then start cooking other recipes that has kimchi on it. I'll be posting some of them soon as well so you can try them.

Tip: Some benefits of eating kimchi is that it promotes digestion, contains probiotics due to the fermentation process. It also aids in cleaning up the intestines and stimulates better assimilation of nutrients in the body. Need I say more? keep eating and making kimchi!

For more recipes, go to this page.