The Art of Kimchi Making

We like kimchi! :) It's great on its own, it's great with rice, noodle, soup, pancakes and the list goes on. Lin, Yvonne & I went for kimchi making lesson on Friday at the Korean Tourism Office. We were pleased that they actually teach you to make kimchi from scratch! And more thrilled when we got to bring it home! All these for FREE! ^.^

Pardon for the so so pics as I was trying to multi-task...listening to the teacher for what to dos, tips, and capturing her in action etc etc least we suffer memory lapse when we get home. Then while I was driving home, it daunted on me that our camera has video recording function??? *_*

Ingredients:

1.5-2kg of cabbage (choose the greener ones as they are sweeter) - Cut into quarters
1 white radish (choose the whiter ones) - Sliced into strips
Spring onions - Sliced into 3cm in length
5g of chopped ginger
40g of chopped garlic
15 red chilli
Coarse salt
Water
Glutinuous rice flour
Thai fish sauce
Sugar
200g of Korean chilli powder

Method

Step 1

• Split the cabbages in quarters. Start cutting with a knife at the root of the cabbage to its midpoint, then use your hands to split the remaining portion. This will prevent making little pieces of cabbages. 

Step 2

• Place cabbages face up in a basin.
• Sprinkle coarse salt evenly between all the cabbage leaves, layer by layer. Do not rub the salt. Add about 1 cup of water. Let the cabbage soak for about 4 hours, turning it every hour. Alternate the positions of the cabbages for even marination.

Step 3

• Rinse the saltier cabbage at least twice and let it drain, face down, for about 1-2 hours. It is important not to salt the cabbage too much. The leaves should remain slightly crisp. If the process is overdone, the spicy seasoning will not be fully absorbed.

Step 4

• Add 1 cup of water to a pan. Add 1 full tablespoon of glutinous rice flour. Cook till it becomes gluey. Side aside to cool. 

Step 5

• Blend chilli, garlic, ginger & Thai fish sauce
• Add the blended puree into the gluey paste (if it's too sticky, add water)
• Add sugar
• Add chilli powder
• Add radish & spring onions. Mixed well in a circular motion
• Taste the seasoning with a small piece of cabbage. Adjust the above till it suits your palatte

• Coat each cabbage leaf with appropriate amount of filling, making sure it gets to the core and between each leaf 

Step 6

• Wrap the cabbage
• Place a coated cabbage on your hand, with the inner portion facing upwards
• Leave the last leaf on the side
• Flip the rest of the leaves backwards, covering slightly more than half of the cabbage
• Use the last leaf to wrap the flipped cabbage
• Compress the wrapped cabbage

• Place the wrapped cabbage in a box
• Cleaning up process... : I Use the left over cabbage to clean the basin. Place the coated left over cabbage into the box
• Add a little water to rinse the basin
• Pour the liquid into the box
• Let it ferment for 1 day before refrigirating. And there you have it, your very own homemade kimchis! :D

The kimchis can be kept for up to 3 months.

Tips for storing kimchis:

• Use a tall container with narrow opening
• Do not open the container too often
• If you cannot finish the portion, keep it in a seperate container and not the main container as you do not want to contaminate the fresh ones.

Have fun making your own kimchis! ;)