# Kim Chi



## pdilley (1/5/09)

The first non-beer brewing but non-beverage as well. That and I promised Screwtop I'd post it back before I left on holidays.



Kim Chi is a fermented cabbage dish from Korea. It has about four main flavours, cabbage, onion, garlic, and chili.

Standard Kim Chi has quite a bit of chili in it which is normal tasting to Koreans or anyone who enjoys spicy food such as myself but a milk skinned person from England might think its about the most insane heat in the entire universe. If you have had spicy Asian or Indian food and enjoy it then you can easily take the chili in Kim Chi as it is no where near as hot as some of the Indian food I've ordered up  

Fermenting the cabbage breaks it down into one of the worlds healthiest foods. The anti-cancer properties of cabbage are created during fermentation and are missing or minimal in raw cabbage or cooked cabbage. It is full of healthy bacteria, primarily lactobacilli which aids your digestion (you may get a rumble on first eating if your digestive system isn't in a good state as it wakes up and kicks into gear -- mine did but stopped after a minute and never has since then) and although not a big issue for me is said to help prevent yeast infections. High in Vitamins A, B, and C. Its all good stuff. You can eat a lot, you can eat a little, its your choice, when you get low just keep making more!

You will need 2 cabbages. They will have any name like Korean Cabbage, Chinese Cabbage, or Napa Cabbage depending on where you live.






You will also need:
Spring Onions, about 6 to 10 depending on your onion taste preference
Sea Salt (or regular salt if too difficult to find)
Korean Chili Powder (or similar red flakes of crushed red chilis)
Garlic cloves (2 or 3 depending on taste)
Sugar
Small piece of ginger

Optional are onion, seafoods like oysters are popular, and other vegetables, Koreans also have a radish they dice up into cubes and give the same treatment to.

The idea is to use the salt to draw moisture out of the cabbage, this helps the cabbage stay crisp and crunchy, if you don't use salt you end up with limp and soggy cabbage so salt is your friend.

Rinse the cabbage clean and if necessary cut of the tops so you can unfold each leaf. Just like washing your underarms lift each leaf in the cabbage and salt all the sides.

Let the cabbages sit for two hours if you are in a rush or five hours or so if you have time or wish to go do something else and come back later. They are going to draw out juice so you may want to keep them in a plastic vegetable tub which is good to retain the juices that come out and put back in the Kim Chi mixture.

If you have a very large plastic mixing bowl you can use that during the next step otherwise use that big plastic tub.

Bring out your rubber kitchen gloves you bought just for the purpose of mixing Kim Chi. It helps keep the onion and garlic smell off your hands and it will be critical when you start sloshing around Chili powder and mix it into the cabbage. Nothing says "hello!" like Chili in a rubbed eye 

Now it is time to chop the cabbage into bite size pieces. Quarter the cabbages top to bottom. Then cut the little hard stem cores off each quarter. Now simply chop the cabbage quarters into square. Something nice and bite sized. If you need a number try 5 centimeters square for a good start.

Toss the cabbage into the plastic bowl or big veggie tub.

Now cut up your spring onions. Again bite sized, if you need a number again about 5 centimeters long. And yes, all those green bits too not just the white bottom part.

Toss the spring onions into the cabbage and mix around with your gloved hands.

Put the skinned garlic cloves into a garlic press and press it into a mince. Scrape it off and into the plastic bowl or tub and mix in with your hands. Now is a good time to grate the ginger and add it if you have not done so already. Again to taste but a good starting point is about 5 grams.

If you are adding option onion do so now after chopping it up into fine squares.

Add in a small amount of sugar, a couple tablespoons should suffice.


Now comes the Chili. We are aiming for about 20 grams of the stuff which is about four heaping tablespoons of it. To me Korean Kim Chi Chili powder flakes seem hot but not super hot so if substituting go for your taste and what you like but don't try to burn down the neighbours house with the hottest stuff you can find.

Put those rubber gloves to good use and mix it all up. You can squeeze the cabbage leaves in your hands while mixing if you wish to help extract good briney juices from them.

Place the mixed Kim Chi into glass jars or if you only have plastic into plastic containers with lids.

Do not put it into the refrigerator yet, we need it to culture. Let it sit outside of the refrigerator for three to four days. If it is summer then it will start fermenting faster if it is winter it will take longer to start fermenting.

You can also leave it out as long as you like to get as sour as you like according to your taste but three to four days should suffice. Unlike sour kraut, Kim Chi is just starting to ferment to add a new flavour dimension but not fully ferment out.


As you can see there is no hard or fast rule. I have seen people cooking a paste of rice flour and water in equal ratios in a small sauce pan and then mixing the chili flakes into that. This paste is then slathered by hand on both sides of the cabbage leaves after salting and before chopping into quarters. There is no hard and fast order to it. If you do go the past know that the extra starches usually help the fermentation happen quicker so you might need to adjust your time leaving the cabbage in jars down by a day or so depending on how hot it is in your house.

I have not done it but adding salty fish or oysters or scallops is also popular to some. This standard Kim Chi though everyone will know.



Yum! Large Bushells coffee jar of yester-year comes in handy, mine is now almost empty 
Time to make more!


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## Verbyla (1/5/09)

Thats sounds and looks fricken discusting!!!

So arrrgh.... yeah thanks for sharing and have a happy holiday!


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## Bribie G (1/5/09)

I've heard about kim chi, I work in Chinatown in Bris and the store across the street sells kim chi in tubs, might give it a go. I love chilli, regularly make Vindaloos and have chilli bushes in the garden.

Edit: I'm old enough to have had uncles etc who served in the Korean war (M.A.S.H era) and they say the winters there are arctic. So no doubt kim chi was the anti scurvy food for Korea in the same way that Sauerkraut was in central Europe, when fresh veg wasn't available for months on end.


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## bradmcm (1/5/09)

I love Kim Chi, it's great stuff.


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## pdilley (1/5/09)

*Sauerkraut ist neben meinem Freund!*

Ja Machael, so pull out your dead slug and balance it between your upper lip and the end your nose because nothing is better in winter than roasted pork knuckles with a side of mashed potatoes and sauerkraut!
Except a nice glass of a winter warmer or some potent viking mead to sip by the fireplace afterwards!

Kim Chi really isn't that sour in comparison to kraut, more hint of tart. Its mostly the mild sweet and crunch of the cabbage with spice to warm you up after a bowl of the stuff. Kraut you leave out for weeks or months in winter to develop good sauer flavour. All of the world used fermented foods to store them before refrigeration, we lack all the extra nutrients they unlocked today with our super ultra pasteurized wonder processed ultra bleached food product injected with stabilizers and wrapped in shrink wrap and delivered 3 months after factory floor to supermarket shelf food. Then we take multi-vitamins and all sorts of health kicks to try and get back something in our bodies 

Even grains need fermentation to unlock their uptake in our digestive systems. Our flours are stripped of the 24 nutrients in the grain kernel so they last years on the shelf without spoiling, no wonder AG brewing ends up so yummy with all those nutrients ending up in our home brew. 

I have the soured milk and rye and wild yeast starter for Finnish sourdough breads I have to get out this weekend and make some toasty loaves with too, where will I ever fit in time to get down to the LHBS for more yeasts for brewing! 

OT: My Uncle was in the Korean War, but he learned some awesome pie baking recipes and techniques from rotations onto K.P. duty!


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## RdeVjun (2/5/09)

Wow, great stuff BP and so's kim chi!

A while back, SBS' fantasically- mouth- watering Food Safari had a Korean episode featuring a small firm that produces it and they ran us through the process of making it. Soon after I saw some at the local Asian grocer, so being the curious type, I gave it a try. Pretty yum, we all loved it! We regularly buy a tub now, a healthy scoff for my Geordie spousie who is definately a chilli nut. Here's the program's featured kim chi recipe. 

I'm not a huge chilli fancier, but do rather enjoy spicy, traditional foods and methods. I even make tandoori paste from scratch with my own garden's produce, (turmeric is easy to grow, grab a piece from the greengrocer and treat it like ginger). IMO, food doesn't have to be painfull (either going in or coming out) to enjoy spicyness, but personally a moderate chilli level is OK in my books. Interesting how the best rogan josh I've had was in Pitlochry in the middle of Scotland, not that I've even been to its birthplace and sampled the originals though.


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## pdilley (4/5/09)

Just a couple corrections.

The first time I just measured. Now that I got digital scales I measured the weight of the Chili. 4 Tablespoons will be about 40 grams, not 20.

This time I let the cabbage leaves sit for 6 hours salted to draw out the juice. This was too long as it allowed a lot more salt taste to penetrate the cabbage. I also used white salt from Coles this time and it might also attribute to the saltiness compared with the sea salt. Being smaller particles more goes in all the nooks and crannies.

So because there is no rule on exact measures, with regards to salt this is the best rule to use:



> With the cabbage, taste it. It shouldn't taste "salty". At the same time, you should be able to taste the salt. Try adding little at a time, and test it frequently. When you reach the point where the cabbage "zings", you've got it. The right balance of salt makes the cabbage come alive, so its dancing on your tongue. Practice! You'll get it.



Too much salt and you know what thats like  or at least my latest batch does. Practice makes perfect. I'm going to draw out the salt in a water bath, losing the valuable cabbage juice unfortunately. Then re-pitch in some garlic and ginger and the chili flakes. I'll kick it off since it doesn't have much natural juice with some juice from the already fermented previous batch.



Other Healthy Additions to try:
o Carrots
o Cucumbers
o Broccoli
o Apple
o Orange
o Lemon


Cheers,
BP


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## MVZOOM (4/5/09)

this may be disgusting to some.. but... my new favourite snack is Kim Chi, on a water cracker, with sardines.

YUM!


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## Swinging Beef (4/5/09)

Kimchi is the most amazing food Ive discovered in four years
I love it.
Kinchi omlettes rule.


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## roger mellie (4/5/09)

Every thread should have a touch of Ying for its Yang

I spent 8 weeks in Korea last year and early this year - excellent country - Seoul is a crazy place.

But when - every meal has 23 dishes - 8 of which are various varieties of smelly fermented cabbage - in varying degrees of ring stingingness - it wears you down.

I love Korean food - but I am a Kim Chi Dodger.

RM


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## pdilley (4/5/09)

When you are not into the tang, there is always the little tiny sugar cured fish things ..

Most of the little dishes also are fresh veggie like salad "bites".

Us Westerners would probably go for the cook your own slices of meat at your own table type of food though.

One thing I can say about Korean food is they really know their BBQ quite well, I think of the Asian countries they have the best BBQ items like Bulgogi Beef... Yum


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## Screwtop (4/5/09)

Great stuff Brewer Pete,

Thanks for the recipes, have the Kraut printed and ready to go, a little different from the old family one I have, but hey every family recipe is a tad different for all recipes 

Cheers,

Screwy

PS: That reminds me my sourdough starter was tossed during the move 4 months ago. Must kick off a new one tomorrow.


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## pdilley (4/5/09)

Once you have made a Kraut you can cheat and do a quick Kim Chi by starting with some of your Kraut as the base to help the Kim Chi come along.


Any time your energy is low, or you think you might be fighting off a cold, pour out some of the kim chi juice that collects in the bottom of the jar and drink it -- its a wonderful tonic for what ails you!


Been a bit lazy with my Sourdough Rye Starter. Its in the fridge maturing  Past brew day snafu and out all weekend meant no time to bake. Some of these have 3 day rise times! But ooooooh the taste!


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## Katherine (5/5/09)

Swinging Beef said:


> Kimchi is the most amazing food Ive discovered in four years
> I love it.
> Kinchi omlettes rule.



mmmm YUM... Im going to do that! do you add anything else or just the egg and kimchi?


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## Bizier (5/5/09)

Great work Brewer Pete.

I have some fake (cooked with wine and vinegar) sauerkraut in my fridge that I knocked up to get rid of a large cabbage I was given.
I drink apple cider vinegar regularly and eat a lot of cabbage. I think that fermented cabbage will make you next to bloody invincible.

At the Korean supermarket nr Syd Central, there is serious product variety in the kimchi aisle.


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## reviled (5/5/09)

Brewer Pete said:


> Us Westerners would probably go for the cook your own slices of meat at your own table type of food though.



Tell me more about said concept?


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## bum (5/5/09)

Korean BBQ is amazing. Having said that I do still get pissed off about having to pay to cook my own food in a restaurant!

Korean food in general is pretty great. I can't imagine any culture anywhere having a more balanced and interesting diet.


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## pdilley (5/5/09)

reviled said:


> Tell me more about said concept?



Picture says a 1000 words... keep a napkin handy to mop up the drool






Any fermented food is good for your health in general. Especially when ill, take a swig of the kraut juice any time. Being brewers we know that ferment gives us interesting and good things, things that are dead, pasteurized and down right swill tasting when bought commercial in the supermarkets or attached liquor stores thereof. Make it yourself and you get rewarded.


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## pdilley (10/5/09)

I have Kim Chi and "Son of" Kim Chi, bubbling away on the kitchen counter.

The cabbages ended up being larger than before so I needed two Bushels coffee jars and my super large one is the only one I have so I grabbed a normal sized jar and stuffed it full of kim chi and pounded it down with my fist until the lovely red juices covered the top of the kim chi.

One note though, if you fill the jars to the top and leave the lids on loose while it ferments on the kitchen counter you'll have juice pushed up and out the cap and over the kitchen counter by the fermentation action. I've moved them onto the dish drain board above the second sink for now and they are happily bubbling away.

Will have to get photos later once I charge the camera again.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## pdilley (11/5/09)

I used about 4 Tablespoons of Sea Salt with the latest batch of Kim Chi. I think it was a bit much so will cut it down to 3 Tablespoons with the following batch after this.

Ahhh, this is the life, enjoying some fermented spicy Kim Chi you made (fermented) yourself along with a tasty Dark Ale (BribieG inspired) you made (fermented) yourself as a snack before the evening meal.

Yum! Lovin' it! Spicy food goes great with beer.


I got the camera charged up so I'll snap my latest brew and add to this post.

Used 5 heaping tablespoons of Kim Chi crushed red peppers so the spice is lower than before but still too much for an English wife 


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## pdilley (11/5/09)

As promised a picture of Kim Chi and Son of Kim Chi.

4 Tablespoons sea salt just a tad too salty for my taste, next batch will drop to 3 Tablespoons. Still great when consumed at the same time with some tasty home brew!

I increased the green onion content, and kicked up the ginger as well as I love the taste. I left the garlic alone as its nice and strong and comes through quite well. I upped the heaping Tablespoons of Korean Crushed Chili for Kim Chi to 5 Tablespoons. The only thing I'd change is slightly less salt used next time.


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## Mantis (12/5/09)

Great stuff BP
Will have to give this a try for sure. I will be the only one in our house that eats it but thats ok. 
Does it give off much aroma as it ferments??

Cheers
Mantis :icon_chickcheers:


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## altone (5/7/09)

Brewer Pete said:


> As promised a picture of Kim Chi and Son of Kim Chi.
> 
> 4 Tablespoons sea salt just a tad too salty for my taste, next batch will drop to 3 Tablespoons. Still great when consumed at the same time with some tasty home brew!
> 
> I increased the green onion content, and kicked up the ginger as well as I love the taste. I left the garlic alone as its nice and strong and comes through quite well. I upped the heaping Tablespoons of Korean Crushed Chili for Kim Chi to 5 Tablespoons. The only thing I'd change is slightly less salt used next time.



Is all the liquid just juice from the cabbage or did you need to fill up the jar with water?
Can you give us a rough volume of liquid to the 3or4 tablespoons of salt you used?

Been looking into English Dill pickles and the NY kosher (garlic) pickles
They both suggest a brine salinity of around 4-5% so I guess that's around 40-50g per litre of liquid.

I'd suspect Kim Chi should be a fair bit lower than that though, as it doesn't seem anywhere near as salty as cucumber pickle.

I'm going to give the NY garlic pickles a go, in the spring. 

Here's my recipe (untried untested - based on quick internet searches)

45g salt 
1 litre boiled and cooled water (to get rid of chlorine etc.)
Around 1.5 Kg Dill/baby cucumbers (not the waxy skinned ones)
3 cloves of garlic

Thinly slice or crush garlic into a 2l glass jar
optional: Place fresh grape leaf into jar (releases tannin that helps keep pickle crisp)
slice baby cucumbers/dill cucumbers lengthways and fill jar to top
pour over brine solution to fill jar

I'm also going to try some more English style pickles - same as above except replace garlic with cloves
and add a sliced onion.

Will try them earlier if I can get some fresh vine leaves, but my vine is totally bare atm.

Also interested in doing some Sauerkraut ( good recipe anyone?)
and maybe some Tsukemono if I can get that sake mold.


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## Count Vorlauf (6/7/09)

Yeah, Koreans consider kimchi to be the miracle cure-all. It has been attributed for (South) Korea's lack of SARS, Bird Flu, and now Swine Flu cases.

When the Japanese sports teams visit, the Korean press claims that they pack their bags full of kimchi jars so that they can play as well as the Korean teams.

Kom-be!


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## pdilley (12/7/09)

boddingtons best said:


> Is all the liquid just juice from the cabbage or did you need to fill up the jar with water?
> Can you give us a rough volume of liquid to the 3or4 tablespoons of salt you used?



Its all liquid from the cabbage, if its too dry its ok to top up with water or with brine although I wouldn't do too heavy a brine as you don't want to add in too much salt as it needs to be just seasoned not tasting salty at all. I'd err on a slight water top up alone with a tiny pinch of salt in it to compensate.

Its a young ferment so you can start noshing on it right away or if patient it just gets better.



The pickles sound yum. The garlic ones in NY delis are Jewish I think as the stores are all run by them 

The closest recipes I have found so far to work with are:



> Recipe 1:
> Use a 11 to 12 litre jar, which takes about:
> 
> 2 1/4 kilos of small cucumbers (note that salad cucumbers are too soft and will not produce the crispness that pickling cucumbers do)
> ...




For your Sauerkraut, I already have you served Making Sauerkraut Made Easy.


For Kojikin for making sake, miso paste, soy sauce, etc. I'm still in the process of trying to get a viable culture going from very old spores and will post to the Get To Know Your Koji Kin post if anything comes of it. For now I've contacted my old mycological company for any growth data, but nothing so far. I'm about to just go out and wing it and decide upon either a rice inoculation method or a standard liquid slurry. But its a one-shot go either way so thats why I'm dragging a bit.


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## pdilley (12/7/09)

Mantis said:


> Great stuff BP
> Will have to give this a try for sure. I will be the only one in our house that eats it but thats ok.
> Does it give off much aroma as it ferments??
> 
> ...



Post got snuffled off to another forum....

... but yes there is a slight odour given off, that of um kim chi  probably the garlic and red pepper spice more than anything. Nothing too offensive but if you let it sit around for a while you'll start to smell it if you let it keep off gassing in the fridge.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## rendo (7/6/10)

RdeVjun said:


> I'm not a huge chilli fancier, but do rather enjoy spicy, traditional foods and methods. I even make tandoori paste from scratch with my own garden's produce, (turmeric is easy to grow, grab a piece from the greengrocer and treat it like ginger). IMO, food doesn't have to be painfull (either going in or coming out) to enjoy spicyness, but personally a moderate chilli level is OK in my books. Interesting how the best rogan josh I've had was in Pitlochry in the middle of Scotland, not that I've even been to its birthplace and sampled the originals though.




RdeVjun, that is a MASSIVE coincidence. I am a big curry nut and of all places, the best Korma curry I have ever had was a dodgy little town near Airth Castle in Scotland. Who would have thought....I was there for the scotch, not curry. This stuff was AMAZING...I went back the next day for more and it was just as nice. I thought I might have been delousional at first, but nope, fantastic.

Anyway, I will be making PB's Kim Chi very soon, ULTRA YUMMY STUFF!!

Rendo


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## pdilley (8/6/10)

Sounds good, just remember to back off on the
salt from the first recipe. You want to
still taste the sweet in the cabbage (supermarket
cabbage sits around a long time so you may not
get one as sweet as fresh picked or farmers market ones).
Its easier to put salt in than take salt out 


Cheers,
BP


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## rendo (16/6/10)

Hi BP & All,

I have (successfully) made my first batch of Kimchi. I dont have too much time to go into detail, but I roughly followed BP's method, with a couple of tips/modifications from a friend who makes fantastic kimchi. 

Here is a pic of Rendo's Kimchi and Son of Rendo's Kimchi... 

THANK YOU BP!!!

​



Brewer Pete said:


> Sounds good, just remember to back off on the
> salt from the first recipe. You want to
> still taste the sweet in the cabbage (supermarket
> cabbage sits around a long time so you may not
> ...


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## Howlingdog (16/6/10)

Brewer Pete said:


> As promised a picture of Kim Chi and Son of Kim Chi.
> 
> 4 Tablespoons sea salt just a tad too salty for my taste, next batch will drop to 3 Tablespoons. Still great when consumed at the same time with some tasty home brew!
> 
> ...


Are you going to bury it in the ground as I've seen the Koreans do in a documenary recently?

HD


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## pdilley (17/6/10)

Hehe No 

Not going to bury it in the ground. Thats a different way of making it with crockery. I only have modern glass jars available. Kim Chi is said in the old style to be good only when it blows its top off, then you know its ready to eat 

Rendo's Kim Chi looks devine. Most modern Kim Chi I have has a tang from the fermentation reminiscent to the CO2 in carbonated drinks, an almost effervescent tastiness. Just keep the Kim Chi around to get stronger flavours. If you store it in the fridge and the lid is not tight, the fridge sucks all the moisture out and eventually will dry out your Kim Chi so keep loose lids on the original fermentation outside if you wish. Then in a sealed container and into the fridge.

Cheers,
BP


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## rendo (13/7/10)

Guys, my $0.05 worth....if you are going to do this, do NOT SKIMP on using proper KOREAN chilli powder. Yes you can use normal chilli powder, but in my opinion it just isnt REAL kimchi without the real KOREAN chilli powder. Sure it tastes nice etc, but its just not quite right...

So...do urself a favour, goto the asian grocer store (it will prob have to be a korean store) and get the right stuff. Maybe you can buy it online somewhere for those who dont have anywhere near by. Here is a pic of what the stuff looks like:

Any brand, just aslong as it looks red and like this, ur fine. (http://momofukufor2.com/blog/photos/2010/0...mofuku-0180.jpg)

PS...Chinese cabbages are in season!! 

rendo


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## rendo (1/11/11)

Guys....check it out...just made some CUCUMBER KIMCHI!!  

Here are some pics. Here is the page I 'roughly' followed....have fun

*Cumcumber Kimchi*
http://drbenkim.com/how-to-make-cucumber-kim-chi.htm




​​​​PS...This is a good link for normal cabbage kimchi (http://drbenkim.com/how-make-kim-chi.htm)​


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## redbeard (2/11/11)

Rendo, cucumber is just wrong - ok ? Lucky you bought up on sodium percarb to clean your jars out


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## rendo (2/11/11)

redbeard said:


> Rendo, cucumber is just wrong - ok ? Lucky you bought up on sodium percarb to clean your jars out




well, I hear ya RB, I was thinking cumcumber....NO WAY. But then someone gave me some to try...whammo, I was hooked. Do you like normal Kimchi RB? If you do then u will like this for sure, unless u really really dont like cucumbers normally. 

Anyway, yes, sodium perc does a great job in getting out kimchi stains and smells, not much else can claim that prize. Now if only I could somehow make a "sodium perc kimchi...." hmmm not. I have enough sodium perc for a long time. 

Rendo


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## Ninegrain (19/5/14)

Have any of you guys tried using fish sauce as a salt substitute (full or partial) in your Kim chi? I may have imagined this, but I seem to remember seeing it listed as an ingredient on the side of a commercial pack I have bought 
That aside how do you best enjoy it? We regularly make fried rice with it, bacon, egg and some Asian herbs and greens...is delicious! 'Raw' on steamed rice is good and simple too. Do you have any other creative ways or recipes to eat it without incorporating a cooking stage that you can share? Other cooking recipes we have tried include pancakes and omelettes. Soup is on the list to try soon too  But raw is of interest due to a desire to preserve the health benefits that may come from the living flora 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## benno1973 (19/5/14)

I use fish sauce generally when I make the paste. Actually, mostly it's an anchovy sauce, which seems to have poor little whole anchovies floating around in this gloopy liquid. Smells awful, but adds a great flavour. If I'm making it vegan, then I'll add some dried shiitake mushrooms blitzed down into a powder to give it that umami kick.

Kimchi soup is awesome! I love it on rice too. Or just by itself as a late night snack! I've dehydrated it and make kimchi chips, which are pretty similar to salt and vinegar chips. I've also dehydrated it and then blitzed it to make kimchi powder, which works as a nice seasoning.


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## verysupple (19/5/14)

Ninegrain said:


> Have any of you guys tried using fish sauce as a salt substitute (full or partial) in your Kim chi? I may have imagined this, but I seem to remember seeing it listed as an ingredient on the side of a commercial pack I have bought
> That aside how do you best enjoy it? We regularly make fried rice with it, bacon, egg and some Asian herbs and greens...is delicious! 'Raw' on steamed rice is good and simple too. Do you have any other creative ways or recipes to eat it without incorporating a cooking stage that you can share? Other cooking recipes we have tried include pancakes and omelettes. Soup is on the list to try soon too  But raw is of interest due to a desire to preserve the health benefits that may come from the living flora
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I've never actually made it myself, so I can't comment on the use of fish sauce. I do use bought kimchi in fried rice like you do, and damn that's good. I add it right at the end after turning off the stove and just mix it in, so it's not really cooked as the heat from the rice etc only warms it. I know you asked for non-cooked recipes but I love kimchi okonomiyaki (Japanese savoury pancake - there seems to be a lot of cross-over between Japanese and Korean food). Of course, I have it the common way as a condiment/side dish with Korean food in general.


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## Deep End (1/9/15)

Bumped into Kimchi on the tele the other day and got inspired, bought some from the local Asian grocery, liked it, then made a batch. Think I've found my new favourite healthy food


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## rude (16/12/15)

I am hooked also have been doing it for a year now

Have been fermenting it at 21c for 3 weeks with stc 1000 cont,
anyone else using a controlled ferment


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## MartinOC (16/12/15)

Keep it cool, gents.

Traditionally, Kimchi was buried in earthenware pots in the ground & allowed to slow-ferment. Speeding it up just increases the possibility of nasties (despite the phenomenally low PH).


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## Deep End (16/12/15)

I live in Tassie so I guess it stays cool enough, just finished my first batch and I survived, had a taste of the new batch yesterday, still vertical, so.....so far so good LOL Top Stuff anyway, even planted Wombok, Daikon and Spring Onions in my vegie patch!!


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## Nick the Knife (17/12/15)

I did a decent sized batch of this a few weeks ago - quasi-blended a couple of different recipes (used this one as the main one). Used 2 large wombok cabbages, chopped the leaves into inch long chunks rather than whole, used a tad less garlic and also dried shrimp paste rather than preserved shrimp. Added a little freshly extracted whey to ensure that it had enough lacto bacteria to get a good ferment going (just put some fresh yogurt in a microfibre cloth & used the liquid that came through). Fermented it in an ~4L plastic olive tub modded with an airlock on the top at ~18c for 6 days.

Developed enough of a sour tang to yank it........VERY full on flavour (you're not eating this without rice or some meat to go with it) - my wife is the house's Kimchi expert and she says it is superior to the commercial stuff she's tasted (which she said were quite bland).

Thankfully it lasts in the fridge for up to a year - which is a good thing as you can't eat much at once.....can't say I'd be rushing to make it again - have a good book on fermented foods and a number of the other lacto-fermented veges sound good though.


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## indica86 (8/3/16)

Made my first batch yesterday. Could not get daikon so used turnip as per the book fermenting foods... Taste today and it is going well, I am impressed.


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## yankinoz (8/3/16)

If you have a date that night, don't forget the breath mints.


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## MartinOC (8/3/16)

indica86 said:


> Made my first batch yesterday. Could not get daikon so used turnip as per the book fermenting foods... Taste today and it is going well, I am impressed.


It certainly is good stuff! I make it (semi) regularly & just keep it in the fridge in an airtight container. Last for ages.

When I'm due to make a fresh batch (like now...), I just use-up the liquid to start the next batch & the solids go into soup with some Miso paste, tofu, fish cake, strips of chook, noodles etc...etc... whatever is laying around. Guaranteed to open up the sluices the next day, but geez it's good!


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## indica86 (17/3/16)

Kimchi pancakes for lunch today...


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