mom's kimchi recipe #1

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Ingredients
  • 1 napa cabbage
  • 1 Korean daikon radish
  • 4 yellow onions, medium
  • 1 tablespoon sweet rice flour
  • 1 teaspoon ginger, minced
  • 6 cloves of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon salted fermented shrimp ("Saeujeot")
  • 1/8 cup fish sauce
  • 1/2 cup Korean red pepper flakes ("Gochugaru")
  • salt
  • couple tubs or extra-large bowls, food-handling gloves
  • jars or tubs to store kimchi

2. Chopping cabbage into squares
2. Chopping napa cabbage halves

3. Layering cabbage with salt
5. Rinsing cabbage, draining
Prepare napa cabbage
  1. Fill up a tub with cold water.
  2. Chop up cabbage: Halves, halves again. Remove inner third, chop sections into 2 inch squares. Dunk chopped squares into water as you cut, making sure that each square is thoroughly submerged.
  3. Place layers of squares down in a new bowl, sprinkle a couple pinches of salt on the layer. Repeat for all cabbage.
  4. Partially cover bowl (i.e. not airtight) and let sit for 2-3 hours, until the cabbage tastes slightly acidic. 
  5. Rinse squares under cold running water, removing salt; drain.
1. Peeled radish and onions
2. Preparing porridge base

4. Chopping radish into squares
4. Radish with flakes

6. Adding pepper and ginger to porridge
6. Mixing porridge
Prepare radish and porridge (while waiting for napa cabbage)
  1. Peel radish and onions; set aside.
  2. Place rice flour in pot, add water and stir. Keep adding water and stirring until flour is completely dissolved.
  3. Heat pot while still stirring; remove from heat when boiling achieved.
  4. Chop up radish into 1 inch squares, about 1/4 inch thick. Place radish squares into bowl, toss with 1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes.
  5. Chop up onions into eighths. Place onions, boiled rice flour, fermented shrimp, garlic into blender; blend until porridge consistency.
  6. Add ginger and rest of red pepper flakes to porridge. Mix with spoon. Add 3-4 tablespoons of salt.
1. Mixing final ingredients
2. Kimchi!
Combine and make kimchi
  1. In a tub, mix the porridge, radish, and napa kimchi while wearing the food-handling gloves, evenly dispersing the porridge. Add salt if desired.
  2. Move into jars and cover. For quicker fermentation, leave out two days before refrigeration. To slower fermentation, place into fridge (or cold storage) immediately.

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