Kimchi

Kimchi is quite possibly the most famous Korean dish. While there is a multitude of kimchi varieties, the one that is commonly referred to is baechu kimchi, which uses lactofermented Chinese leaf as its main ingredient.

Recipe

• 1 large Chinese leaf head
• 2-3 tbsp salt
• 1 carrot
• 15 cm (6 in.) piece of daikon
• 3 cm (1 in.) piece of ginger root
• 1 bunch of spring onions
• 1 onion
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 1 cup water
• 2 heaping tablespoons of glutinous rice flour
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• gochugaru pepper flakes

Cut the Chinese leaf into pieces of desired size – anything from quartered cabbage head to a fine shred will work. Place in a bowl, add the salt and mix thoroughly. Mix in 30 minute intervals for 2 hours. The goal is to dehydrate the Chinese leaf. Next, rinse the salt off.

Cut the carrot and daikon. They can be julienned, sliced or diced, anything will work. Cut the spring onions. Peel and finely chop the ginger, onion and garlic.

Prepare the rice porridge. Pour part of the water into a saucepan, add flour, sugar and fish sauce and heat, stirring constantly. The desired consistency is semi-liquid. If the porridge gets too thick, add extra water. When it’s fully gelatinised, mix gochugaru flakes in.

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly, then put into jars. Let ferment for two days, then transfer the jars to the fridge.

Additional information

The quantities in the recipe are intentionally vague. They can be adjusted according to personal preferences. My suggestion is to start off with 50 g (2 ounces) of gochugaru, then adjust the quantity in subsequent batches to meet the desired spiciness.

Most of the ingredients are easily obtainable in any supermarket. The only less common one are gochugaru flakes, which might need to be bought online. Depending on the brand, they can be milder or spicier.

When placing vegetables in jars, my suggestion is to stop at 80%, and at most 90% of the way. Kimchi ferments very vigorously and the released carbon dioxide will visibly increase the vegetables’ volume, eventually making overfilled jars leak.

Video transcription

Kimchi hails from Korea. It’s a staple food in that country and no chef can be considered good without the ability to make kimchi. In Poland, it’s a relatively exotic dish, but it’s easy to prepare and really delicious. A full written recipe with the ingredient amounts can be found on the blog.

The main ingredient, at least in the case of the baechu-kimchi variety, is Chinese leaf, also known as Chinese or napa cabbage. I’ll also use daikon, a carrot, spring onions, ginger, onion and garlic. Additionally, I’ll need water, brown sugar, fish sauce, rice flour and gochugaru pepper flakes.

I start by cutting the Chinese leaf. I cut it in half lengthwise. Next, I split each half again, obtaining four quarters. 

I remove the core. If some internal leaves look bad, I cut them away as well.

I slice the cabbage in bite sized pieces. The size isn’t too relevant though; I’ve seen anything from using intact cabbage quarters to a fine shred.

I salt the sliced Chinese leaf. The exact amount of salt isn’t that important as I’ll be washing it away later. I happen to use around 3 tablespoons. What is important is giving the cabbage a mix so that the salt reaches every nook and cranny.

The salt’s role is the dehydration of the cabbage. In the process called osmosis, water flows from a medium with a low sodium ion concentration to where there’s more sodium. The salt that’s outside the leaves is the high sodium concentration medium, so it will draw water out of the cabbage cells. This ensures that my kimchi doesn’t end up swimming in its own juices.

I mix the cabbage every 30 minutes over the next two hours. Water quickly starts appearing at the bottom of my bowl.

Before the Chinese leaf is ready, I prepare the remaining vegetables.

I start by peeling and finely chopping a piece of ginger.

I do the same with an onion.

I peel a carrot. I want to julienne it, or cut it into matchsticks. The easiest way to do it is to cut thin strips of the carrot and then slice them with a knife. I start by using a cabbage slicer, but the strips come out too thin, so I switch to using a vegetable peeler. Cutting the strips with a knife is much easier.

Next I peel a piece of daikon. I like when different vegetables have different shapes, so I dice the daikon. Of course, it doesn’t matter whether I cut the vegetables one way or the other. I sometimes go for slices or julienne everything. Each batch of my kimchi is a bit different.

I prepare the spring onions. I cut off the roots or bottom ends and also remove any dry tips. I slice the spring onions at an angle. I think they look nicer that way.

The last vegetable I use is garlic. I use quite a lot. I peel the cloves and give them a fine chop.

The vegetables are ready, so it’s time to make the rice porridge. I pour some water into a saucepan. I also add rice flour, brown sugar and fish sauce. I heat everything up, stirring constantly. I wait until the rice gelatinises, which occurs between 68 and 78°C (that’s 152-174°F). If the porridge becomes too thick, I thin it out with additional water until it’s semi-liquid. At the end, I add gochugaru.

I rinse the Chinese leaf. It usually requires a few bowl refills. The cabbage should be only slightly salty in taste.

I place the rinsed and drained Chinese leaf in its bowl and toss in the remaining prepared ingredients: the rice porridge with gochugaru pepper flakes and the vegetables. I give it a thorough mix so that the porridge covers all other ingredients.

In Korean recipes, the ingredient list tends to be slightly longer. A frequently used ingredient is salted seafood, such as saeu-jeot, or salted shrimp. However, they’re hard to obtain in Poland.

My kimchi is technically ready. Even unfermented, it’s edible and tasty. But I’ll put it in jars. It’s a good idea to leave some head space in the jars since kimchi ferments rather vigorously and causes leakage. The red brine stains pretty much everything and is very pungent. As usual, I don’t follow my own advice and fill the jars nearly all the way to the top. They all leaked.

During the fermentation, bacteria digest sugars in the vegetables and the added sucrose, producing lactic acid, carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide. It’s difficult to pin down the exact bacterial strains that can be found in Kimchi. The microbial composition varies by region and by ingredients. Various strains of the genus Leuconostoc tend to dominate the environment first, but as the pH drops, other genera become numerous too: various strains of Weissella, Lactobacillus, Lactococcus and others, as well as some archaea and yeasts.

Despite the rich microbiome, the acidic, salty and anaerobic environment is inhospitable to most microbes, so there’s no risk of infections with pathogenic bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum.

After two days, I find the kimchi the tastiest. I place it in the fridge to slow further fermentation down. In Korea, kimchi made this way can be stored for months, much like sauerkraut or sour gherkins in Poland. But I prefer it fresh.

This is what my two day old kimchi looks like. It’s spicy, notably sour, but there’s a lot of residual sweetness from unfermented sugars. The other flavours and aromas make for a very complex whole. The vegetables are still somewhat crunchy. It’s a perfect filling for kimchi mandu dumplings, a wonderful side dish or simply a healthy and tasty snack.