Sunday, November 6, 2011

Water Kimchi Dongchimi 동치미

Here's another easy kimchi recipe from Marja Vongerichten's The Kimchi Chronicles cookbook. This kimchi is unusual in that it doesn't contain red pepper. I've seen other versions with green peppers included to give it a kick but this would be a good kimchi for those with no heat tolerance. Btw, I forgot to have sugar in the photo. It's an important part of the fermentation process.


Here's is the finished product. I think the head of cabbage may have been way too big. It should have only filled the two half gallon jars and I'm thinking it should have a higher liquid to solid ratio. It will sit on my counter for a few days and then into the fridge it goes.

Making kimchi 막김치

I ordered Marja Vongerichten's Kimchi Chronicles DVDs and companion cookbook. It's been an inspiration to get back to sharing my Korean cooking. I decided to start with her recipe for cabbage kimchi.
I started the day driving down to H Mart in Lynnwood. This is the closest Korean store to my town. It's about 40 miles. Not only is it a grocery store but it also has a food court and a good selection of housewares.


Here are the ingredients for this version of kimchi. From left to right, napa cabbage, Korean radish (mu or moo), green onions, fish sauce, garlic, sugar, sweet rice powder, salted shrimp, yellow onion, coarse salt and coarse red pepper.

 Here is the cabbage cut up in pieces.

 And here is the cabbage after being salted and resting for a couple of hours. Notice that it has wilted quite a bit.

 This is the seasoning. It's a mixture of garlic, ginger, fish sauce, green onion, yellow onion and salted shrimp.

This is the kimchi after the cabbage has been mixed with the seasoning. 

This just makes my mouth water.

1.5 gallons of beautiful cabbage kimchi!