Mini kimjang at our house

I’ve always wanted to make kimchi but my sole previous attempt was not successful. A few weeks ago I asked my Korean student, Younsang, to ask one of his fellow Korean students if they would like to come to my house to show me how. A woman whose grandmother is a royal cuisine cook offered to show me how. Other students came along to help. We had a great time making many gallons and quarts of kimchi.

Kimchi is a fermented food that comes from Korea. It is similar to sauerkraut but usually has a lot of red pepper, garlic, ginger and other strong flavorings.

The basic sequence of events is as follows:

Cut and salt the Napa cabbage. Let it soak for several hours to release a lot of water. Younsang and Seungjoon started Saturday evening and looked after the cabbage until after midnight. This is a very important part of the process. Too soon and the cabbage won't ferment properly and too late the cabbage will be very salty.

Rinse the salt out of the cabbage.

Make red pepper/rice flour paste and dump in an oversized bowl.

Prepare additional ingredients including green onions, garlic, ginger, Indian mustard, salted shrimp, fish sauce, fresh oysters and shredded Korean radish.

Add ingredients except cabbage to bowl and mix well.



Set cabbage on top of the mixture and pull down outer leaves. Coat the inside with the mixture. Continue pulling down additional leaves until center is reached.

Squeeze out excess sauce and fold outer leaves over and place in a sanitized jar.

Leave on kitchen counter for 2-3 days and then refrigerate.

Kimchi will slowly become tangier. It can then be used in kimchi fried rice or kimchi stew.

After all the hard work is done, a festive meal is in order. All the students and myself contributed to this table full of Korean food.



If you want to learn more about kimchi here are a couple of links that will provide you with the details of this delicious and unique Korean food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi

http://kimcheedepot.com/aboutkimchee.html

I hope to visit this museum when I’m in Seoul this November:

http://www.kimchimuseum.co.kr/english/information.htm

In addition, I hope to visit the Garak market during Kimjang. Garak is the premier market in Korea.

http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/eng/info_db/shop/shop_detail.jsp?seqno=15

Kimjang is the time when families prepare several months worth of kimchi in order to see them through the winter. It’s becoming less popular because of modern conveniences but it is still a big event.

From what I’ve heard, our kimchi is very much appreciated by the many students who received it.