Www.chow.com/food-news/76936/make-your-own-kimchi/ Kimchi Recipe. If I had to name my favorite cuisine, it would be a toss-up between Vietnamese and Korean. Both offer charbroiled meats, pickled or marinated vegetables, and a lively and sometimes spicy array of seasonings. What’s not to like? Most unfamiliar ethnic foods become instantly accessible if you take a trip to a local shop to stock up on a few specific ingredients. It wasn’t until I learned about Moroccan spices that I realized that a tagine is basically a braise seasoned with specific spices mixed in the right combination, such as turmeric, paprika, saffron and ground ginger. Ok, and a nice hunk of pork shoulder as well. Every time I go to a specialty market, whether it’s Mexican, Japanese, or Chinese, I invariably lug back bottles of vinegars, odd herbs, specialty sugars and some sort of backside-burning chili pastes home with me.
It was a little strange: unlike the usual voices I hear in my head, this one had a Korean accent. But I couldn’t find any. Zip. Of course, they had everything but. Bok Choy Kimchi | Beyond Kimchee. “Banana?” I was quite stunned when I heard one Korean mom mentioned this everyday fruit. I was at lunch with a bunch of Korean ladies for school related gathering and we were talking about making Kimchi with local vegetables in Malaysia. I’ve known about making Kimchi with Bok Choy, the famous Chinese vegetable, but adding banana in Kimchi? … that is simply outrageous. I’ve been eating bananas all my life but the idea of connecting the banana with kimchi never – ever came across to my mind! Some people are ingeniously creative when it comes to the food. Well, if you think about it, banana will work great in Kimchi. I was so thrilled that I had to grab some Bok Choy and a bunch of banana on the way home. The result? It is quite awesome.., both in taste and texture-wise. Grab some of these beautiful Bok Choy.
Cut in half or quarter lengthwise depends on their size. Rinse them gently to remove dirt or anything impure. Repeat the layers. Rinse them very GENTLY. Go, bananas! Ingredients Directions. How to Make Kimchi: A Step-by-Step Guide. I attended a most fabulous kimchi pickling workshop earlier this week hosted by Cham Korean Bistro, my favorite restaurant in Pasadena. The event was held at the restaurant’s R&D kitchen in the little-visited city of Vernon and was attended by all sorts of food-adoring media types including my pals B-Side, H.C., Javier, Valentina, Esther, and Eddie.
We were all eager to learn the ins and outs of fermentation and to expand our knowledge of Korea’s beloved dish. Led by Chef EJ Jeong, formerly of BOA and A.O.C., the two hour-long class was fun, educational, and most importantly, tongue-searingly delicious. While teaching us how to make traditional Napa cabbage kimchi (tong baechu kimchi), Chef Jeong weaved in hilarious stories about her family and culture. My favorite anecdote recounted a popular Korean saying that “a man can live without a wife, but not without kimchi.”
Now, that’s some serious affection! After we filled our bellies halfway, it was time for the learning to commence… How to Make Kim Chi. Of the countless varieties of kim chi that are made in Korea, by far the most common and celebrated version is made with Napa cabbage. Kim chi that's made with cabbage is loaded with indole-3-carbinol (I3C), a compound that is well recognized as a powerful cancer-fighting compound. Numerous studies indicate that I3C can offer protection against many different types of cancer and may even stop the growth of existing tumors. You could hop on over to a local Korean market to buy a bottle of kim chi, but it may not be as healthy as you'd like, since most commercially prepared varieties are made with white sugar and shrimp.
To make healthy kim chi that still has lots of flavor and health-promoting compounds, start with a whole head of fresh Napa cabbage: Separate the leaves and chop them up into bite-size pieces. These shreds of cabbage will shrink about 25% during processing, so no need to make them too small. Measure out a quarter cup of sea salt. And add it to a small bowl of warm water. How to Make Kimchi. My first encounter with kimchi was just plain offensive. My mother, a Korean pickled cabbage devotee, used to occasionally crack open a jar at the dinner table, and it was only a matter of seconds before my brother and I had our noses buried in our shirts, mumbling complaints about its malodorous air from beneath the veil of our Hanes cotton tees.
Eventually, after much coercing, I dipped into the jar, only too happy to now be the one offending my younger brother’s senses. Kimchi at its most basic is a selection of pickled, often fermented, vegetables. The most common variety, at least here in the states anyway, is built around Napa cabbage and scallions, and sometimes leeks, radishes, and carrots. The fermentation process gives kimchi its trademark effervescence, but many varieties are eaten fresh, or unfermented. Some form of kimchi graces nearly every Korean dinner table, and its utility as a condiment can be likened to ketchup in the US. Basic Napa Cabbage Kimchi (Kimchee) Recipe. I don't bother with the soak for 12 hours, rinse, then combine remaining ingredients bit. I combine all ingredients and pack tightly, adding a teeny bit of vinegar if there isn't enough liquid to cover the veggies. I put a weight on top to help ensure that everything is completely covered in liquid. And I don't use that much salt for my recipe - I don't measure, but it's probably around a tablespoon or so of salt for that amount of cabbage.
I just taste and as long as it tastes right, like a nice bowl of salty soup, then that's about right. If I'm using head cabbage, which is much tougher, the husband will smash it a bit to help release the liquids in the cabbage. There's no real hard and fast recipe for kimchi - it's made a whole lot of different ways depending on personal preferences. We love kimchi.