Napa Kimchi
You never have kimchi when you need it–especially when you’re craving kimchi fried rice and all the other things you could make with it! This week I set out to make my own from scratch, as I think the work and love I put into it makes it taste all the better to me and my family. The good thing is, after buying all the ingredients that can be stored in the pantry, I can make multiple servings whenever I feel like it, with whatever vegetables I desire.
I followed Maangchi’s recipe but halved it (and had to make some replacements because I didn’t have fish sauce or salted shrimp.) If you haven’t checked out her Youtube channel yet, you really should, I could watch her and her delicious Korean recipes all day!
If you grow your own carrots, daikon, scallions, and garlic chives, then you’ll know why kimchi is traditionally made before winter to store (because all these cool weather crops ripen around this time.)
Ingredients
- 1 head of napa cabbage
- Kosher salt (I used Pink Himalayan because it’s the only non-iodized salt I have)
- 1 medium carrot, matchsticked
- 1 cup Daikon or Korean radish matchsticked
- 1 cup scallion diced
- 1 cup garlic chive diced (omit if you don’t have)
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- 12 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup onion
- 1/2 cup Fish Sauce (substitute soy sauce if you don’t have)
- 2 tablespoons salted shrimp (replace with salted crab paste, or omit if you don’t have)
- 1 cup Korean dried pepper flakes
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon mochi powder (or all purpose flour)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
1. Quarter the napa cabbage and run under cold water to rinse away any sand and dirt particles that may have accumulated. In a large bowl, salt the napa cabbage with a generous amount of kosher salt, rubbing it between each leaf. Leave in the bowl while you work on everything else so the moisture can be drawn out.
2. In a pot, mix 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon flour, and one tablespoon sugar. Heat until the mixture is thickened, about 1-2 minutes once it reaches boiling temperature. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Place onion, garlic cloves, and ginger into a food processor and finely mince.
4. Place cooled flour paste, 1 cup Korean dried pepper flakes, fish sauce, salted shrimp, and minced garlic mixture in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Fold in diced scallions, garlic chives, radish matchsticks, and carrot matchsticks.
5. Return to your cabbage–it should have somewhat wilted by now and rinse under cold water. Squeeze out excess moisture. Some people let it sit for an hour, some people let it sit for two. I just let it sit for however long it takes me to prepare the other ingredients.
6. Rub (or spoon) pepper paste mixture in between each cabbage leaf and place into a container (I would prefer to use glass mason jars, with the cabbage rolled up, but I didn’t have enough so I used one of my remaining large tupperware.
You can eat it immediately, or let it sit for a day or two in the fridge to ferment. Kimchi is such a healthy thing to have!