Summer Kimchi. Today, I share with you my mother's Kimchi recipe! I think its the perfect beginner's recipe: simple with no complicated steps or ingredients. If you want to try a food project this year, consider homemade Kimchi! It'll be one of those lifetime recipes.
This is actually our 2nd Kimchi recipe on Future Neighbor. In our previous Kimchi recipe, we seasoned the Kimchi paste with fish sauce. When you use fish sauce, Kimchi will taste sharp, pungent and bold. Many people (and restaurants) in Seoul like this style of Kimchi - where flavors are sharp and upfront.
My mom's recipe is much more balanced. More closer to homecooking. It's less pungent and more smoother in taste. Think about it as like a latte vs. an espresso. The key ingredients to this "balanced" taste are saeujeot (Korean salted shrimp) and a potato.
Saeujeot is very salty. It's fresh baby shrimp that have been immediately salted and left to ferment. (And no, we don't ever just eat this by itself - its always mixed into a sauce or paste). But it also has a kick of rich flavor without the pungency of fish sauce. So Koreans (especially in Seoul) love to use this ingredient when making Kimchi.
Well, what about the potato? The potato serves as a binder for the Kimchi paste. Traditionally, we use rice or glutinous rice powder. But those two rice-based ingredients are passive. They merely act as a binder. The mashed potato, however, also rounds-out sharp flavors. Remember, we added gochugaru peppers, saeujeot and fresh garlic. That potato starch harmonizes the flavors!
The result is a well-balanced Kimchi. Not overly spicy. Not overly garlic. Not fishy at all. Something that you can eat in the morning, lunch or dinner.
In fact, we actually finished the batch we made in the video in 3 days! And made a second (family) batch using 10 Napa cabbages.
Summer Kimchi - Your 1st batch!
Ingredients
Salting Napa Cabbage
- Napa Cabbage - 1 whole
- Kosher salt - ½ cup
- Water - ½ cup
Spicy Kimchi Paste
- Gochugaru - 1 Cup
- Potato - 1 medium-sized size of your palm
- Saeujeot (Salted Fermented Mini Shrimp) - 4 Tablespoons
- Onion - ½ a whole
- Apple - 1 whole
- Garlic - 15 cloves
- Ginger - 1 ping-pong sized piece
- Sugar - 1 Tablespoon
- Sesame seeds - 1 Tablespoon
Radish Salad
- Korean Radish - ⅕ of a whole make "L" to gauge length - refer to video
- Green onion - 5 stalks
- Sesame seeds - 1 Tablespoon
Instructions
Salt Napa Cabbage
- Make two perpendicular cuts at the stem of the Napa cabbage. Then split the head into TWO separate pieces with your hands. (We will split it again into four pieces later - not now)
- Give both cabbage pieces a thorough wash under running water. Place the cabbage in a large plastic basin or mixing bowl.
- Then grab a few pieces of Kosher salt (not dining salt!) and sprinkle salt between each layer of cabbage. Focus the salt near the white stems where it is thick. Salt the other piece as well. (Note: You will use a total of ½ cup of kosher salt for both pieces)
- Now split each cabbage again into four pieces. This will makes it easier to fit into your large basin or mixing bowl.
- Then get a ½ cup of water. And pour it over all four cabbage pieces. Cover your mixing bowl or basin with a lid and set it aside for 6 hours. (This salting will kick off the fermentation process).
- While you wait, skip to the next section...
- After 3 hours, rotate the bottom cabbage piece to the top. (This ensures that each piece spends some time in the salty water at the bottom of the bowl).
- While you wait, skip to the next section...
Make Kimchi Paste
- Take out a mixing bowl. Measure 1 cup of gochugaru and add it in. Next, we will prep the other fresh ingredients.
- Skin the potato. Then cut the potato into smaller pieces. Place into a microwave friendly bowl. And cover with plastic wrap. Poke a few holes. Then cook in microwave for 3 minutes.
- Next, peel the onion. Cut the ½ piece into smaller pieces. Skin the apple. Core the apple and cut into smaller pieces. Next, peel off the garlics. Set aside 15 cloves. Next, skin off the ginger. Cut off a ping-pong sized piece.
- Place the potato, onion, apple, garlic and ginger pieces into a large blender. Then blitz it smooth until it becomes the consistency of mashed potatoes. (Note: Make sure to check that there are no big chunks!)
- Now add the potato mix into the bowl with the gochugaru.
- Next, add the saeujeot into the mix. (Pro-tip: Blitz the saeujeot in a blender before adding to the mix - this will make the small shrimp invisible in the kimchi later)
- Add 1 Tablespoon of sugar.
- Add 1 Tablespoon of sesame seeds
- Then mix everything together with a spoon.
- Place this spicy Kimchi paste into the refrigerator - let it chill down.
Make Spicy Radish Salad
- Before we make the salad, let's finish off the Napa Cabbage leaves...
- After 6 hours of soaking, the Napa leaves will turn limp. Try bending the stem and it should bend without snapping. (If it snaps, place in salt water for longer.)
- If ready, thoroughly wash each of the four cabbage pieces under running water. Get in between each leaf and wash off all of the salt.
- Then give 3-4 good squeezes to each cabbage. (Note: Don't squeeze it completely dry - just a few good squeezes). Then set it aside in a colander and let it drip-off excess water.
- Trim stems off each green onion. Split each green onion stalk near the white stems. Then cut the green onion into finger-length pieces.
- Peel the Korean radish. Dice small sections. Then julienne into thin small strips (refer to video).
- Take out a large mixing bowl. Now place in the spring onion and Korean radish pieces.
- Take the Kimchi paste out of the refrigerator. Mix-in half of it into the spring onion and radish salad. Give it a thorough mix with your hands. Top-off with sesame seeds. Set aside for next step.
Rub-on Kimchi paste.
- Take each Napa cabbage - that has been soaking off excess water. Then get a dab of Kimchi paste and apply it to each layer of the cabbage. (Don't put too much Kimchi paste - we will add the radish salad too)
- After you apply the kimchi paste, grab a few pinches of the spicy radish salad. Add a few pinches in between each layer of leaf as well. Repeat for all four cabbage pieces.
- Make sure to coat the leaf tips at the end as well.
- Add each finished Kimchi piece into a Tupperware. Sprinkle a few coats of sesame seeds. Place lid on.
Fermentation
- Set the Tupperware aside at room temperature. Let it sit out for 24 hours. (Note: This step speeds up the fermentation process and ages the Kimchi)
- After 24 hours, place the Tupperware in the refrigerator. Once its turns cold, cut it and eat as you please!
- Bon Appetit! Send us a photo on Instagram (we would love to see!)
Notes
- You can blitz the salted shrimp in a blender before adding it to the potato mix.
- You can eat the fresh Kimchi immediately after making (without having to wait 1 day).
- Watch video below for more details.
Arja says
Greetings from Finland!
We just made our first batch of kimchi made of napa cabbage(have made cucumber though). We are out of the moon since it turned out really lovely. We love fermented vegetables but honestly nothing beats kimchi. We were not able to find salted shrimp so we added anchovies and a hinch of fish sauce. Thank you so much for the recipe. Definitely we make this again.
Daniel Oh says
Moi! Happy that you found success with it! Yes, the salted shrimp is something that's typically only sold at Korean Supermarkets. Hopefully, more fresh K-products make their way to supermarkets there.
Jo says
I think my kimchi was too much ginger taste and very little water produced in the first few days. What can I do about it?
Natalie says
My second Time making it and we love it, just like you said its well balanced and has a nice flavor you just want to eat all the time.
Maria says
This kimchi is the BEST! Thank you for sharing. I've tried four other recipes, and this is my favorite. The potato and salted shrimp really makes a smoother flavor than fish sauce. Have some questions on the technique:
1) Why do you not dip in the cabbages salt water first, like you do with your other "Kimchi at home recipe"? If I don't do that and I sprinkle the salt unevenly by accident, I'm afraid some parts of the leaf do not wilt enough. Is that a problem?
2) Why can't we mix all the spicy radish salad into the paste, then brush into the leaves? To save a step of first sprinkling salad, then rubbing on paste. Does it affect the taste or texture?
intan says
can i skip fermented shrimp because i could not find fermented shrimp in my area
puterboss says
This kimchi is DELICIOUS! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Daniel says
Awesome to hear that you tried it out 🙂