Kimchi - Korean Pickled Cabbage

I have been trying to make my own kimchi for years now. Every recipe I googled or saw in cookbooks just went wrong. Four times over the last year I tried again, leaving the kitchen with a nasty rotten bubbly cabbage smell.
This time, I set my mind on pushing this experiment to perfection. I went to our library and looked for the oldest possible traditional Korean cookbook - found one called Growing Up In A Korean Kitchen (by Hi Soo Shin Hepinstal) - a collection of memories and recipes passed on from one generation to another. Immediately I fell in love with it, but what more, I knew with this cookbook; I ll make my kimchi the way I always wished for. I mean this girl makes her own gochujang paste and soy sauce!

So what is kimchi, anyway? High in protein, vitamins A and B and low in calories with fibrous texture and lactic acid content.

Korean kitchens create more than one hundred kinds of kimchi, using everything from cabbage to watrermelon skins and even pumpkin blossoms in summer. Each family´s kimchi has its own unique flavor, but the basic process is to salt the vegetable, firming it up by extracting its liquid, locking in the original flavor. A mixture of spices is then introduced and the vegetable is fermented, creating its distinctive character. .... (p. 95)

And just as I believed, her recipe was an ultimate success. Finally, here it is, just the way I like it:

TRADITIONAL KOREAN PICKLED CABBAGE:
(Tong Baechu Kimchi - 백추 김치)

• 1 kg Chinese cabbage, cleaned*
• 1/2 cup coarse sea salt + 1 tbsp more
  
• 1 tbsp sweet rice flour (I used plain wheat flour)
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/2 cup hot red pepper powder
• 200g white radish (daikon)
• 1 hot red fresh pepper
• 1 spring onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 walnut halves
• 1/2 tbsp squeezed ginger juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

* Note: To clean the cabbage, wash it once and drain. remove tough outer leaves and reserve for later use. Cut out the hard cabbage end leaving just enough to hold the cabbage together.

Cut the cabbage lengthwise into halves or quarters. Wash once more, but do not drain. Place the cabbage cut sides up onto layered outer leaves and other leaves that have separated. Sprinkle 1/2 cup salt in between the leaves and on top. Dissolve the tablespoon of salt in half cup lukewarm water and pour over the cabbage. Let sit for three hours, shifting the cabbage around every hour.
Rice several times in a colander and drain well.

Meantime, cut the radish into matchsticks, de seed the chilli and slice finely, cut the spring onion (green part into 5cm pieces, white part into thin diagonal slices). , crush the garlic and chop finely, and chop the walnuts.

To make the stuffing, in a small saucepan, dissolve the flour in 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil, lower the heat and boil for 2 minutes or until thickened. Let cool. In a large pan, combine the flour paste with fish sauce and red pepper powder. Mix well and add the rest of ingredients.

Wearing rubber gloves, start rubbing the paste generously onto each cabbage leaf and in between the whole cabbage piece. Start from the outer leaves and work inwards.
Once done, summon the whole cabbage halves (or quarters) and press in a roll to hold together. Take a few single leaves and wrap then around the whole cabbage piece.
Place the cabbage rolls next to each other in an air-tight container and fill the space in between with the loose leaves. Add a little water into the bowl where the stuffing was to mix with the remaining bits and pour this spicy water over the cabbage. Press the cabbage down to remove all the trapped air bubbles.
All the cabbage leaves must be immersed in liquid, so add more water, if needed. Be sure to leave about 2 inches space at the top of the jar.

Close the container tightly (you can use any type of container, but it has to have a tight, non-metallic lid). Double wrap the container in plastic bags and secure the lid with a rubber band. Leave at room temperature for 20 hours. Unwrap and open the container, laddle some juice out and adjust the salt or sugar. Cover up, double wrap and let sit in room temperature for another 2 - 3 days. Transfer to the fridge for another day or so to stop the fermentation process and to develop its characteristic spicy carbonated tang.

When ready to be eaten, cut the cabbage into 2 inch slices and serve. This kimchi will stay fresh for a month, but will become gradually more sour, but still, extremely HOT! Just like Tompa...

We had ours with plain brown rice, some fresh green leaves and Korean Seasoned Eggplant.

Squash With Sesame Seeds

If asked about my most favorite cuisine on earth I would reply Indian for its variety and Korean for its terrific taste. Since there are many Indian places to eat around, when given a choice, I would go for a good spicy Korean.
Since my Korean cooking abilities are quite unrefined, when Tompa went to Korea this autumn, I asked him for a nice traditional cookbook. But he did not bring me one, he brought me two. The first weekend afterwards, we welcomed with a crazy three meal course Korean.
Following is a very simple stir-fry done in no time. Originally, dried squash is soaked, sliced and used, but since I got hold of the fresh kind, there was no need for re-hydration:

SQUASH WITH SESAME SEEDS:
(Hobak - bokkeum)

• 1 cup zucchini, cut into long thin stripes
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 spring onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp Korean paprika powder
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Heat the oil in a wok and brown the garlic. Add the zucchini stripes and cook over low heat until soft. Add the rest of ingredients and toss well.

(Our Korean lunch had also pickled daikon (on the right) and gozhuzhang shrimp (above))

This is a simple contribution to Fresh Produce Of The Month hosted by Marta over at An Italian In The US. This month´s theme is squash - any kind that is in season. The good thing about my recipe is that both - yellow and green squash can be used and if there is none, go for the dried variety - therefore, I am considering this a year-round dish.