There was a great Saturday Morning Travel and Cooking show on PBS called the Kimchee Chronicles which explored the different foods and areas of South Korea. It was hosted by a woman who as a young child was given up for adoption by her Korean family and brought to the United States. She wanted to know more about her Korean culture thus she begin to explore her heritage.
First attempt at Kimchi
- Thread starter Sullybob
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Shawn, I live not far from a large Korean grocery store called Lotte. I'd be happy to send you some if you can't find it out your way. PM me if interested.
Someone also mentioned rice powder--definitely recommend. Dried shrimp--definitely recommend. One recipe I have also calls for grated Asian pears (can be had at Trader Joe's for about $.88 each here in NoVa right now). It adds a touch of fruity sweetness to the heat. Lovely.
I spent two weeks in Seoul and the South Korean countryside as a guest of the Korea Foundation a couple of years ago (awesome trip for history teachers from the US), and managed to sweet talk one of the presenters into giving me a couple of cookbooks because I promised, in the spirit of cultural exchange, that I would not only cook for my friends out of these books, but also share the recipes and extol the virtues of the Korean diet whenever possible.
The books are in a box that has yet to be unpacked since my last move (SWMBO has a strict "No Kimchi Making" policy now that we don't have a second fridge anymore), but I'll dig them out and post a couple of recipes.
Interesting note: Apparently South Korea has the lowest incident of bowel cancer in the developed world. Some scientists suggest that the high quantity of fermented foods in their diet may account for this. (There, I kept my word!)
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- #43
Thanks for the offer shame, if I can't find it locally maybe we can work out a trade.
I'm looking forward to seeing your recipes.
I'm looking forward to seeing your recipes.
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- #45
I made my third batch of kimchi today. This one has a little fish sauce to give it a little extra funkiness.
Well color me inspired I see a five gallon bucket of cabbage and spice roting in my basement after the new year. Thanks for getting me off my tukus once again everybody.
I use this lady's recipes for my Korean food.
http://www.maangchi.com/
And this Kim chee recipe with success. The hard part is figuring out how much salt to rinse off.
http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/easy-kimchi
Might be a little too authentic for some.
It's funny because I exactly did this yesterday. However, mine did not turn as good I'm sure. Mine doesn't have a good chili powder (I ran out of time and did not buy a bright red one). I got what my local grocery store had instead of visiting my Asian grocer. Regardless, I will eat my kimchi, it's pretty awesome and the "rice porridge" really help to cover the cabbage evenly.
I found that recipe in Itunes and downloaded it (podcast). It would be legendary if my chili would be the right one or a good one. I did not know when I picked it up.
So bump!
It's powerful stuff. Good luck with your family's introduction to extreme Korean cooking! 
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- #49
I've upped my Kimchi making considerably since I started out, I've been using gochujang and on some batches I've added fish sauce. Gochujang is a fermented Korean chili paste and it seems to really speed up the fermentation process. It took my last batch about three days to start bubbling.
I've got a batch of kimchi cucumbers and a batch of Napa cabbage kimchi working right now.
Chopped kimchi on a burger is amazing! Kimchi and a fried egg for breakfast it really good too.
edited to add pictures from my current batches of kimchi.
This is before I pressed it down. It's much more compact.
This batch has been packed down pretty tightly and it's given off a good amount of of liquid.
I've got a batch of kimchi cucumbers and a batch of Napa cabbage kimchi working right now.
Chopped kimchi on a burger is amazing! Kimchi and a fried egg for breakfast it really good too.
edited to add pictures from my current batches of kimchi.
This is before I pressed it down. It's much more compact.
This batch has been packed down pretty tightly and it's given off a good amount of of liquid.
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do you have a dedicated kimchi fridge?
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- #51
I don't. I just put in with everything else.
I haven't looked into the mess hall in a long while. Glad the kimchi thread has been bumped. I love kimchi, have from the first bite. Unfortunately I have found I don't go through enough to warrant making my own. Over Christmas I ate in a Korean restaurant in Minneapolis called "Kimchee and Tofu". Every meal came with 4 varieties of kimchi. They had an interesting spiciness scale. "White", "mild", "spicy", "very spicy" and .... "very very spicy". Everything was great.
You've inspired me to try again.
You've inspired me to try again.
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- #53
I'm the only one who eats kimchi at my house. I've had good luck making small batches of Napa cabbage kimchi, usually it will fit in a one quart mason jar.
I made my third batch of kimchi today. This one has a little fish sauce to give it a little extra funkiness.
Made my first batch. I made a few mistakes but it turned out pretty good. I added about a tablespoon of fish sauce to the mix. One of the jars I made sweet. We'll see in a few days how it really turned out. Bought the pepper flakes from Amazon.
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- #55
You're in for a treat Aaron! It's good to eat on it's own, but I think it really shines as a condiment or an ingredient. Kimchi fried rice is amazing, and a little chopped kimchi on a hamburger is really good.
The longer you let it sit on the counter the funkier it's going to get. It will still get funkier once you put it in the refrigerator so you might want to put a jar or two in the fridge as soon as the fermentation starts.
And since you're in Austin we have a bunch of Asian markets that I regularly take advantage of. The market next to Asian Cafe on 183 and Spicewood Springs has a nice selection of chili pepper, but it's mostly a Chinese market. If you can get over to Hana World Market Hana market off of Parmer they have a mind boggling array of Korean chili pepper and gochujang.
The longer you let it sit on the counter the funkier it's going to get. It will still get funkier once you put it in the refrigerator so you might want to put a jar or two in the fridge as soon as the fermentation starts.
And since you're in Austin we have a bunch of Asian markets that I regularly take advantage of. The market next to Asian Cafe on 183 and Spicewood Springs has a nice selection of chili pepper, but it's mostly a Chinese market. If you can get over to Hana World Market Hana market off of Parmer they have a mind boggling array of Korean chili pepper and gochujang.
All the Asian markets are on the north side of Austin
so instead Amazon works well. I used too much salt on my first batch. I rinsed it 4 times squeezing out the water. It helped but was still too salty for me. No matter, I'm sure it will go well on just about anything. I'm getting some bubbles forming after 24 hours. I think I'll let sit another 24 before eating some and place the rest in the frig. It smells pretty good.
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- #57
Amazon has come to my rescue more than once!
I start eating the kimchi right away, just a nibble here and there, to test for flavor development. That's what I tell myself anyway!
I start eating the kimchi right away, just a nibble here and there, to test for flavor development. That's what I tell myself anyway!
Ah..yep...that's what I did. To me it adds a whole nother dimension. It's super spicy like I like, savory, a tad sweet with a bit of umami.
I have been under the wrong impressions as to what kimchi is. I might actually like this.
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- #60
What's your impression of kimchi? My understanding is that kimchi is basically something that has been fermented. We call it pickling, in Korea they call it kimchi. The majority of kimchi that I make is napa cabbage kimchi.
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