The Queen of Kitchen Disasters

As much as I love to cook and bake, I'm lazy and I'm horrid at following recipes. Together with my natural capability of clumsiness and inability of handling anything sharp, it's the perfect recipe for ... disasters.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

My Kimchi recipe


I cannot guarantee you will not suffer from diahorrea if you try this - so it's a calculated risk you have to take.

Ingredients for Group A - The veggies part
2 to 3 lbs (900g to 1.4kg) of chinese cabbage or white carrot (radish)
1/2 cup of salt

Method for Group A
1. for Chinese cabbage, remove the outer leaves or any part that looks spoilt, dented or mouldy. If you are not sure, just get rid of it.
2. Quarter the entire cabbage lengthwise. Just cut it into half along the length, and then cut the half into half along the length again.
3. Cut off the bottom root portion (the part that holds all the leaves together) and slice into smaller pieces (make 1 inch to 1.5 inch cuts width wise along the length).
4. Rinse and drain well.
5. For radish, peel the skin and remove the head and bottom. Cut into 1 inch cubes. Rinse and drain well.
6. Add water to the salt to make a solution. Stir until all the salt has dissolved.
7. Add the veggies to the salt solution, cover with a plate to weigh down the floating bits and leave it for 2 to 5 hours (I leave it overnight).
8. When time's up, take a piece of the thickest veggie part and taste it. If it's just the right degree of saltiness , drain and rinse the veggies well. Squeeze dry the veggies (don't have to use all your strength to do it, just give a QUICK hard squeeze) and set aside. Else Drain it overnight. If it's TOO salty, drain immediately, squeeze out as much liquid as possible, and soak in fresh cold water. Check on every until to the desired saltiness.

Ingredients for Group B - the Kimchi seasoning part
1. 1 small to medium white carrot (radish) (if you are using radish for the main veggies, you can omit this)
2. 2 carrots
3. 1 bunch of spring onions
4. 1 bunch of chives (In cantonese we call it "kow choy")
5. 4 cloves of garlic
6. a small piece of ginger (enough to give u 1 tablespoon worth of grated ginger)
7. 2 tablespoon of sugar
8. 4 to 6 heaped tablespoon of chilli powder (more if you like spicy)
9. Optional: 2 tablespoon Chinchalok (or anchovy paste)

Method for Group B
1. Peel and shred coarsely the radish and carrots.
2. Remove any withered parts and roots for the spring onions and chives. Chop finely. See below


3. Mince garlic finely.
4. Grate the ginger finely.

From left: Grated ginger and Minced garlic


5. Mix all the ingredients together and set aside.

Now for the final Kimchi prepartion bit.
1. Mix with the kimchi seasoning as detailed in Group B.




2. Store into a container with a tight fitting lid and leave it at the room temp for 1 to 3 days for fermenting. Pick a spot - a storeroom or a cupboard where there is no direct sunlight. make sure none of its walls are being hit by direct sunlight too. Else the room will be way too warm and you prob need to check on it more frequently.

I use Gladware 1.89L box. After the 3 days is up, chuck it into the fridge. It's ready for eating after 3 days in the fridge.

If it's not salty enough, you could always sprinkle some. It's quite difficult to "rescue" "It's too salty" kimchi, else use it to make soups which I plan to do so.

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