Easy Way on How to Make Kimchi

Kimchi (kim - chee) A vegetable pickle seasoned with garlic, red pepper and ginger that is the national dish of Korea.
It is a very popular Korean dish that is always present on every korean meal. 

 One of the most common variation of this dish is Napa Cabbage Kimchi or what they call Baechu Kimchi. And that's what I'm going to teach you.  

 Maybe your first impression on making this dish is that it will cause you so much on buying ingredients. That's a big No no. When you go to your local grocery store a jar of Kimchi will cause you $5.00 or more. But this dish will only cost you $4.00. Can you imagine how much kimchi could you make in just 4 bucks?

Preparation: You need a strainer, cold water (iced water), sauce pan, a jar or container with lid (leak proof), spatula, food processor or blender(if you dont have a cheese grater will do),knife and cutting board, 2 liters of water. 

Ingredients: Napa Cabbage 2kilos

1/4 cup salted dried prawns

1cup rock seasalt

1/2cup chilli powder (cayanne powder will do)

1/4dried red chilli flakes

 2 gloves garlic 

asian parsley, onion chimes

1 large Daikon Radish

sugar 1/2cup

fermented fish sauce 1cup

liquid fish sauce 1/2 cup

ginger

glutinous rice powder ( if you cant find one use a blender grinder and grind glutinous rice available on market) 1/4kilo or 2 cups.  

Step 1: Preparing your main ingredient the Napa Cabbage

Cut the Napa Cabbage into half lenghtwise. Put generous amount of rock seasalt inside each leaf of the cabbage especially on the thick areas (the white ones). Get a container large enough to fit all your cabbage and pour tap water on it until it is fully submerge. Let it sit for 4 hours during hot season. And  6-8 hours if you are making them during cold seasons. This is the most important process of making the dish. Cause if you don't follow the instructions the cabbage will taste bitter. Basically the salt is cooking the cabbage slowly and taking away the bitterness with out the use of heat. Magic! n_n. After this rinse them thorouhgly on tap water. Get your iced water and submerge your cabbage for about 1 minute. Get a strainer and let your cabbage sit there for an hour. The cabbage should be positioned just like on the photo below. You will know if the cabbage is ready when you notice that it looks lettucey in appearance. 

Step 2: Preparing your Kimchi Base 

Cook 2 cups of glutinous rice powder mix them with 1 cup of water. Stir them well to kept them from burning and lumping. Set them aside. 

Grind the garlic and ginger in a food processor, blender or cheese grater if you dont have. Your goal is to make them like mushed. Cut the daikon radish (julienne the radish) and onion chimes into 1 and half inch. Cut the parsley into pieces. Get a large container Put all the ingredients including the cayanne pepper or chilli powder, chilli flakes, fermented fish sauce, sugar and liquid fish sauce. Dont put your cabbage yet. I like tasting my base before putting my cabbage so I could figure out if something went wrong. 

Step 3: Almost Done 

Get your Napa Cabbage and put the kimchi base on each leaf. All of the leaf should have equal amount of the base. Cut them to your desired amount, as for me I like presentation so I cut them into 1 1/2 inch and stack them up on a container and pour the base inside it. Set it aside on room temperature for 4 days. check them every now and then at least once a day. The fermentation of the kimchi is usually 4-7 days. Just be sure that your container is air tight so that the dish will not get rotten. You can now put your kimchi on the refrigrerator chill them and they are ready for consumption. 

actual photo of my home made Kimchi.