Kimchi

fermented
Author

Robin Fisher

Published

June 25, 2023

Original recipe by López-Alt (2022).

You need

Ingredients

Per one pound of napa cabbage:

  • 4g Kosher Salt
  • Diakon, to taste (Optional)
  • Carrots, to taste (Optional)
  • Green onions, to taste
  • ~1:1 volume ginger / garlic (1/4c baseline)
  • ~2 Tbsp Red Miso Paste (or 1/4c fish sauce)
  • 1/2c gochugaru

Equipment

  • A refrigerator
  • Pot / bowl, at least 10 quarts
  • Blender or food processor
  • Air tight containers; expect 2 quarts per 1 pound of cabbage (+ other ingredients)

Instructions

Prepare the vegatables

  1. Remove and clean leaves from the cabage
  2. Peel Diakon, cut into round slices, half or quarter slices as desired
  3. Clean and cut Carrots into rounds, ovals or sticks
  4. Clean and cut green onions into ~1 inch sections
  5. Salt napa, green onions, diakon and carrots in bowl; tossing thoroughly
  6. Cover bowl and let sit at least an hour, up to 18. The napa leaves should be significantly wilted (expect a ~75% reduction in volume) with their water in the bottom of the bowl

Make chili paste

  1. Combine peeled ginger, garlic, miso paste (or fish sauce) and gochugaru in blender
  2. Blend thoroughly. If needed, add just enough water to make the paste easier to blend

Finish

  1. Add chili paste to the bowl of wilted cabbage and mix until brining liquid is smooth / consistent and completely covering the vegatables
    1. If you’re making a supplemental batch, add you current kimchi batch and mix
  2. Pack kimchi into your air tight container(s), pressing down on the vegatables so the liquid covers the top. If there’s not enough brining liquid then return to bown and gradually add water until you can sumberge most of the vegetables into the liquid in the bowl
  3. If you have not added a previously fermented batch of kimchi, leave container(s) out at room temp for up to 24 hours to jumpstart fermentation. You can put your first batch of kimchi straight in the fridge which will slow the fermentation process by about a week.
  4. Return to fridge. Use as desired.

Recipes that use kimchi

References

López-Alt, J. Kenji. 2022. “Homemade Vegan Kimchi Recipe.” https://www.seriouseats.com/homemade-vegan-kimchi-recipe.