KIMCHI
About 10 cups
Many kimchi recipes call for an addition of rice flour paste, which makes for a thicker kimchi brine. We prefer our kimchi without it, but if you would like to go that route, simply combine 2 tablespoons sweet (glutinous) rice flour and ¾ cup water in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until very thick. Let cool before adding to the other kimchi paste ingredients. As with sauerkraut, the salt in this recipe is about 1.5 percent the weight of the vegetables, so if you decide to make a smaller or larger batch, calculate the weight of the vegetables in grams and multiply that number by 0.015 to get the gram weight of the salt you will need.
Place in a very large bowl:
- 2 ½ pounds (1 medium head) napa cabbage, quartered lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1-inch-wide strips
- 1 pound Korean or daikon radish, peeled and julienned
- 1 bunch green onions (about 6), cut into 2-inch pieces
- (½ cup chopped Chinese chives)
Sprinkle with:
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 ½ teaspoons pickling salt or fine sea salt, or 3 tablespoons Diamond kosher salt (25g)
Massage the salt into the vegetables until they form their own brine and the cabbage is softened, about 10 minutes. Puree in a blender or food processor:
- Cloves from 1 head garlic
- 1-inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped
- (1 Asian pear or Bosc pear, cored and chopped)
- 1 small onion (6 to 8 ounces), chopped
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- (2 tablespoons Korean salted shrimp)
Add the puree to the cabbage mixture along with:
- ½ to ¾ cup Korean red pepper flakes (gochugaru), to taste
Mix thoroughly. Pack the kimchi into a fermentation vessel (for this recipe, a half-gallon jar plus a pint jar is about perfect, although in Korean households plastic or glass food storage containers are also used), cover with a cloth secured with a rubber band or string or cap with an airlock or a lid, and let ferment at room temperature for at least 2 days or until the desired level of sourness is achieved.
If desired, refrigerate a portion of the kimchi immediately to eat fresh. When the rest has soured to your liking, it is done. To store, see here.