Makes about 6 litres
Ingredients
- 3 Wombok cabbages
- 15% brine (2L water and 300g salt)
Kimchi Marinade
- 2 daikon
- 1 bunch of garlic chives
- 4 carrots
- 1 bunch of spring onions
Kimchi paste
- 30g ginger
- 150g garlic
- 200ml Korean fish sauce (omit if you prefer)
- 70ml Korean shrimp sauce (omit if you prefer)
- 220g Gochugaru
- 100ml plum extract (omit or use a sour fruit of choice)
- 100g white sugar ( this can be substituted with fruit)
Porridge
- 50g Glutinous rice flour
- 30g Sweet potato flour (or just rice flour if you can't find)
Method
Brining the wombok cabbage
- In a large container, combine 2L of cold water and 300g of sea salt to make a 15% brine. (Make sure the salt has fully dissolved). Note: Brining is a stage that you can add a few things like kelp, chili, and other ingredients that might make a subtle flavour difference later on. I usually add a piece of kelp.
- Trim off the tough and dirty outside cabbage leaves halve. Place the pieces into the cold brine for 5 hours or overnight, agitating once or twice if you can. I often do this part in a very clean sink before going to bed.
- (Wake up) Remove the cabbages from the brine, they should feel soft and be flexible enough to bend without breaking. Pull from the brine and rinse, then place them in a colander to drain.
Making the rice porridge
- Put a small pot over a medium heat, continually whisk the glutinous rice flour and sweet potato starch with 1 cup of water until it reaches a boil.
- Keep whisking for 2 minutes until the paste looks like porridge. Remove from heat, transfer to a container and refrigerate or let sit until it cools.
Making the kimchi paste
- Julienne the white radish and carrot and then slice the spring onion, garlic chives into lengths, I prefer about 5cm.
- Blend all the Kimchi paste ingredients in the food processor until you get a smooth paste.
- Combine both the paste and the cooled rice porridge, mix with the julienned vegetables.
Place the brined cabbage into a big bowl. If you've chopped the wombok, the just mix the paste thoroughly. If you've left it in halves, gently pull each layer, and smear or wipe the paste mix liberally, coating each layer until the whole piece is covered.
Press the vegetables down quite firmly into your chosen vessel. This could simply be good quality plastic container with a lid. You should easily have enough juice to cover all of the vegetables, so you don't need to weigh the kimchi down. Seal with your chosen lid and wither leave it on your bench for a few days or pop straight into the fridge. The flavour will change and sour, become lively over time but is ready to eat after a couple of days. I like minimum 7 days. It's good to stay in the fridge for months. The older it gets the more likely it is you'll use it to cooke with in soups and things like that.
