Kimchi and Kaktugi

Kimchi and Kaktugi

Kimchi is a staple of Korean life and many people include it in their meals three times a day. You can eat it by itself, or use it in so many different Korean recipes. When Koreans make Kimchi, they make an effort to make the best Kimchi possible and include many different kinds of ingredients depending on the region in which they live. 

Today I will show you how to make traditional Kimchi with oysters. We’ll also make radish Kimchi (“kaktugi”) at the same time, with the same Kimchi paste, which saves time instead of making them separately.

Many people think you have to wait for Kimchi to be fermented before eating, but personally I prefer to eat fresh Kimchi as soon as I make it. I like to make stew out of older Kimchi. See my recipe for Kimchi stew (“Kimchi jjigae”) for that. 

If you don’t like oysters, you can leave them out. And if you want to make only Kimchi or only kaktugi, just leave out the steps you don’t need.

Ingredients:

2 medium size Napa cabbages,
salt, sweet rice flour, sugar, water,
4- 6 cups of hot pepper flakes,
fish sauce, white onion, fresh garlic, ginger,
green onions, Asian chives (“boo choo”),
2 Korean radishes (“moo woo”),
and fresh oysters.

How to handle cabbages and radish:

1. Cut the cabbages in half, and then slit each half through the core, but not through the rest of the leaves.
2. Soak each piece in cold water and sprinkle with 2½ cups of salt. Then set them aside for 2 hours. * tip: the stem should get more salt than the leaves
3. Skin 2 radishes and cut them into 1 inch cube shapes. Do this by cutting them into several disks, and then cutting horizontally, and then cutting vertically. Put them in a big bowl and sprinkle them with ½ cup of salt. Then set these aside, too.
4. 2 hours later, turn the pieces of cabbage over so they get salted evenly. Turn the radishes as well. 
5. Another 2 hours later, you will see the cabbage look softer than before, and it should have shrunk * the total salting process will take 4 hours.
6. Rinse the salted cabbage and radish in cold water 3 times.)

Now we need to make a paste for our Kimchi.

1. Put ½ cup of sweet rice flour (you can replace this with plain flour) and 3 cups of water into a skillet and mix them up. Then cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
2. When you see some bubbles, pour ½ cup of sugar into the porridge and stir one more minute. Then cool it down.
3. Place the cold porridge into a big bowl. Now you will add all your ingredients one by one.
4. Add 1 cup of fish sauce, 4~6 cups of hot pepper flakes (depending on your taste), 1 cup of crushed garlic, 1 TBS of minced ginger, and 1 medium size minced onion. *tip: much easier to use a food processor. 
5. Add 7 diagonally-sliced green onions, 2 cups of Asian chives (cut into 2 inches in length), and 2 cups of shredded Korean radish.
6. Add 2 cups of oysters, but this is optional. (I found out lots of people can’t eat them. : ))
7. Mix all ingredients well, and your Kimchi paste is done.

 

Are you ready to spread your paste on the leaves and make your kaktugi? I recommend you wear rubber gloves so you don’t irritate your skin.

1. Spread the Kimchi paste onto each leaf of the cabbage, and make a good shape out of the leaves by slightly pressing with both hands.
2. Put each leaf into an air-tight sealed plastic container  or glass jar.
3. Mix your leftover paste with your radish cubes.

That’s all!
You can eat it fresh right after making, or wait until it’s fermented. Put the Kimchi container at room temperature for 1 or 2 days and then keep it in the refrigerator.

How do you know if it’s fermented or not?

One or 2 days after, open the lid of the Kimchi container. You may see some bubbles with lots of liquids, or maybe sour smells. That means it’s already being fermented.