Ingredients
- 2.2 kg napa cabbage & radish combined (usually a lot more cabbage than radish)
- 1/2 cup of salt
- 1 + 1/2 cup of water
- 4 Tbsp of glutinous rice flour (or any other flour)
- 2 Tbsp of sugar
- 6 Tbsp of fish sauce
- 1 + just less than 1/4 cup of Korean hot pepper flakes
- 8 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/2 Tbsp of ginger, minced
- 1/2 onion, minced
- 1 spring onions, sliced
- 3 handful of asian chives, cut into 3cm strips
- 1/2 carrot, julienned
- Optionally, toasted sesame seeds to serve
Directions
Chop up the cabbage into bite sized pieces, the radish into strips, and the carrot into a rough julienne. Rinse with water and toss with all of the salt. Set aside for 1.5 to 2 hours, tossing it again every 30 minutes.
In a saucepan with the heat off, mix the flour with the water until there are no clumps. Set it over medium-high heat and stir until thick. Turn off the heat and stir in the sugar. Set aside to cool.
While the cabbage/radish/carrot is salting and the porridge cooling, mince the onion, garlic and ginger. This is easiest using a food processor. Once the porridge is cool, add the onion/garlic/ginger paste, fish sauce, hot pepper flakes. Mix well.
If you haven’t already, slice the spring onions and asian chives.
After 1.5 to 2 hours of salting, wash your hands very well and rinse the cabbage/radish/carrot 3 times with tap water. Drain the vegetables /very/ well. With clean hands, mix in the kimchi paste, spring onions & chives.
Optionally serve fresh with toasted sesame seeds, as a snack.
Cover the kimchi well in a sealed container, tightly packed down to get rid of air bubbles, making sure there’s space above the kimchi in the container for it to expand a little (like baking a cake). Let it sit at room temperature for anywhere from half a day to 2 days, depending on how hot it is. You can taste and smell it to see if it’s sour enough. Once almost fermented to your liking, put it in the fridge to slow it down.