I love being part of a CSA; while the box is usually packed full of my favorite fruits and veggies, there’s always something in there that I have no idea what to do with. Fortunately, the farmers include a handy recipe sheet each week. Last week there was a lovely Napa cabbage, and an easy recipe for quick kimchi. I’ve never had kimchi before, which is a fermented cabbage dish from Korea, but it’s delicious. Try adding it to scrambled eggs for a spicy breakfast treat! (Recipe and more photos after the jump.)
Quick Kimchi (adapted from Blue House Farm‘s recipe)
1 head Napa cabbage (seen above)
1 C diced carrot
1/4 C coarse sea salt
4 scallions chopped (I used chives from my garden since I didn’t have scallions)
4 minced garlic cloves
2T minced fresh ginger
2T chili powder (I used cayenne)
1t sesame seeds (I used close to 2t since I love sesame seeds!)
1 C water
Dissolve the salt in water and set aside. Wash the cabbage and chop into thin slices. Mix with the carrot in a large bowl and cover with the salt water. Let it soak overnight (I actually forgot and let it soak for a day and a half). After soaking, drain the vegetables but keep the salt water. Add the spices and condiments to the cabbage and mix thoroughly.
Pack it all in a jar and cover with the salty water (leave about an inch of space at the top). Add more water if needed, and make sure your jar isn’t too big; if there’s a lot of air at the top it will affect the fermentation. Cover tightly and let sit for a few days at room temperature, depending on how fermented you want it. It will be very salty, just to warn you! Refrigerate after opening.
12 thoughts on “How To: Quick Kimchi Recipe”
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Thanks so much for posting this recipe. Have been meaning to look for one the last couple months, ever since having a startlingly delicious new (to me, anyway) treat from a health-conscious catering truck: kimchee quesadilla. Whoever decided to try combining these two culturally disparate delights is an absolute genius. Of course I immediately started making them at home; now I won’t have to wait until I remember to buy the kimchee. And they’re a cinch to make: warm a flour tortilla in a large pan with a very light coating of oil; flip the tortilla over, sprinkle half with grated cheese, and over that “sprinkle” kimchee that has had as much of the liquid squeezed out as possible; fold over the other half of the tortilla; when the cheese is mostly melted, carefully flip the tortilla to briefly warm the kimchee side (this is the only tricky part, as the cabbage prevents the cheese from sticking the insides of the tortilla together and spillage becomes a definite concern); remove to plate and enjoy! My mouth is watering just writing this…and me with no kimchee at hand!
hey
as I am from another side of the ocean, that’s Europe
I’m wondering about the measurements:
C= cup?
T= tablespoon?
t= teaspoon?
It’s also quite funny for me to see how not-universal a cup can be:::
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_%28volume%29
(metric – seems more logical to me, but hey, it all depends on perspective :-))
Wow, that sounds fantastic! I will definitely have to try this out. Yummm… my mouth is watering, too–I have the kimchi but not the tortillas at hand :)
Yes, you got the measurements right–sorry, I didn’t think that of course the abbreviations would be different on other continents! It’s sort of an eyeball-it recipe anyway, so I don’t think it’s crucial to be exact.
We prepared the recipe as noted, but our kimchi is so salty it is inedible. As the salt is what is curing the other ingredients, is it possible to use less or would it compromise the product?
Thanks in advance
It is salty! I totally agree–I found it was a really nice addition to an unsalted dish (like eggs) but too salty to eat straight. I guess that’s the downside of it being so quick :) This recipe (http://drbenkim.com/how-make-kim-chi.htm) uses the same amount of salt, but has you rinse off the salt water after the brining step, before you add the spices (and even some fruits!), so I’d try that. And here’s another quick kimchi recipe that uses sauerkraut as a base: http://www.treelight.com/health/nutrition/QuickKimchi.html. (And of course there are tons of incredibly involved non-quick recipes that look intriguing as well.)
Let me know what ends up working, and thanks for the comment!