Frugal Lee: Give me Kim Chi.

Kim Chi is a spicy Korean fermented dish. It's a love or hate type of dish, some people won't even touch it because of the smell! I for one, likes stinky food. I like stinky and sticky Natto. I like stinky blue cheese. I even like stinky Durian fruits. Does that make me a Stinker? LOL.

You can make Kim Chi out of just about any vegetables. I've made it with carrots and bok choys before pretty good. I love Kim Chi even though making it is a long process. I only make it once in a while or when I really crave for it. Plus when I do make a batch (I make BIG batches at a time) they'd last me for a good long while. I've made many varieties of Kim Chi's using many recipes. But my favorite recipes are from Maangchi, I love her! She had taught me how to make many other Korean dishes as well. Thank you Maangchi! In this post I will show you how to make Vegan style and regular style Kim chi.

I've only made Nappa Cabbage Kim Chi today. I've got about 10 lb of cabbages, using half for regular style and Half for Vegan style. Cut the Cabbage in half then into quarters--you can cut the quarter pieces all the way down or just half way, halfway will make it easier to cut up when you're getting ready to serve it.

Then you rinse the cabbages well.

Afterwards you'd want to coat the cabbages with salt by making sure each leaves gets a coating of salt. I used iodized salt and almost a whole container. Once you've got the cabbage coated with salt, let it sit for 3 hours. Check and turn them every hours. You do not have to sit around for the entire 3 hours while the salt do it's work. :-) This is the same process that Laos people use to make a dish called: Som Pak. But that's for another post.

After the 3 hours rinse the cabbages well and squeeze out the excess water and let drain.

While the cabbages are draining lets start on the Kim chi sauce. Here are the ingredients for 10-12lbs of Cabbage:
1/2 c. Mochiko Powder (Sweet rice powder)--you can use all purpose flour
4 c. water
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. Fish Sauce
Peppers--to your spice level
2 heads of garlic
1/2 med. Onion
6 green onions--it's hiding behind the sugar bowl
Daikons
Asian Chives
Raw oysters (6 pieces)-optional if you are alergic or scared of using raw seafood
gingers
(I normally don't measure this because I like gingers. Maybe 3 inches worth of ginger roots? More is good but not less, to me.)
VEGAN: Omit Fish Sauce and oysters--replace with 1TBS salt.

Food process the gingers, garlics, and half onion. Because my food processor broke today. Of all days it had to be my big Kim Chi making day! I resorted to the Laos & Thai old fashion way of food processing. Using a MORTAR & PESTLE. Took me a good 5-10 minutes of pounding. Phew. I don't recommend this method. But the things I do for KIM CHI.

Next you mix the water and Mochiko powder together and heat on medium heat. Continuously stiring it so that it does not stick to the pan or burn. It will take a while until it begins to bubble. Once it bubbles add sugar and stir once again. Stir until the bubbles pops and creates a bubble hole. Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Add fish sauce and chili pepper and stirrrrrrrrrrr.
(For Vegan add chili pepper and salt then pour into a large bowl.)

Yes... finally everything chopped up, pounded, and cooked. Phew. Let the warm rice mixture cool a little then add the rest of the ingredients...and Stirr some more.
Next comes the messy part.

Place a head of cabbage in the bowl of mixture and rub every single leaves with the Kim chi sauce. Then place into a container to get fermented.

Ready for firmentation and storage. How do you know when it's done? First smell it...but that normally can be decieving...Second check if there's bubbles, good sign...Third taste it!