Co-worker of mine at my previous job was a foodie and talked about Korean Kimchi Taco recipe he found on the web. Odd combo of Korean and Mexican dishes. Made me look up the recipe which has Kimchi as a separate recipe. Seemed interesting and my local grocery store started carrying pre-made Kimchi in a vented bag in the produce section so I grabbed one and like it. As of yet, I’ve just been using it as a topping for bun sized brats and earlier today, a hot dog topping since I ran out of brats yesterday.
Some of the cabbage chunks are kinda big for my liking so I decided to make my own today. Here in rural flyover country, ingredient availability is always an issue and it was no different for Kimchi except for the fact that there are many variations even in Korea and as long as you have cabbage and non- iodized salt, you have the base. It’s basically a Korean version of sauerkraut - fermented cabbage but I’ve never been big on kraut. Kimchi has enough other flavors to overcome the tangy/sour/sauer flavor.
Ingredients I couldn’t get were Korean Radish. Daikon is a good substitute but also not available. Horseradish is a decent substitute if you don’t mind the flavor which I don’t but also can’t get here, not even the prepared jar kind. Korean Red Pepper Flakes of course are not available but I did find McCormick Thai style red pepper flakes. Label gives no indication as to what kind of peppers or what makes it Thai style but heat it heat. There are some other ethnic ingredients for true Korean recipes but these were the basic. Another thing I can’t get is shallots. Can you imagine? I used green onions instead but small mild yellow onions would be fine. I did manage to get Napa cabbage at least.
My initial trial recipe with techniques and comments taken from other recipes;
2 lb Napa cabbage
1/4 c Kosher Salt
2 c water
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 inch piece ginger minced
1 carrot julienne cut
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp each cocktail sauce & horseradish mustard(in place of Korean/Daikon/HorseRadish which I can’t buy locally)
6 green onions chopped 1/4”
Mix water and salt and soak cabbage in it for 2-3 hours
Mix all other ingredients
Drain cabbage and rinse well
Mix cabbage and other ingredients
Pack final mixture into canning jar(s) to 1/2” headspace and put lids/bands on as you would for canning or slightly less tight. Gentle finger tip tight.
Put in dark place to ferment for 1-4 days. Check daily for smell and taste. When it gets to your desired tanginess, transfer to fridge to slow fermentation to a crawl.
You can eat some immediately but it will be better in a week or two.
So I guess in a day or three, I’ll have an idea of how it came out and in a week or two, really know.
Holy crap. A 2 lb Napa cabbage chopped with frilly leaves and stump removed, plus some green onions and julienned carrots, spices etc made one pint jar. I put an empty jar on the kitchen scale and zeroed it with the Tare button and then set the Kimchi jar and it read 16.5 oz. Store bought Kimchi weighs 16 oz. Cabbage was $4.50 and with other ingredients, probably totaled $6.00. Will have to check the price on store bought as I don’t recall what it was. Probably about the same.
Definitely need to grow some cabbage and Daikon and/or Wasabi radish. I need to get some insect netting to grow cabbage and many other things I already grow. Any Asian green I grew for Fall got eaten up by cabbage worms and then once I was rid of them, flea beetles. I have the partially finished high tunnel and need to finish it up because cabbage/radish can be grown when it’s too cold for bugs. Getting a new rig to drive set me back on the tunnel. Next paycheck I’ll be able to start saving again.
Peppers grow good for me and Baker Creek has Korean Dark Green Peppers(hot) — “” (Capsicum annuum). An heirloom from Korea, the 2-foot tall plants have dark green foliage and produce 3-4 inch slender peppers that are dark green to red in color. Very spicy and hot, this delicious pepper is great for really authentic kimchi and other Korean dishes. “”
Haven’t had much luck with bulb onions so I’ll try bunching onions. Baker Creek has a Japanese variety and I’ve had good luck growing anything oriental. Bok Choy, Shishito peppers etc. It’s 40-50 days to maturity as compared to 110-120 days for bulb onions which make a big difference in ease of growing.
Day three. A little tangy and quite salty. I rinsed the cabbage really well but may have soaked it too long in the water/salt mixture, 4-ish hours. The cocktail sauce I used for getting some horseradish content has 1480 mg of sodium per 1/4 c serving and the fish sauce has 890 mg per 1 tbsp serving. I used 1 tbsp each. I’ll skip the cocktail sauce next time and just use red radish in place of the Korean/Daikon radish, which the horseradish was recommended at a replacement for. I’ll also look at fish sauce labels for sodium content.
Definitely has some heat to it and when/if it gets tangier, that will help overcome or replace the saltiness. Since I’ve only been using it for bun sized brats/sausage along with brown mustard, the mustard will help tone down the salt too.
I’m not getting any orange/red color like what I see on the web. As per maangchi.com, “For dishes like kimchi, I use the milder flakes so that I can add a lot for color without making the dish too spicy.”
So it’s the Korean red pepper aka Gochugaru that gives it that color. She has links to it on amazon, of course. I can live without the color, or I can grow some Gochugaru.
According to a moherearthnews article, finding true Gochugaru seeds is dicey. They recommended a seller on etsy but I also found that adaptive seeds sells them. Trueleafmarket has some hybrid so I’m not sure about that one. Etsy seller has 10 seed packet and adaptive has 30 for about the same price. Ten plants is plenty to save my own seed so it would be a one time purchase.
MotherEarthNews article — https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/grow-korean-chili-peppers-zbcz1602/
Meanwhile, the next batch may be made with a combo of shishito and habanero peppers that I grew this year. Since shishito has 1 hot pepper per 10 or so, I might have to mince one at a time and try a chunk of each pepper and pull aside any that are hot.
