How to make Korean traditional kimchi at home A Step-by-Step Tutorial!

 

Traditional Korean Kimchi

This post gives you a complete run down of how to easily make Korean traditional kimchi at home. The tips I provide are also pointers that will help you make your own delicious and authentic kimchi. Sometimes making kimchi may sound like a lot of work, but in this video I’ll teach you a simple way to make great kimchi! 

Annyeonghaseyo! Hello, K Friends! It’s great to see you again! Last week, one of my Facebook friends asked me how to make Korean traditional kimchi. She said that she loves kimchi. So, she learned how to make kimchi at one of the kimchi workshops.  But when she made it at home, it didn’t turn out the same way. Today, I want to share some tips for making kimchi that I learned from my mother-in-law. Hope everyone can make Korean traditional kimchi easily after reading this post. Let’s get started!

 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large nappa cabbage (6 to 7 pounds or 2 small size cabbages) 
• 1 cup and 3/4 cup of coarse sea salt
• 10 cups of water
• 8 green onions

SEASONINGS

• 1 cup of red pepper powder
• 1/2 pear or apple
• 5 ounces radish
•  10 cloves of garlic
• a bit of ginger 
• 1/2 cup of fish sauce
• 1T honey 
• 1T flour

Brining nappa cabbage  

Tip 1: Cut the thick white part of the cabbage lengthwise in half. And then, split the rest with your hands. If you cut it in half like this, the cabbage leaves come out a little less. 

Tip 2: And put some cuts in the middle part like this. That way, the cabbage gets brined better. 

Tip 3: How can I brine the cabbage well? The answer is to add 1 cup of coarse sea salt based on 10 cups of water.  

Put about 10 cups of water in a large bowl. Put 1 cup of coarse sea salt. The salt I use is Korean coarse sea salt, cheonilyeom. Dissolve by hand so that the salt can melt well. 

Soak the cabbage in salt water and remove excess water and put it to another bowl. One of the most important process in making kimchi is bringing the nappa cabbage. 

Tip 4:  Sprinkle the rest of the salt (3/4 cup or 1/2 cup) on each white stem of cabbage little by little, why. Cabbage leaves are easily brined, but the thick white stem needs more salt to be brined well. 

 Place the cabbage in a bowl. Put it in the remaining salt water. Sprinkle the remaining salt on stem parts like this. 

Tip 5: It's good to press it with something heavy like this, why? Then the cabbages will be brined evenly. Brine it for about 8 hours. 

After 8 hours, the cabbage was brined so well.  Wash the brined cabbages in running water 2-3 times. Wash the stem parts sprinkled with salt well. Put the washed cabbage in a basket and drain it.  

Making flour paste 

Pour about 3/4 cup of water and add 1 tablespoon of flour in the pot Stir it well and boil it. Boil it over high heat while continuously stirring. When it starts to boil, stir it over medium heat for about 2 more minutes. Cool it down before using it. 

Tip 6: Q: Why do you use flour paste when you make kimchi? Flour paste helps to mix the kimchi seasoning and ferment it well.  

Put them all in the blender.

• 1/2 sliced pear or apple
• half sliced onion
• some sliced radish
• 10 cloves garlic
• a bit of ginger

Tip 7: You can add 1/5 of the garlic for ginger. If you put too much ginger, the taste of kimchi will be bitter. Slice the green onions into appropriate sizes.

 Grind the ingredients finely. 

Tip 8: This method saves lots of time for making kimchi instead of cutting all the ingredients!

 Kimchi paste

• 1 cup red pepper powder
• Add half a cup of fish sauce
• 3/4C flour paste
• ground sauce in the blender 
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• sliced green onions  

Mix gently.  Very simple kimchi paste is done! 

This is the drained cabbage. 

Spread the kimchi paste over each leaf, especially stem part. Because the leaf part is saltier than the base part. 

Tip 9: I have some seasoning left. What should I do? Put the remaining seasoning in a zip lock or container and store it in the freezer. You can use it again when you make kimchi next time, or you can use it to make radish kimchi or cucumber kimchi.  

How to store kimchi

Tip 10: Fold the leaf part of the cabbage and wrap it with the outermost leaf, why? This way prevents the kimchi sauce from falling out and air contacting which helps fermentation.

Place it, cut side up in a container. How to store kimchi. Leave kimchi out at room temperature for about half or a day and then store in the refrigerator. 

Korean traditional kimchi 

Once I saw a video. In the video, the program host asked one question to a man. “What do you think Kimchi is?” He described kimchi as a live and breathing food. It means that kimchi enters our body and does a lot of beneficial effects. 

Practice will make a perfect kimchi. So, why not give it a try! I hope you enjoyed  today’s recipe! 

Notes

• But if you don't have sea salt, just use fine salt. When you use fine salt, you have to use a smaller amount than coarse sea salt, because fine salt is more salty than coarse sea salt. 
• You can purchase Korean coarse sea salt at a Korean grocery store or Amazon.
• If you brine the cabbage well, half of the process of making kimchi is done. 
• If the nappa cabbage is smaller than this, you need to reduce the amount of salt from 3/4 cup to 1/2cup.
• How do you know if the cabbage is brined well?  If the white stem part of the cabbage is bending well, it is well brined. If it is less brined, the white stem will break off easily.
• If you don't have a Korean pear, you can use an apple. 
• In Korea, the way to make kimchi varies slightly from region to region. Some people slice radish and mix it with seasoning without grinding it, but my mother-in-law just ground it and made kimchi. I think this way is easy and convenient
• If you don’t have honey, you can use sugar.                     

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