Mak Kimchi (Homemade)

Making kimchi was something I never really thought I'd do, so I feel pretty accomplished now that I've done it, regardless of the fact that it was a lot easier than I'd been anticipating. I've always been intimidated by the idea of making kimchi, possibly because my only exposure to it was when I was watching this one Korean drama, and in it they made so much kimchi they used bathtubs and were dressed in like, riot gear.

It turns out that when you're not making enough kimchi to feed a family of four to last through the winter, it's actually quite manageable with two large bowls and a little patience. I made mine from one large napa cabbage just over four pounds, which resulted in about three quarts of kimchi. Start to finish, it took me about two and a half hours. Of course, there's still fermentation time, but that just happens magically on its own.

A lot of the work can be done concurrently, which is a circumstance I always welcome. I wish more dishes were the same way. Essentially, once you get your cabbage brining, you have a lot of wait time, which you can use to prepare everything else. No mise en place necessary when it comes to kimchi making!

I halved Maangchi's recipe for mak kimchi, in which the cabbage is pre-chopped rather than whole. All the other ingredients are the same. Maangchi says the flavor is the same. That being the case, it's a whole lot easier to stuff pre-chopped kimchi into jars than figure out how I'm going to store whole cabbages. She also uses fresh, salted raw squid in her recipe, which I was going to do also, except H-Mart was out of them today. Just as well, as the salting process would have delayed the kimchi making for another week. (Clean the squid, mix it with 1 1/2 tbsp salt per 1/3 pound of squid, then keep it in a clean jar for about a week. When ready to use, rinse well, then chop up and add to kimchi paste.)

And now, onward to the kimchi-at-home pictorial!



Start with fresh napa cabbage. This one was a little more yellow than I would have preferred, but there wasn't a whole lot of choice at the store today. Also it makes no difference whatsoever in the final product. Chop the cabbage into bite-sized pieces, soaking them in a bowl or sink full of water as you go. Soaking helps with the brining process. When all the cabbage has been chopped, start layering it in a large bowl, salting each layer as you go. (Use about 1/2 cup of salt per 5 pounds of cabbage.) Every 30 minutes, turn the cabbage so that the mixture gets salted evenly. Do this twice; the cabbage will brine for a total of 1 1/2 hours.



While the cabbage is brining, make the sweet rice flour paste, which basically serves as an adhesive for the seasoning to stick to the cabbage. In a small pot, combine water with sweet rice flour and mix well from the start. Learn from my mistake... I didn't mix it well from the beginning and let it get too hot too quickly, which resulted in lumps in my paste that I had to pick out. >< When the mixture has thickened, add sugar. Stir to combine, then cook a little while longer, until the mixture has the consistency of a very thick syrup. Cool the paste by either placing the pot in ice water, or sticking it in the fridge.



Next up, blend together some garlic, onion, ginger, and fish sauce. Blend for at least a minute, to ensure that there are no big lumps left.



When the sweet rice flour paste has cooled, stir it together with the fish sauce mixture.



While waiting for the cabbage to brine and/or waiting for the sweet rice flour paste to cool, chop your vegetables. The carrot and Korean radish should be julienned, while the scallions and leek should be finely chopped.



Now, take a cup or two of gochugaru -- Korean red pepper flakes (also labeled as coarse red pepper powder). One cup for mild, two cups for spicy. I used 1 1/2 cups, cuz that's how I roll.



Add the gochugaru to the fish sauce/sweet rice flour mixture. Blend well, and you'll end up with a lovely bright red paste.



Now add the vegetables you chopped to the kimchi paste and mix well.



All that's left to do is combine the kimchi paste with the cabbage! But wait! There's one last thing you need to do. You have to drain the cabbage of all the salty water it's now accumulated, then wash it three times. No, that's not some kimchi superstition. You just want to clean the cabbage well of any extra salt so that it's not too overwhelming, which would ruin the kimchi.



Okay, NOW you can start combining. Maangchi and the people I saw in the K-drama I mentioned earlier use thick dishwashing gloves to do this; since I don't plan to make kimchi often enough to set aside a pair of gloves just for this purpose, I used a spatula. It's probably more satisfying to get your hands all in it, though. :D



Once it's well mixed, it'll look something like this. Look, real kimchi!



Now, pack tightly into jars. I prefer to use glass -- one's an old pickle jar while the other is a glass cannister. If you have one really big container, feel free to use that. It'll ferment more slowly due to volume, while smaller containers will ferment faster. I actually prefer less-sour kimchi, but I alas, don't have any giant containers. Keep your kimchi in the refrigerator. After a day or two, you may see bubbles and liquid appearing, and the kimchi may start to smell sour. The longer it's kept, the more it will continue to ferment. Kimchi should last for months in your fridge!



Some people love strongly fermented kimchi and find fresh kimchi uninteresting. I, on the other hand, love fresh kimchi, so I ate some as part of my dinner right away. And by the way? My kitchen smells awesome now.

Mak Kimchi (recipe adapted from Maangchi)

Ingredients

• 4-5lbs napa cabbage
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup sweet rice flour (chapssal garu)
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup fish sauce
• 1/2 cup whole garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 2-inch piece ginger, chopped
• 1-2 cups red pepper flakes, aka coarse powder (gochugaru)
• 1 cup Korean radish, julienned
• 1 cup leek, chopped
• 5-8 scallions, chopped
• 1/4 cup carrot, julienned
• 1/3 fresh, raw salted squid (optional)

Method

1. Clean and trim the cabbage.  Slice it in half, then in quarters, then in eighths if necessary.  Slice into bite-sized pieces, placing them into water to soak while you're slicing the rest of the cabbage.  When all the cabbage has been sliced, drain the water.  Layer the cabbage into a large bowl, salting each layer.  Let it sit for 30 minutes, then turn/mix the cabbage.  Repeat.  Let the cabbage brine for 1 1/2 hours, with two turns.
2. Meanwhile, heat the sweet rice flour with the water, mixing well and stirring constantly.  When the mixture has thickened, add the sugar.  Stir and cook for a few minutes longer, until the mixture has the consistency of a very thick syrup.  Remove from heat and cool with an ice bath or in the fridge.
3. In a blender, combine the fish sauce, garlic, onion, and ginger.  Blend for at least a minute, until all the pieces have been pureed to a smooth consistency.
4. When the sweet rice flour mixture has cooled, combine with the fish sauce mixture in a large bowl.
5. Add the red pepper flakes (amount is to your preference) and stir until the mixture is well blended.
6. Stir in the Korean radish, leek, scallions, and carrot.  If you are using the squid, add it at this stage as well.
7. Drain the salty water from the cabbage.  Wash the cabbage with fresh water, three times.  Drain again.
8. Add the cabbage to the kimchi paste and mix until all the ingredients are well combined.
9. Pack the kimchi into jars and seal.  Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Simple Kimchi Jigae

This is a post I should have made awhile ago -- back in May, to be exact, when I first made the dish.  Actually, if I remember correctly, I made it practically every day for a week, because it was so easy and yummy, and I had the ingredients on hand.



This is probably not the best time to be posting a recipe for a soup/stew, given that many parts of the country seem to be experiencing an autumn heat wave right now, but hey, this will come in handy for when the weather turns cooler, or for those folks who live in colder areas!

The first thing to know about this particular recipe for kimchi jigae is that it's very customizable.  You can use or not use or substitute just about anything... except for the kimchi.  That part is sort of necessary for it to be kimchi jigae.  What I provide below is a super basic recipe for 1 serving that you can adjust to your own taste and requirements.  The kimchi provides all the seasoning the stew requires, but you can get really fancy and use chicken broth instead of water, or add extra salt and pepper, etc.

If you're like me, you bought a huge tub of kimchi during your last trip to the Korean grocery store, because it's the most economical, and it's preserved so it'll last forever, right?  Well, yes and no.  It's like sticking things in the freezer.  It might still be safe to eat 2 years later, but will it taste any good?  The thing with kimchi is that it just keeps fermenting.  And eventually, it gets to a point where it's too fermented, and it doesn't taste good on its own anymore (unless, of course, you are the sort who likes super-fermented kimchi).  When it gets to that point, it's perfect for making kimchi jigae!

Simple Kimchi Jigae

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 strips of pork belly, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup packed kimchi, with some juice
• 1/4 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 1/2 -2 cups cold water
• 1/2 cup tofu, cubed
• sliced scallions

Method

1. Heat the sesame oil in a small pot.
2. Add the pork belly and fry until the pieces start to get brown spots.
3. Add the kimchi and garlic, then stir fry everything together for a few minutes.
4. Pour in the water, enough to cover by about 1/2 inch.
5. Add the tofu and bring the soup to a boil.  Simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Garnish with the scallions and serve hot.

My First-Ever Korean Table

I have long enjoyed Korean cuisine, but have never attempted to make it myself. Like Indian cuisine, it always seemed rather daunting, even though the ingredients are fairly common (unlike Indian spices). Recently, I decided to make a full-Korean meal for members of my family, including banchan and dessert. I was somewhat trepidatious, as I generally like to test recipes on myself before inflicting them on others. :-)

It was a long, arduous undertaking, but I did it, and most everything was well received. I waffled between making little dishes of banchan myself or buying it, but in the end the things I wanted were simple enough, and only ended up buying the kimchi (I'm not sure I'll ever come to a point where I'll feel I need to make THAT myself).

One learning that came from this experience is that it's well worth taking the time to make the main courses, but maybe not so much the banchan unless I'm feeding a lot of people over the course of several days. The banchan dishes I chose, while very simple to prepare, are nevertheless time consuming, especially when preparing a bunch of other dishes, as I did.

Here, then, are the various dishes I made, along with a few cooking notes and how each was received.

Kimchi, the only dish not made from scratch. It was okay.  I have yet to find a brand of store-bought kimchi that I really like. The kind served at Korean restaurants tend to be much better than what I can find at the grocery store (even H-Mart, a Korean grocery store).

Sigeumchi Namul, or seasoned spinach, made by dropping the spinach into hot water for 1 minute, then seasoning with sesame seeds, sesame oil, and salt. Very good and simple, but quite a bit of work due to all the washing that's required.

Kong Namul, or seasoned bean sprouts, made by steaming the sprouts (in this case, mung bean sprouts, though traditionally it is made with soy bean sprouts) for a few minutes, then seasoning with scallions, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and salt. Very good and simple, but a bit time consuming.

Oi Muchim, or spicy cucumber salad. Small Persian or Kirby cucumbers are sliced, then mixed with scallions, sesame oil, cider vinegar, and gochujang. This was only okay, even though it's usually one of my favorite banchan. The problem was that the gochujang I used was WAY too spicy, so that I wasn't able to put much of it in. That made the cucumbers under-seasoned.

Sangchu Kutjuri, or mixed simple salad, which I've found to be ubiquitous during Korean barbecue meals. However, I'm not sure how traditional it actually is, as it was actually difficult to find a Korean cookbook that had a recipe for it. It's red-leaf lettuce, hand shredded, with thinly sliced scallions and a simple dressing that's sweet, savory, and sour all at once. It's wonderful. My version was pretty good, but not nearly as good as I've had at restaurants. More experimentation is a must!

Jap Chae, or glass noodles with beef and vegetables. This went down like gangbusters. Everyone loved it. It was delicious, and very authentic tasting. The glass noodles are made from sweet potato starch, and turn translucent when stir fried. The noodles are mixed with seasoned beef, matchstick carrots, onion, shitake mushrooms, and spinach (which I added a bit late, so it's kind of clumpy in the dish). Really wonderful, well worth the time it took to make.

Bulgogi, or the well-known sweet and savory "barbecued" beef that's thinly sliced. This was an incredibly simple and delicious dish -- all that's needed is for the beef to mature in the marinade. Also a hit with everyone.

Saenggang Jelly, or ginger jelly. Most decidedly NOT a hit with everyone. First you have to really, REALLY enjoy the taste of ginger. Then you have to enjoy the heat in your mouth after a few mouthfuls of this super strong dessert. It creeps up on you, and just isn't very pleasant. Even those among us who enjoy ginger a lot couldn't handle eating all of it. Granted, we didn't drizzle it with dark corn syrup as the recipe indicated (because we didn't have any), so I don't know if that would have made a big difference. Honestly though, I can't remember EVER having a Korean dessert in a restaurant setting, and recipes for them in cookbooks seem very sparse; maybe dessert just isn't a forte of the cuisine.

I also made something else that I neglected to take a picture of, that everyone absolutely loved: Kom Tang, or beef bone soup. I actually don't even know how Korean it was, since I made a lot of adjustments, especially toward the end when I was running out of time. The recipe calls for beef knuckles, but I couldn't find it at either H-Mart nor 99 Ranch, so I ended up using beef neck bones instead. That right there might make it un-Korean, I don't know. I was also supposed to cut the meat and cartilage from the bones and drop the former but not the latter back into the soup; I skipped this step entirely. We're used to eating meat from bones in soup, after all. I also did not remove the carrot and onion, again due to time contraint. I used daikon, which I had on hand, which I'm not sure if that can be considered "Korean radish" (the recipe does not get more specific than that). Finally, I neglected to add all of the ingredients that I was supposed to at the end, because I just plain forgot, lol. Yet, as I said, everyone LOVED the soup!

I wanted to make "purple rice," which seems to be pretty standard at Korean restaurants, but it turns out that you have to soak black rice (a bit of black rice mixed with white rice is what turns the rice violet in color) for hours and hours before it softens enough to be cooked with white rice, which I didn't realize. So we just had regular sticky white rice.

All in all, a big success, and a few of these dishes will likely find themselves in my permanent repertoire!

Jap Chae (recipe adapted from The Korean Table)

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp Sweet Soy Base Sauce (recipe follows)
• 1 tbsp minced green onion
• 1 tsp dark sesame oil
• 1/4 lb sirloin tips or ribeye steak, cut into matchstick strips
• 5 oz dried Korean vermicelli noodles
• 1/2 lb spinach
• 2 tbsp canola or other neutral oil
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut into matchstick strips
• 8 dried shitake mushrooms, reconstituted in water and cut into matchstick strips
• 1 tbsp dark sesame oil
• 5 tbsp Sweet Soy Base Sauce
• 1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. In a small bowl, add the beef and the first 3 ingredients to make the marinade. Toss the beef strips until thoroughly coated. Let the beef marinate while preparing the other ingredients.
2. Place the dried noodles in a large heatproof mixing bowl. Pour about 4 cups of boiling water over the noodles and let soften, about 8 minutes. Drain the noodles. If they get sticky just give them a quick rinse with warm water.
3. Fill a medium saucepan halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add the spinach and cook for 1 minute. Drain and set aside.
4. In a large skillet, add 1 tbsp of canola oil and place over medium heat. Stir-fry the onion, carrot, and mushrooms separately, seasoning each with a pinch of salt. Add additional oil to the skillet as needed. Place each vegetable, when done, into a large serving bowl.
5. In the same skillet, add the beef and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add to the serving bowl.
6. To the skillet, add the 1 tbsp of sesame oil and the 5 tablespoons of Sweet Soy Base Sauce. Bring to a boil. Add the softened cellophane noodles and mix well. The noodles will become transparent over the heat.
7. Add the noodles to the serving bowl along with the cooked vegetables and beef. Toss until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.

Sweet Soy Base Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup water
• 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 6 thin slices of fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
• 1 cup low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup red or white wine

Method

1. Combine water, garlic, and peppercorns in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add the soy sauce, brown sugar, and wine. Turn the heat to high and boil for 2 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.
4. Strain the sauce through a sieve into a large mixing bowl. Discard the solids.

Bulgogi (recipe adapted from The Korean Kitchen)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs boneless rib steak, cut into very thin slices 5-6 inches long by 2 inches wide
• 4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped fine
• 3 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp Korean sesame oil

Method

1. Mix the beef and sugar together. Let it rest for 2 minutes, then add the soy sauce, garlic, scallions, pepper, and sesame oil. Toss the mixture well to integrate all the flavors, and let it stand at room temperature for a minimum of 1 hour (or overnight in the refrigerator) to allow the meat to mature.
2. Preheat a large, heavy skillet over moderate heat for 2 minutes. Add the beef slices, along with any remaining marinade, to the skillet. Stir fry, without oil, for 2-3 minutes, until done.

Kom Tang (original recipe; my notes on what I changed, after)

Ingredients

• 8 cups water
• 3-5 beef knuckles with meat and cartilage attached, well rinsed
• 1 carrot, halved lengthwise
• 1 medium-size onion, halved
• 1 Korean radish, peeled and cut into a 4-inch piece
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• 5 scallions, sliced thin
• 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tsp hot chili powder
• 1 tsp chopped fresh ginger

Method

1. Bring the water, bones, carrot, onion, and radish to a boil over high heat for 20 minutes. Skim off and discard the foam. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for at least 2 hours, which should be sufficient to tenderize the ingredients.
2. Remove the bones from the broth; cut off the meat and cartilage and cut into 1/2-inch cubes. Discard the carrot and onion.
3. Slice the radish into thin 1-inch squares. Add to the hot broth with the meat pieces, salt, scallions, sesame seeds, hot chili powder, and ginger. Mix briskly and serve immediately.

My Changes

1. I used beef neck bones.
2. I used Daikon radish, and sliced it into 1-inch pieces from the outset.
3. I skimmed the foam at the beginning and at the end.
4. I did not remove the meat/cartilage from the bone and instead served with the bones intact.
5. I did not remove the carrot or onion.
6. I did not add the ingredients from the scallions onward, at the end.
7. I ended up simmering the soup for 4-5 hours, as I was preparing the rest of the meal.