How to Make Kimchi! How To: Weekly contest by @artgirl

Hello everyone! Today I will share with you how to make your very own Kimchi! This is my entry for a How To contest.

Ah yes, this Korean side dish is very popular to Korean Drama (KDrama) fans and addicts. Why? Of course seeing the characters eat Kimchi will make you wonder what it tastes like, until you crave for it and then you buy a bottle of it. If you go further you'll make your own kimchi! Oh yeah!

What is Kimchi?

Kimchi is a Korean side dish staple that is mainly made of Chinese cabbage plus some radish and other spices. It is made through fermentation and is considered a health food due to all the lactobacillus and other good microorganisms it contains.

Koreans are said to eat 50 grams to 200 grams of kimchi a day! Not sure if that's good but they seem to be doing pretty well in terms of nutrition. Haha.

So let's see, let me show you what it looks like first in case you haven't seen it before.

This is a picture of kimchi from a restaurant. We ate at a Korean restaurant some time ago and I took pics of everything. Look at that! Yummm!

Why I Made Kimchi and Why I Eat It

2 years ago I decided to make my own kimchi. Hey I was watching 2 KDramas at the time so what do you expect? Hahaha.

I only made kimchi once but hey it was still an achievement so I will let you know how I did it.

Since I didn't know what to do and how to make it, I Googled how to make it and voila! Maangchi came to the rescue!

The reason I eat kimchi is because of the health benefits, you know, the good bacteria and such. I don't think I'm much of a healthy eater so sometimes eating kimchi is good, right? :D Plus I like sour food. Mmmmm.

Anyway without further ado, here's what you need to do!

How to Make Kimchi!

I'm pretty bad with measurements much like I don't use guides mostly when drawing so I hope you bear with me on some of my ingredients. Haha.

I. Ingredients:

• Lots of salt for the cabbages (kosher or not)

Vegetables

• 2 Chinese Cabbages

• 2 small Carrots
• 1 Radish
• Onion stalks / chives

For syrup base

• 2 tbsp powdered rice
• 2 cups water
• 2 tbsp sugar or muscovado

Paste ingredients

• garlic cloves
• 1 big onion or several small onions
• few slices of ginger
• 1 cup red chili pepper powder (or more depending on your spice tolerance)
• 1/2 cup fish sauce
• a small bowl of fresh or salted dulong (silver fish) prepared at least a day before or use salted fermented shrimp if u can find any

II. Directions

1 Remove the end part of the cabbage base, making sure every leaf is still intact at the base then cut the cabbages vertically in half. Half each of the halves too if you want.
2 Wash the cabbages and drain/shake off excess water.
3 In a basin, salt the cabbages well by sprinkling a generous amount in between each leaf and then leave it for 2 hours.
4 Turn the cabbages every 30 minutes to also spread the accumulated salty water on the other side of each cut cabbage. Or you can also pour the salty water over the cabbages before or after turning it over.
5 While waiting for the cabbages to be okay, cook the syrup by boiling 2 cups of water. Add the rice powder and stir and then once the consistency is not too thick but smooth you can add the sugar and mix well. Once it has boiled for a few minutes transfer it to a container to cool down.

6 Make the kimchi paste. Julienne the carrots and the radish.

7 Also slice the onion stalks/chives.
8 Mince the onion, garlic and ginger if you don't have any food processor.

9 Next, mix the paste ingredients in a basin, pour in the already cool syrup and mix it all up.

10 Once the cabbages are done after two hours, you can wash and rinse it with water.

11 Now you're ready to make kimchi! Spread the kimchi paste all over each leaf.

_(source)

12 When all the cabbage leaves are covered in kimchi paste, fold it (or not) and put it inside the container. If you have some ceramics or mason jars go ahead and use it, make sure it can be sealed tight.

13 Press each cabbage down to remove the air bubbles for it to ferment well. If using plastic containers, use BPA-free plastic. I used a long BPA-free plastic container like this one.

14 Leave it out in room temperature for 24-48 hours. Check if it has bubbled from 24-36 hrs, smell if it's now kinda strong and check if it tastes sour. Press down the cabbages further to remove any bubbles from the cabbages. If it is quite fermented you can now put it inside the refrigerator to ferment it slowly.

15 Leave it in the refrigerator for a week or more for best results and then you can use the kimchi fresh from the container or add it to any dish you want! Yum yummm!

_(source)

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As for my resulting kimchi, well mine didn't taste too sour I think because I couldn't wait to eat it immediately. Haha. Too bad. Also my bro doesn't like the smell of it so I just ate it every time I could and be done with it.

Now I only buy bottled kimchi! It took me hours to finish it before fermenting it so I'm only buying bottled ones since then. Haha.

Let me know if you try this and tell me if it tastes good. Or if you'd like to add anything to this feel free to comment too!

XOXO,
@artgirl

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Written by @artgirl for Steemit.
© Art x Stephanie Rue

@artgirl is a freelance artist and also a real estate agent for resort-type condo communities in Metro Manila.

For any art or property inquiries, you can chat me up on steem.chat or send me a Facebook message. Link in my bio.

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