How to make Kimchi (and capture that oppa's heart)

I've been obsessed with K-drama for the past 2 years. Watching Korean shows made me like the Korean culture and most especially Korean cuisine. My love for their food is indescribable. (I'm writing this Kimchi recipe now but I'm already thinking of cooking bulgogi &japjae for my dinner... Uggghhh I'm drooling now :D)

So, yeah. When I moved here in the UAE, I didn't have that much access to Korean grocery stores and restaurants. So I had to learn making my own Kimchi. I learned this recipe from my favorite Korean Youtuber - Maangchi. I will post her video link at the end of this blog.

My ingredients and measurements may be a little different from her but I'm sure it tastes just as good :)

Let's get started. Here are the things that you will need.

Ingredients:

1. Korean red pepper powder 고추가루 (2/3 cup)
2. Fish sauce (1/4 cup)
3. Shrimp paste (1/4 cup)
4. Salt (1/4 cup)
5. Sugar (1 tbsp)
6. Flour (1tbsp)
7. Chinese cabbage (1 medium size)
8. Spring onion (2 cups)
9. Onion (1 medium size
10. Garlic (5 cloves)
11. Ginger (1tbsp or a size of a thumb )
12. Carrot (1 medium size)
13. Radish ( ½ medium size)
14. Apple (1 ½ slice) (you can also use pears)

Preparation:

Part I.

Wash all the vegetables and fruits.

1. Cut the cabbage into 2.
   (Partially cut the bottom part in half and rip the cabbage apart instead of cutting it with knife. This way, we can keep the cabbage from being cut into pieces.)
2. Salt the cabbage generously.
   (Use ¼ cup of any type of salt you want. Put salt in between each leaf and make sure to put a little more on the stem part. This process is done to make the stem part softer since it takes a lot more time to pickle.)
   Now you just must wait for 3-4 hours. Turn the cabbage on the other side every hour to evenly distribute the salt.

Part II.

Preparation of the paste

1. Boil ½ cup of water and add 1 tbsp of flour and sugar until it becomes thick like a runny paste. Set aside and let it cool.
2. Slice the apples, onion, ginger and garlic. If you have a food processor, you can process them together. If not, you can just finely chop them.
   
3. Chop the spring onions.
4. Julienne the carrot and radish.
   
   
5. Get a mixing bowl and mix the flour paste, processed apples, onion, ginger and garlic.
6. Then add the spring onions, carrot and radish.
7. Add 2/3 cup of red pepper powder.
8. Add ¼ cup or shrimp paste and fish sauce.

The paste should look like this

Part III.

1. After salting the chinese cabbage, wash it with cold water (or tap water) then drain thoroughly.
2. Cut the bottom part of the cabbage again and rip it apart. (We should now have 4 slices of cabbage, since we cut it earlier into two.)
3. Put the paste mixture we made in between each leaf. (If this is your first time making Kimchi, make sure to use gloves or spoon to avoid the pepper powder's sting)
4. Give it a little massage after putting all the chili pepper powder paste and put it in a nice container. I would recommend using a glass/pyrex container to avoid stains.
   Keep the kimchi in a room temperature for 3-4 days to ferment properly then in the fridge for another 7 days before eating.

Aaaaaaannnnddd there you go! Your kimchi is done 😊 You can now capture your oppa’s heart! This is perfect with ramyeon or fried dishes.

If you have a better recipe than this, please let me know. I'd love to try. <3

(please follow me as I post more about foods, traveling, skin care and other things that I want to share with you)

Link to Maanghi's Kimchi making tutorial :