Shhhh…it’s a secret!
Kimchi (also spelt as kimchee), is a traditional Korean dish of fermented chilli peppers with a variety of vegetables, the most common being made with Chinese cabbage. It’s deeply ingrained into Korean culture and whilst it is mostly served as a side dish, it can also be used as a basis for other meals such as fried rice, broths and stews. Many Koreans, myself included, will only last a few days before the cravings kick in and kimchi must be eaten in some shape or form.
An example of how much we Koreans love kimchi? In 2005 a report was released that heavy consumption of kimchi could not be very good for your health…and as a result, the professor who released this statement received a variety of death threats.
Kimchi is serious business.
My mother’s kimchi is unlike any other that I’ve tasted, and whilst this is probably due to the care she takes with her particular recipe, it is extremely time-consuming (but very very worth it!). So, if you’ve got a spare weekend with absolutely nothing on your hands, try her family recipe for kimchi. By the end, your back will ache, your hands will be pruney and you’ll have salt and chilli flakes everywhere…but you’ll also have a little slice of fermented heaven.
Mmm, spicy goodness!
Now, we usually use about 10 heads of Chinese cabbage (around 20kg of kimchi), but I’ve trimmed the recipe down for just 1 head of Chinese cabbage
Ingredients
1 fresh Chinese cabbage, dark green outer leaves removed
1 1/2 cup cooking salt
1L water
1 cup Korean chilli powder - aka gochugaru (not flakes, look for it at your local Korean grocery store)
1/2 cup fish sauce
2 tbsp white sugar
6 spring onions, washed and sliced on an angle into slices about 1-2″ long
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 knob of ginger, grated
1/4 nashi pear, cored and peeled
1/4 brown onion, peeled
200g white/chinese radish (long and white as opposed to small, round and pink-tinged)
1. Cut the cabbage in halves or quarters, and cut into the stem to remove most of it.
2. Combine 1L water with 1/2 cup of cooking salt into a large bowl, then plunge one half or quarter of cabbage into the water at a time. Carefully seperate the leaves layer by layer and make sure that you get the salted water right to the base of the leaves.
3. Drain water from the cabbage segments, then sprinkle a light layer of cooking salt over each layer of leaves, making sure to get more towards the thick, white base of the leaf rather than the thinner, green end. This is usually done by coating the lower half of your fingers in salt and using a flicking motion. Don’t feel that you have to use the ENTIRE 1 cup of salt here - just as much as is needed to give the leaves a light sprinkling - its hard to judge how much salt you will need/use as it depends on how big and how ‘ripe’ your cabbage is.
4. Place the cabbage segments into a bowl and leave covered for 5-6 hours, or till cabbage is floppy enough so that the leaves can be bent over, but still make a crisp ’snapping’ noise when snapped.
20kg of Chinese/Napa cabbage that has been salted and is now ready to be washed and wrung out before the seasoning process begins!
5. After leaving for 5-6 hours, rinse the lettuce twice in clean water, then squeeze as much water out of the lettuce as humanly possible (yes, squishing the cabbage is perfectly alright), and leave on a strainer for another 15-30 mins to drain the last of the water out.
6. The ’sauce’ can be made whilst you’re waiting for the cabbage to wilt (in step 4). Combine 1 heaped tbsp of glutinous rice powder with 1/2 cup water in a pot, stir vigorously over a low heat till the mixture has turned white, has a very thick consistancy and bubbles whilst being stirred.
7. Let the rice powder glue cool down, and while it’s cooling, blend together the garlic, ginger, nashi pear, onion and Chinese radish into a pulpy liquid. Once the rice powder glue is completely cool, stir in the chilli powder, sugar and fish sauce, then pear mix and spring onion and combine well.
8. Lay out the cabbage and coat the front and back of every leaf with this rice chilli paste, making sure that they’re well coated and you haven’t missed any bits.
9. Once all the cabbage has been coated, press down into an airtight container and store in a cool, dark place for 3 days to aid the fermentation process. Taste it after 3 days, and if the lettuce tastes slightly tangy, soft but with some crunch and spicy, then place in your fridge. This can be stored in your fridge for up to 3 months (if it lasts that long!)
If you’ve never tried eating this before, I’d suggest going to a Korean restaurant to try it first befrore making it, but once you taste this, I guarantee you’ll come back for more!
So, the recipe is time consuming, requires a lot of effort and is very hands on. You have to really be a fan to make it often, but we go through a 10-head batch in about 4-6 weeks, so it’s usually a monthly process for me and mom 
As for how serious we are about our kimchi - I’d like to introduce you to our ‘kimchi refrigerator’. That’s right, a refrigerator dedicated to storing your kimchi and keeping it as tasty as possible. Mr Woofy models next to it to provide a bit of a size comparison.
Have you actually read this entire entry? Good grief - I demand you go pour yourself a glass of wine and congratulate yourself on suffering through the length of this Please, anyone who tries this, please let me know how you go as me and mom would love to know of anyone trying this most favourite food of ours!
Technorati Tags: kimchi, korean food, korean recipes, pickling, vegetables, pickles, Asian food
Others who have tried this recipe:
- Maltese Parakeet from Peanut Butter Étouffee
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Comments
Maltese Parakeet yuuuum! thanks, wench, i can’t wait to try this! i love kimchi. in fact, when i visited korea for my friend’s wedding, someone remarked that i ate more kimchi than any girl they’d ever seen. i took it as a complement! i’ll let you know how it goes when i try it!
Ellie Hey Lis - ooooooh yeah, almost like clockwork. Once we get down to about the 5kg mark, mom will tell me to leave my weekend free, and we’ll slave the weekend to make a new batch! All in all, it takes about 24hrs to make from start to finish 
Howdy Mz Parakeet! No worries, let me know how you go - mom’s v. worried about her recipe being shared (in case anyone doesn’t succeed and then sends her hate mail!!!) but I’m sure news of a success will ease her fears 
Mellie I’ll definitely be giving this one a go…although it looks a bit scary!! Will keep you posted on my success/failures
Ellie Hey there Mel! Mom’s standing over my shoulder - she advises having either a girlfriend or someone who can serve as a masseuse for the recouperation afterwards Personally, I think you’ll be fiiiine, but we’d both love to hear about how you go with it!
Mike I just made some of your Kimchi. It looks pretty good, but that’s a lot of chili and fish sauce! I’ll let you know how it comes out in a few days. Thanks!
Ellie Hi Mike - what can I say, we like our kimchi strong I hope it turns out well for you, I’d love to hear how it went!
Mike Wow, that’s some strong Kimchi! Not exactly what you find in the Korean restaurants around here (Sacramento, CA). I’ve tried 3 other recipes so far, and this is the best one. But, for me next time I’m gonna use less chili powder and less fish sauce. My excuse is that I’m Chinese and not Korean. Thanks for the great website!
Ellie LOL! Glad you liked the recipe As for the adaptation, there’s no ‘right’ way of making it, so adapting the ingredients to your taste is definetely the way to go! 
Thanks for letting me know how it turned out
Kalyn Ellie, what a great post! I must have missed it somehow (don’t know how because I have you in my RSS reader, but it must have been one of those busy weeks.) I actually really like Kimchi, but I’ve only had the bottled kind. It would be fun to try making it.
Ellie Hi Kalyn, I’m glad you like this post Kimchi is a bit time-consuming to make, but the results are unbelievably tastier than buying the factory-made stuff so I hope you give this a shot!
g..k..s..t..r What an awesome recipe! I love how the sweetness of the pear complements the spiciness. You’re right, home-made is most definitely better than store-bought. Kudos to you and your mom for sharing this recipe, it’s definitely a keeper.
Lucy Hi, new to your blog. Mum has been testing various recipes & trying to find ‘the’ kimchi recipe. She had one many years ago but lost it when we moved house. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Ellie Hey Fiona, I’m really glad that you liked the kimchi recipe as it’s my mother’s (tweaked from the version she learnt from her ma) and definitely a family favourite
Hi Lucy, thanks for stopping by I hope your mom likes this kimchi recipe and that it proves a decent substitute for the one she lost
Angela Hi ! I tried your kimchi recipe a few days ago and i just tried some ….
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Well it tasted really good ! spicy, crunchy just the way i like it although it is way too salty 
So i wanted to thank you for sharing your recipe but i also wanted to ask you, what shoul i do to make it less salty ? should i add water ? anyway thanks a lot for posting this very usefull entry
Ellie G’day Angela!
Bugger! Sorry to hear about the salty kimchi 
This does happen to the best of kimchi-makers, and it usually comes down to one of three things:
1. Too much salt on the leaves
2. Salt not rinsed off properly
3. “Difficult” lettuce - I don’t know anything about this, but whenever we get a batch of salty kimchi, my ma garbles on about the lettuce and how she misjudged it. I think its just her way of saying that sometimes it just goes wrong for no real reason (>_< ) A good way of avoiding the blame!
Unfortunately, as far as salty kimchi goes, I’m sorry to say that it’s not really salvagable adding water will just dilute the flavours, which isn’t really what you want. However - all is not lost! What you can do with it is to make “kimchi jjigae” - a kind of kimchi soup/stew. You will lose the crunchiness, but you should be able to work around the kimchi!
Easy Kimchi jjigae (for 1-2 ppl)
Ingredients
About 1 cup roughly chopped kimchi for 1 person
1 - 1 1/2 cups water
1/2 tbsp gochujjang (chilli paste - best if you can find the Korean stuff)
1/2 tbsp dried chilli flakes
200g beef sirloin steak, either chopped into strips or pieces, whatever you like
200g tofu, cut into cubes
2 cloves of garlic
Sesame oil (can use just regular olive oil)
1. Put a medium to large saucepan over medium heat, then add the oil and wait for it to heat up. Once it has heated, add the chopped sirloin and the garlic and sautee till browned.
2. Once the meat has browned, add the kimchi to the pot and keep sauteeing till it has slightly softened (but not too soft at the moment else it will be overcooked later). Add the chilli paste and chilli flakes at this stage, and mix everything through till it is well mixed in.
3. Add the water, and give it a good stir. Taste the water, and if you want it any spicier, add more chilli paste and/or chilli flakes at this stage. Also, if you find the water/soup to be a bit flavourless, add just 1/4 tsp of beef stock powder, stir it through and taste again. The flavour is rather hard to judge as a lot will come from your kimchi, but whenever it tastes ‘right’ to you, its good
4. Bring the entire thing to a boil, then reduce it down and let it simmer away for about 5-10 minutes, occasionally tasting - the kimchi will become a bit translucent, but should still have some texture to it.
5. Add the diced tofu to the saucepan, stir it through and leave it to simmer for about another 4 minutes, or till the tofu has cooked through and the kimchi is quite translucent and soft (though the stem parts should still have some give).
This is one of our favourite easy meals - just serve with rice! You can either spoon it over the rice and mix it in, or enjoy it on the side - everyone enjoys their jjigae in different ways
Anyway, I’m really sorry to hear about the salty kimchi, and I’m sorry I can’t be of more help But please don’t let it put you off kimchi-making, its just one of those dishes where practice really does help make (near) perfect
Cheers,
Ellie
Brad Wow this sounds good, but the look kinda put me off, but I’ll make it. When I looked at it I thought it was cheese-bread or something… But I took a better look and it looks goood 
Ellie Brad - What can I say? These definitely aren’t my best photos…the problem is that we do most of our kimchi making at night which means I haven’t had a chance to retake them! We are meant to make some this weekend though, so maybe then
Karen Hi Ellie, the kimchi looks wonderful. I tried making kimchi several months ago using some other recipe and it turned out really salty. I’ll definitely give your recipe a shot! Thank you for sharing!
Ellie Karen - Thanks hon The overly saltiness that can sometimes be found with kimchi usually stems from the initial salting process that draws liquid from the leaves, it can be hard to determine just how much salt to use but just a very light sprinkling is usually ample
Francey Really curious here, and wish to know if anyone else experiences this.
I got on to Kimchee a few weeks ago and learned to make it and I agree, the smell is wonderful and the taste is wonderful,
and you do get so you want to eat it with every meat meal. I found it didn’t go well with any flour products or non-acidy
foods. However, after eating it with meat meals, about 3 TBS per meal, about 1/2 cup per day.. In about ten days my eyes started to burn and be irritable. Then I noticed the change in color and odour of urine.. very yellow, and very unpleasant smelling.
When I stopped eating it…. immediate change back to no eye irritation, no odour and no yellow colored urine.
That’s a definite reaction to too much Kimchee. I don’t know if the reaction is from the high acid content of the lactic acid,
the hotness of the spices and pepper, or what. I had such fun making it and experimenting with different veggies and
different spices. It was very easy to make and I’m so disappointed to get this negative bodily reaction. Now I have a refrigerator salad drawe filled with packets of delicious Kimchee and I won’t be able to eat them every day.
Has anyone else had this unpleasant reaction with Kimchee?
Ellie Francey - I’m afraid I’m the wrong person to ask as I’ve been eating kimchi pretty much from when I started eating solids :/ To be honest, its the first time I’ve ever heard of such a reaction, I’ve fed it to plenty of friends and partners with no issue, so perhaps your system is just a bit sensitive to it? I’d suggest taking it a bit easy so your system can build up a tolerance to it
Francey Ellie: Thanks for the reply. That sounds like good advice. I didn’t eat any for 4 days, then with a pot roast I had
some of my favorite Beet Kimchee. (and it was very good). And, I didn’t get any after effect from that. There was no hot fresh pepper in that one. I made numerous different combination of veggies and It’s possible it is the excess fresh hot pepper I put in several of the batches I made that caused the problem. It’s a known fact that hot peppers make the eyes run, tear and become irritated and If so, it will be easy to remove that from the next new batch I make. Kimchee is great tasting relish and I wish I’d discovered it year’s ago.
Ellie Francey - sounds like you’re on the right track As its a new dish for you and quite strongly flavoured, just having small amounts every odd day sound be the best way for your body to build up a tolerance to the vast amounts of chilli its suddenly consuming
Nina thank you for the kimchi recipe! when it comes to kimchi, i always get a stomach ache (sadly!), but this kimchi didn’t seem to give me that effect! it was my first time making kimchi, so it was quite an experience. though it was a little salty. 
maybe it was the amount of fish sauce, so next time i think i’ll cut back a little. overall it was delicious! i’m looking forward to eating it alongside my other foods. haha.
thanks again!
Nina ^ oh! i didn’t mean to do that " " face! i meant more like a "X:" face.
er, anyways! i also forgot to mention that i didn’t add in the nashi pear because i wasn’t sure what it was…until i looked it up and realized that those were the pears that i LOVED to eat when i was younger! do you think it tastes salty because of the lack of pear?
Ellie Nina - I’m glad to hear that this recipe worked out nicely for you And I think that the omitted nashi/Asian pears may have contributed to the saltiness as their juiciness and sweetness help to counteract that in the dish
SteveB Ellie - I’ve been making kimchi for some time now, and I can’t get enough of it! It’s great in scrambled eggs for breakfast or on top of a hamburger for lunch or dinner. I currently use a different recipe which has you cutting the cabbage into bite-size pieces before salting and doesn’t use rice flour to make a paste but I bought some Mochiko sweet rice flour and dried red chili powder at a local Korean grocery and can’t wait to try your recipe. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Ellie SteveB - I’m glad to hear that you like it so much, you’re a kimchi lover after my own heart, I eat kimchi with almost anything! I can’t wait to hear what you think of our family recipe
Jane "Combine 1 heaped tbsp of glutinous rice powder with 1/2 cup water in a pot"
what is the rice powder?
Anh I just made kimchi this past weekend using your recipe and it’s turned out great! I made some kimchi fried rice with it this morning and my husband gobbled it up in no time. The smell is quite strong from the fish sauce, but we liked it just the same. I didn’t have the nashi pears on hand this weekend so I had to substitute with a fuji apple instead, but luckily it seems to be working out just fine. Thanks for the great recipe Ellie!
Ellie Anh, I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed this recipe And yes, a fuji would work fine as a substitution, very nice work!
As for the smell, it is due not to the fish sauce, but to the fermentation, the riper that your kimchi gets, the stronger and more pungent the smell will become
jazz hi, i wanted to make some kimchi of my own. i saw your recipe used rice flour to make a paste. most recipes on the internet didn’t use it.would you mom be able to say why rice flour is used? what does it do to the flavor and would removing it be tad clearer in taste rather than ‘milder’?appreciate your comments.thanks!
Ellie Jazz - We use the rice flour to make a paste as it helps the marinade ’stick’ to the leaves and also enriches the flavour a little.
Zlamushka Hey,
I am soooo happy there are kimchi freaks out there who make this sh** from scratch. I ve been very unsuccessful myself when making a batch at home. I would always end up with bubbly rotten cabbage bleh… But! amazingly enough i followed this super old-butt recipe from grandma´s grandma and man was that delish. Spicy as hell and red as baboon´s ass. I ve finished it just by nibbling on it with every meal (consisiting pretty much of kimchi and kimchi), so didnt have much time to experiment, but my absolute favorite is kimchi fried rice.
I just posted my ultimate kimchi recipe and cannot wait to try it again. What else should work apart from cabbage and radishes? spinach leaves? kohlrabi bulb? hm….
Nabeela Ok…an extremely sacrilegious question….can I substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce? I’m allergic to fish but would still love to eat this!
Ellie Zlamushka - Any Korean family worth their salt make their own kimchi, it’s really not that rare.
Nabeela - I’m sorry, but as far as our recipe is concerned, the substitution would not work, it’s not just the vastly different flavour but the fermentation of the fish sauce which helps kick start the fermentation of this recipe. I haven’t used it so I absolutely can’t say whether it will work, but I found this link which might be of help.
Alcany Thanks a bunch for sharing this recipe Kitchen Wentch! Me and my mom just finished making the kimchi and nstead of glutinous rice powder, we just blended up some rice. We also put in some shrimp paste cause we thought it’d be interesting.
Anywho thanks again madam, now I eagerly wait for the final results of all that labour.
Nabeela Thank you so much for responding! I looked at the link you gave(thanks!)….unfortunately I can’t have alcohol either. But it’s fine…maybe I’ll find another kimchi recipe that looks as good as yours
Ellie ALcany - No worries Hope the kimchi turned out well! As for the shrimp paste, it should be good as many families do use that for their kimchi (though we find it a bit too salty)
Nabeela - Sorry about that
Wow.. you guys make this every month or so? And I thought my marinara was a buttpain (cooking it for hours and hours).. I’ll no longer complain! hehehe