Kimchi

[Cheese Mechanic]

Has anyone else been making this Korean fermented cabbage? I'm a huge fan, lovely stuff.

This is the recipe I've been basically following.

1 (2-pound) head napa cabbage
1/4 cup sea salt or kosher salt (see Recipe Notes)
Water (see Recipe Notes)
1 tablespoon grated garlic (about 5-6 cloves)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon sugar
2-3 tablespoons seafood flavor or water (optional, see Recipe Notes)
1-5 tablespoons Korean red pepper flakes (gochugaru)
8 ounces Korean radish or daikon, peeled and cut into matchsticks
4 scallions, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

As I have only just found out where I can get the red peper flakes from, I've been using Cayenne pepper (1 tablespoon) The Korean radish I have substituted with the small red ones we can get in the super. The Napa cabbage is sold in the UK as Chinese leaf.

I used Saxa sea salt ground in a pestle and mortar. Apparently the anti caking agent found in many brands of salt can hinder fermentation.

So, has anyone else had a go at making Kimchi, if so what ingredients have they used?

[SV8Predator]

Come on fella, show us the recipe notes from your cut'n'paste recipe.

[Cheese Mechanic]

Here's a linky to the full recipe/method

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-cabbage-kimch...

[Mobile Chicane]

I love kimchi but CBA making my own when it's cheap enough to buy.

Canned, from any oriental supermarket. From the fridge section if a sufficiently decentish Korean population nearby as to be worth stocking fresh.

[Cheese Mechanic]

Mobile Chicane said:

I love kimchi but CBA making my own when it's cheap enough to buy.
Canned, from any oriental supermarket. From the fridge section if a sufficiently decentish Korean population nearby as to be worth stocking fresh.

I'm keen to try commercially made and available Kimchi, but have only found one place so far that sells it:

http://www.souschef.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=...

As I'm going to get some Korean red pepper flakes from these people and one or two other things I shall give it a go. Mail order does not tend to cheap food though. I've also checked out Wing Yip, and most local to me Jason Hong in Peterborough, but they seem to sell anything and everything Kimchi flavoured , but not Kimchi itself.

So it looks like I shall be making my own for the foreseeable future.

[anonymous-user]

Not sure about Lincs, but you can get this in most Oriental shops in and around London and the home counties. It comes in sachets of all different sizes, and is very nicely spiced.

Unlike the 'real' stuff though, it's likely not to have been buried in a clay pot underground for a number of years - you can pay big money in Korea for some of that...



ETA - available on-line here... http://www.tradewindsorientalshop.co.uk/acatalog/C...

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 16th July 07:55

[MajorProblem]

That shop is in Scun-Thorpe north lincs!

Very good it is too.

[Dave200]

MrsD200 spent a few years in Korea, and introduced me to this stuff shortly after we met. Without exaggeration, Korean food has been one of my biggest culinary eye-openers of the past few years - the flavours and textures are quite unlike anything else, and there is so much variety and regional interpretation.

There are a few good places to eat Korean in London, and being able to pop into Chinatown after work means that we're never short of good ingredients (including Kimchi). I had thought about making it myself at one stage, but as someone above said, it's far too cheap and readily-available to bother.

[Mobile Chicane]

Cheese Mechanic said:

Mobile Chicane said:

I love kimchi but CBA making my own when it's cheap enough to buy.
Canned, from any oriental supermarket. From the fridge section if a sufficiently decentish Korean population nearby as to be worth stocking fresh.

I'm keen to try commercially made and available Kimchi, but have only found one place so far that sells it:

http://www.souschef.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=...

As I'm going to get some Korean red pepper flakes from these people and one or two other things I shall give it a go. Mail order does not tend to cheap food though. I've also checked out Wing Yip, and most local to me Jason Hong in Peterborough, but they seem to sell anything and everything Kimchi flavoured , but not Kimchi itself.

So it looks like I shall be making my own for the foreseeable future.

That's really odd. My local Wing Yip (Croydon) has many varieties of kimchi both fresh and canned.

Which reminds me, I'm due a trip.

[Hoofy]

Mobile Chicane said:

That's really odd. My local Wing Yip (Croydon) has many varieties of kimchi both fresh and canned.

Which reminds me, I'm due a trip.

Have you been to Korea Foods in New Malden (the big one behind the Halfords superstore)? I used to go once a month to Wing Yip but haven't been since Korea Foods opened their warehouse thing there. https://goo.gl/maps/e3LZi

[Cheese Mechanic]

Mobile Chicane said:

That's really odd. My local Wing Yip (Croydon) has many varieties of kimchi both fresh and canned.
Which reminds me, I'm due a trip.

I'm going by a web search on their site. Not impossible of course that not all that they have on the shelf in shop is offered online, although not impossible I missed something.

Again though difficult for me to check out, the nearest Wing Yip to me is in Birmingham, hardly a 5 minute pop to the shop for me, sadly.

I'm not too bothered to be honest, quite enjoy making it . The next batch I'm making will be with the pukka peper flakes and in 2 styles , one with anchovy sauce, one without.

Havoing said that, I just hope that the commercial offering does not taste better than my own efforts, I shall be more than a bit pissed off