Lulu Is Learning to Make Kimchee

After collecting soo many empty jars from our kimchee consumption, I decided to make my own. Internet is my friend and I found a few recipes to come down to one that I'm going to try.

Main ingredients:
1 large size napa cabbage (cut into bite size - about 1.5 inch x 1.5 inch)
5 green onion - sliced sideways about 1.5 inch length
1/2 small size radish (about 2 cups julienned)
2 serrano pepper - sliced sideways thinly

sliced serrano pepper

julienned radish

sliced green onion

napa cabbage

Salt water for cabbage :
10 cups water
1/2 c coarse sea salt

Sauce ingredients:
1 crown of garlic - peeled and sliced
1/4 medium size onion - sliced
1/2 tbs chopped ginger
3 tbs sweet rice four
3 tbs water
2 cups water
1/4 apple - cut in cubes
1/4 apple pear - cut in cubes
1 1/2 cup red pepper powder  3/4 c red pepper powder
7 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs salt

Preparation :
Pour the salt in the bowl with 10 cups of water. Stir until most of the salt dissolved and pour into a bigger bowl with all the cut napa cabbage pieces. Stir around and most of them are covered. Set it aside. Let it sit for a four to five hours. Stir in between to move them around.

Meanwhile, mix 3 tbs of water with the 3 tbs of sweet rice four. Stir until it is mixed well. Then in a small sauce pan, pour 2 cups of water and set it on a stove with medium high heat. Pour the sweet rice flour mixture in and stir well. Bring it a boil and stir until the mixture thicken and turned slightly clearer. Turn of the heat and set it aside to cool.

After five hours, rinse the cabbage well three times. And set it on a colander to drain.

Put the rest of the sauce ingredients except for the red pepper powder in a food processor and blended well until it turned into paste. Pour the paste in a big mixing bowl. Put in the red pepper powder, julienned radish green onion and serrano pepper. Also pour in the sweet rice flour mixture and let it all mix well.

green onion, etc on top of the sweet rice flour paste

Now you're ready to mingle your drained cabbage with the red pepper paste mixture. Use glove if you want to use your hand to mix. Or use a pair of big mixing wooden spoons. It works better with hand though. :)

Sauce mixture ready to be smeared on the cabbage

ready to mix the sauce and cabbage together

Once the cabbage get all the paste on every single pieces then you're ready to call it a day. Pack it in a glass jar if you have one (or a few like me). Or use other container. The cabbage kimchee is ready to be enjoyed. Or if you like it fermented, let it sit for a few days.

my kimchee sitting in the jar looking yummy

Thanks to Maangchi, Aeri's Kitchen, and Koreancuisine for the kimchee recipes.