hello friends and not yet friends!
Today we're making my version of homemade kimchi.
You probably know already but Kimchi is a Korean condiment; a bit like sauerkraut as
it's a fermented vegetable food but at the same time completely different.
Garlicky and spicy, tangy and salty, kimchi super fantastic on plain rice, as a side dish
but it's also used in many Korean recipes.
You've seen my homemade kimchi in a few What I Ate videos and since so many of you asked
me for my recipe, here you go!
To start, you're going to need some napa cabbage; also known as Chinese cabbage.
Your cabbage should be quite heavy for the size with nice looking leaves with firm stems
that are close together, not loose.
I learned that tidbit from watching Korean cooking youtuber Maangchi.
She has a series on different types of kimchi and I got a lot of ideas from her.
These don't look the best but they will work.
After pulling off the discolored and limpy leaves, they've gone from 3lbs to 2 lbs.
Then we're going to cut at the base and pull apart to create halves, then again for quarters.
Or do two cuts and then pull apart like a boss.
Or a very efficient front line worker.
I have some more discolored leaves so I'll get those out before I rinse these pieces
to clean them well.
We don't want no bugs in our kimchi. I don't think that would be very vegan of us.
Now we salt the cabbage.
Every surface of the cabbage should get some.
I'm using rock salt though most recipes I see use kosher salt.
Yes this is a lot of salt but most of it won't end up in the final product so don't freak out.
Fit the pieces into a container and let it sit for about two hours.
During that time, the cabbage will shrink and leech out water because of the salt.
The pieces will also absorb some salt and this will help the fermentation stage when
we get there and preserve the kimchi so it lasts a long time.
Every half hour or so, you can turn the pieces so that all of it gets some of that salty
water.
In the meantime, you can prep the rest of the ingredients.
Kimchi is usually made with fish sauce and/or fermented fish or shrimp but we're going to
get that flavour from mushrooms and sea vegetables.
To some dried shiitake mushrooms and wakame, add hot water and set it aside while we chop
up our other veggies.
I've got some Chinese white radish also called daikon.
I don't need the whole thing so let's just use half.
Then a carrot.
This will add sweetness and a nice crunch to the kimchi.
Then a whole bunch of scallions.
I just love scallions a lot.
Maybe it's my Cantonese upbringing, I don't know.
But confession time, when I was a kid I couldn't stand the white parts of the scallion.
For some reason the texture kinda freaked me out.
Weird because now I really like it.
So the lesson here is your tastes can change and don't be afraid to try something even
if you tried it before and didn't like it.
You never know.
Put all of those matchstick veggies in a big bowl and leave em alone for a bit.
Now for probably the most prominent flavour in kimchi: garlic!
Together with onion and ginger
Pulse that all together in a food processor or blender until the pieces are pretty much
obliterated and leave it for a bit.
Let's go back to our soaking mushroom and seaweed.
We're going to use the soaking water which will kinda stink like the ocean now but trust,
it gets better.
Toss the wakame but keep the mushroom.
Mince it up and it'll go in the vegetable pile.
With the stinky ocean water, we're going to add light soy sauce and salt to make it taste like stinky fish sauce.
Now we're going to turn this stinky vegan fish sauce into stinky vegan slurry with glutinous
rice flour.
I think you could probably use regular rice flour for this too. But I haven't tried it myself.
Once it's totally smooth, nuke it in the microwave for 3 minutes, but stir every 30 seconds so
it doesn't explode.
So now it's thick and pudding like and it's going to act as our glue to help all the veggies
stick to the cabbage later.
So dump the onion, ginger and garlic mixture into our veggie pile.
And some gochugaru AKA Korean pepper flakes or powder.
The kind I have is super fine.
And mix it all together. I'm using about a half cup which won't make this super spicy.
More like a medium spice level so use more or less if you like.
And finally, pour in the ocean water rice slurry.
Actually, the order doesn't matter as long as you mix everything really well.
This is *your* kimchi and there *are* no rules!
By now the napa cabbage is really nice and flexible so we rinse out excess salt.
Squeeze out excess water and pile up your pieces.
Make sure you have a couple clean containers handy.
These have been through the dishwasher and a vinegar rinse.
And now we're going to stuff the spicy veggies into the layers of cabbage.
Make sure both sides of each leaf gets some.
Wrap up section and place it in the bottom on your container.
Make sure to squish it down too.
And repeat.
The reason why we squish down the raw kimchi is that we want to minimize any air pockets
because this fermentation process is anaerobic, meaning it takes place in the absence of oxygen.
The lactobacillus bacteria that is basically on everything on earth ever will create lactic
acid, turning the raw kimchi sour and develop the flavours in this concoction.
A fter you fill up your container or containers, pop a lid on top but keep in mind that the
fermentation process creates gas so you want to have the lid kinda
loose so gas can escape and not create an explosion in your kitchen.
Keep it in a dark place for 24 to 48 hours and your should eventually see the liquid
increasing in the jars and it should bubble when you press down on the kimchi.
At that stage you can eat it and store the rest in the fridge.
It will keep for months.
And that's it.
Easy homemade kimchi.
Made vegan.
Thanks so much for watching this video.
I hope you found it useful.
Please let me know if you try the recipe and of course take a pic and tag me on instagram
because you know I'm nosy and love seeing you make my recipes!
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easy vegan recipes each week.
Bye for now!