Anyeong! Kimchi Sarang-hae!! (How do you do? I love kimchi!)

Kimchi or kimchee is known to be a must have side dish for Koreans. Since there is a surge of craziness in watching Korean dramas, those who are fans must have been well introduced to kimchi by now. You can have mixed-kimchi rice or kimchi added into the Korean typical mixed-rice bibimbap. Bibimbap is one of my favourite Korean main dishes! Others include the bbq meat, kimchi chigae, beef stewed soup etc ... Drooling ... Slurp ... yum yum .... Set those aside, today's topic is on kimchi. You must be wondering why kimchi is a must have for Koreans? I wonder too ... There was a time when my sis visited Korea and she was surprise by how well-shaped and great complexion the Koreans have.

So I did a little research on the nutrition value of kimchi and I found they really have whole lots of it. The most important great stuff in kimchi is Lactobacillus (a kind of bacteria that exist in your stomach that aid digestion and also yeast infection). This kind of bacteria can also be found in yogurt. Therefore, if you dont like yogurt, you can try kimchi. So you can imagine why Koreans are quite well-shaped .... Second, it consists of high content of vit C and beta-carotene that helps in slowing aging ... so dont be surprise that they have good skin complexion even for their Ahjumma!! Dr. Ben Kim website mentioned that kimchi also contains indole-3-carbinol (I3C), a compound that protect us from cancerous disease. I learned my first kimchi making from this website but I did not strictly follow the instructions. That ended the first attempt to taste like chicken rice chillies. Hahahha .... More is to come, it contains great amount of vit Bs (B2, B12) and vit A as well as phosphorus. You will know why it contains so many great stuffs by following through the ingredients.

This is my 6th or 7th attempt in making kimchi. So dont worry that this will be a failure. It's a success and the feedback was quite good from picky eaters (Those-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named).

The main ingredient: Nappa Cabbage and Salt (Lots of it!!-1 packet)
I would recommend you to buy a good nappa cabbage with not "pepper-spots" disease. Cos psychologically you wont like it. But if you dont mind, you can just get it anyway. So what to do with them?

For easier washing, I will cut them into (1 inch x 2 inches) sizes or to the sizes that you like. Why and not tear them by leaves? Cutting them into bite sizes will make it easier and faster to remove the water content inside the cabbage so that you can preserve the vege. Cut the from the bottom till it reaches the edge of the leaves. This cut should be easy enough to tear the cabbage into two.

After tearing them into two, cut the "heart" out.


Then, cut from bottom up again till the edge of the leaves and tear them apart. This should make the cabbage a quarter from its original size.

Then, as I said earlier, cut them into bite sizes or the size which you prefer. Rinse them twice in water and drain.

Get a clean bowl followed by a handful of nappa cabbage. Then, add about 1/2 tablespoon of salt into it. Toss and mix well. If 1/2 table spoon is not enough to well cover the cabbage, add more. This preservation process is very important. You surely does not want to have too much moisture in the kimchi.

Put them in a big bowl or container. If it doesnt fill the container (a little bit higher then the cover), find something heavy (I use my pestle) to weight it down. Then, cover the container. It makes the water comes out faster. This process is called osmotic process where water will go towards the more concentrated solution till a balance is met. Leave it for approximately two to three hours. Or put it in fridge and leave it overnight (8-24 hours) is fine (I always use 24 hours cos my tight schedule doesnt allow me to finish it in a day).

After leaving to for quite some time, you should be able to feel that the cabbage is soft. When you squeeze it, you wont feel any crunchiness in it at all. Now, it's time to wash the kimchi. This step is important. I read from a journal article, it says that the salt content of kimchi should be around 2-5%? I wash it twice cos I tried washing it once and the kimchi turned out to be too salty. Three times is too plain. So twice is just nice ^_^. Squeeze out the salt water ... do not squeeze too hard though. You definitely do not want to destroy the cabbage. Put it in a basin of water, rinse --> drain --> squeeze. The hands will be quite tired doing this. So better get more helper to do it, if you are not alone at home ... hahahhahaa....

The Ingredients for Fermentation .....
If you prefer more sauce and have two napa cabbages like me, then you can add the whole fruit. Else just 1/2 of each will do.

• Vinegar - 250 mL (Optional) - if you like it sour
  
• Lemon - 1 (Optional) - skin off
  
• Orange - 1 (Optional) - skin off
  
• Apple - 1 (Optional)
  
• China/Korean Pear - 1 (Optional)
  
• Onion -1
  
• Garlic - 8 small cloves and 6 medium cloves and 4 big cloves
  
• Fresh/Young Ginger - (2 x 2 inches)
• Chili powder
• Scallions - cut into bite sizes or in any size and shape that you prefer.
• A pair of gloves
• Air-tight container - rinse with boiling water and air dry for a few minutes (water will evaporate and the container should be dry. Cover the container to prevent the intrusion of other bacteria.).
  

The fruits can be replaced with sugar. Because I prefer natural sweetener, I dont like using sugar. Sugar is very important as it serves as the food for the bacteria to ferment nicely.

Blend all together except for scallions and chili powder. And it will turn out like this. The smell is really great and refreshing!!

Then, mixed the blended ingredients, chili powder and scallions in a big bowl. Since I dont have a big bowl, I do it little by little. Then, get another medium-sized bowl. Wear your gloves else your hands will feel like burning later due to chili powder. Take a handful of kimchi, and top it will the sauce mixture. Toss the cabbage around and make sure each leaves are well-covered by the sauce. Then, put it into the air-tight container. Make sure no air gap is found in between the covered kimchi cos air gap will slow down the fermentation process and also some bacteria that survive with oxygen might spoil the taste of kimchi. After filling the air-tight container, before covering the container, lay the leftover sauce on top of the cabbage that is exposed to air. This is because some people found that fungus growth occurs (white spots). But not to worry too much, you just need to scoop away if that happens. The rest of the kimchi is still edible.

Leave about 1-2 inch gap so that there are spaces for the CO2 release. Cover the kimchi with the container cover and store in cupboard for about 1-2 days. After one day, check if there is air bubbles in your container (remember there is no air gap when you first load your kimchi in). Air bubbles means your kimchi is fermenting well. If you want it to be more sour leave it at room temperature (26C) for another one day. If not, just put it into the fridge and let it ferment for another two-three weeks (it tastes better). And the kimchi is all ready for your disposition!

The steps may be lengthy but it definitely taste better and cheaper than those packaging kimchi. The total cost for this (I can make about 4 lunch-boxes sizes - 1 box is about 4 packets of SGD6 each that is sold in Cold storage) is around 30 dollars. So kimchi lovers out there!! What are you waiting for!