Easy homemade kimchi recipe

To officially be a part of the Korean craze, I’ve finally made the most common and at the heart of their cuisine- KIMCHI! To add in your usual menu before you binge-watch another Kdrama, here’s an easy homemade kimchi recipe you can follow.

I’ve used and revised Maangchi‘s recipe for this based on our taste. We have kids at home so it’s the less spicy version.

I’ve learned from her website that there’s a lot of kimchi but i’ve made the easy kimchi recipe, made out of napa cabbage also known as Chinese cabbage to us. This one is called as tongbaechu kimchi and it uses the whole napa cabbage leaves and needs some extra TLC (tender loving care) from your hands as you need to massage the spicy paste leaf by leaf.

If you’re having a heartbreak due to failed #quaranfling, I highly suggest making this recipe. It’s therapeutic and will make you forget that person. And since kimchi is soooo healthy, this will help lessen your eye bags caused by your late night landian na wala rin palang pupuntahan. 😅Kidding aside, this is one of the most healthy food and it’s fun and easy to do. The only ingredient you need to buy in a Korean store is the gochugaru (the hot pepper flake powder, costs around P150-500). The rest of the ingredients, you can easily buy it in the market.

Ingredients

• 3 medium sized napa cabbage (around 2 kgs)
• 1/2 cup rock salt

Vegetables

• 2 cups radish matchstick- like cut
• 1 cup carrots matchstick- like cut
• 10 spring onion – We have an extra of this as we just harvested this in our garden.

Seasoning and spices

• 1/2 cup or 24 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoon ginger, minced
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1/2 cup fish sauce
• 1 cup hot pepper flakes (gochugaru) – add more if you want it more spicy.

‘Sauce’ for the seasoning and spices

• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar (brown or white)

Directions

1. Clean the cabbage in running water. Linisin ang mga bakas ng kahapon ng inyong landian.
2. Trim off the cabbage core if it is sticking out. Just make sure the leaves are still intact. Tulad ng puso mo, nawasak man pero patuloy yan na lalaban.
3. Cut the cabbage core to split it in half. Cut a short slit at the base and gently pull the halves of the cabbage apart.
4. Cut the halves into two. Pull it gently to make it into quarters. Make sure the leaves are loose but still attached to the core.
5. Dunk the leaves in the large basin of water to make the leaves wet. Put salt in each leaf, slowly lifting them to put salt in between. Asinan nang maayos, mahapdi man pero sigurado kang magiging masarap pagkatapos. Use more salt in leaves near the core. Make sure it’s salted in all corners.
6. Let the cabbage rest for 2 hours. Tulad ng puso mo, kailangan rin itong magpahinga.
7. Turn each side every 30 minutes to even out the salt. The cabbage leaves will start to soften and will churn out water. You can ladle some of this salt water to the top if you want to.
8. After 2 hours, wash the cabbage under cold running water. Put in strainer so they can drain well.

While you’re waiting for the salting of the leaves, you can make the sauce for the kimchi using the seasoning.

1. In a small pot, combine the water and the flour. Mix well over medium-heat. Wait for about 10 minutes and when it starts to make bubble, add the sugar and let it cook for a minute. Let it cool off. Tulad niyo ng ka- #quaranfling mo, cool off na rin, baka ghosting pa nga.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add garlic, ginger, onion, fish sauce, and gochugaru flakes. Mix well until it turn into paste. You can also put it in a blender to make it the spices finer.
3. Pour the cooled ‘sauce’ into the seasoning paste.
4. Add the radish, carrot and spring onion. Mix well.

Here’s the fun part. Make the kimchi.

1. Spread the kimchi paste on each cabbage leaf. Massage in each leaf the paste. Masahiin nang dahan-dahan, para ang feelings mo ay gumaan. Use gloves for this! The paste will sting your skin.
2. Fold it in half and put in your sealed container. We use our reliable tupperware for this. Repeat the process until all the leaves have paste. Put together in your container until it’s full.
3. Let it sit (Do not open yet!) for a day or two in room temperature to ferment.
4. Once it starts to smell sour, then you’re good. Cut the core and put it in small containers in the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation process. The longer you keep it, the more sour it gets. Tulad ng puso mong nasaktan, makakalimot ka at sasabihin mo- “Para akong kimchi- maalat, maanghang, masarap, hinahanap-hanap! Neeeeeeeeeext!!” 😂

Enjoy this easy homemade kimchi recipe and serve before your next Kdrama binge!