Kimchi — Day 1


I eat lunch twice or even three times a week on Telegraph in Oakland, in "Little Seoul" or "Kimchi Alley" or Korea-town or whatever you want to call it.

I like jap jae and bul go gi and bi bim bap, but the real reason I go is the kimchi. Kimchi is the food of the gods. It clears the sinuses and fires the blood and mends little fermented-cabbage-shaped thin spots in my soul.

(And it's naturally low in cholesterol.)

I can't get enough of it. I clear out the panchan dish and ask for more. And then still more. The restaurateurs are invariably respectful but I think they're all laughing, suspecting that I'm doomed to painfully revisit the matter later in the day. While I grant that occasionally red pepper will have its revenge, I say: Let them laugh.

So I'm going to make my own, and tell you about every step of the process. In part because it will be fun, and in part because it's not like I'm doing anything else with this blog; ever since I started Marching Orders, The Perishable Lifestyle has definitely been languishing.

Because I'm a scientist, I'm going to work from this fairly basic recipe from the Exploratorium. I found other recipes, ranging from authentic to encyclopedic to spiritual/psychotic, but they all seemed too elaborate for a first-timer.

The Exploratorium recipe is hardly original to them, so I'll reproduce it here in full. Still, you should visit their site because it has all kinds of cool factoids about the ingredients and their roles.
What do I need?
• 2 1/2 pounds napa cabbage
• 1/2 cup kosher salt
• a walnut-sized knob of ginger, grated
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 bunch scallions, minced
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons crushed red chili pepper
• 2 jalapeños, minced fine

• a glass or plastic bowl
• 2 to 3 1-pint glass canning jars
• plastic wrap
• rubber bands

What Do I Do?
NOTE: Please read the pickling tips before starting this recipe.

1. Wash the cabbage, then chop it coarsely. Toss it in a glass bowl with the salt and let it sit overnight.

2. Drain the water off the cabbage and rinse it very well to remove the excess salt.

3. In a large glass or plastic bowl (don’t use metal), mix together the ginger, chili peppers, and jalapeños, and then add the well-drained cabbage. Toss the ingredients thoroughly to coat the vegetables. Save the juice that accumulates in the bottom of the bowl.

4. Pack the mixture tightly in sterile glass jars and cover with the juice. Add water if necessary to acheive 3/4-inch headroom. Cover the tops of the jars with plastic wrap, secured with a rubber band. Keep the kimchi in the refrigerator for 3 days before eating.


Today I'm just doing the first step: Salting the cabbage.

2.5 pounds of Napa cabbage (also called "Chinese cabbage" in regressive supermarkets) ended up being two heads:


I didn't wash the leaves because I'll be rinsing them thoroughly anyway tomorrow. Besides, last time I checked, salt kills bacteria.

I decided to chop it by first cutting it lengthwise, either in halves (the first head)...


...or in quarters (the second)...


...removing the toughest part of the core, and then making perpendicular cuts about 1" (2.5 cm) apart.

Then I tossed it with the salt in a large plastic bowl (actually my Oxo salad spinner with the basket taken out)...


...covered it with the fitted lid, and put it in the fridge overnight.

All I really did to mix the cabbage and salt was to add leaves and salt in "layers" (i.e., alternating a fraction of each at a time), and then roll the bowl a bit after putting the lid on.

I may be making a huge mistake here, as some of the more nutso recipes out there ask for a very careful mixing at this step...
Use your hands like you're hugging the cabbage. Move them gently around the sides, and then gather them into the center. Then push the cabbage to the sides (gently) and pull your hands around the edges like you're swimming with a breaststroke. The hugging motion is gentle. Generate love while you're doing it.Whenever we make Kimchi, it comes out good, but nearly as good as Grandmaster's. We're pretty sure that the missing ingredient is love.

...but I'm going to court disaster and the disapprobation of Grandmaster and try doing it the lazy way first.

Tune in tomorrow to see what happened.

Posted: Sat - April 2, 2005 at 06:41 PM          

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