Napa Cabbage Kimchi Recipes

Steps:

• 1. Dissolve 1 cup salt in 1/2 gallon water. Soak cabbage in the salt water for 3 to 4 hours.
• 2. Combine garlic, ginger, and fish sauce or shrimp in food processor or blender until finely minced.
• 3. In large bowl, combine radish, green onions, mustard greens, garlic mixture, chili powder, 1 tablespoon salt and optional sugar. Toss gently but thoroughly. (If mixing with your hands, be sure to wear rubber gloves to avoid chili burn.)
• 4. Remove cabbage from water and rinse thoroughly. Drain cabbage in colander, squeezing as much water from the leaves as possible. Take cabbage and stuff radish mixture between leaves, working from outside in, starting with largest leaf to smallest. Do not overstuff, but make sure radish mixture adequately fills leaves. When entire cabbage is stuffed, take one of the larger leaves and wrap tightly around the rest of the cabbage. Divide cabbage among 4 (1-quart) jars or 1-gallon jar, pressing down firmly to remove any air bubbles.
• 5. Let sit for 2 to 3 days in a cool place before serving. Remove kimchi from jar and slice into 1-inch-length pieces. If serving before kimchi is fermented, sprinkle with a little bit of sesame oil and sesame seeds. Refrigerate after opening.

Steps:

• For the cabbage: Shave off any brown areas near the root of each cabbage and remove any outer leaves that are wilted or have holes, leaving a few for wrapping the cabbage in a bundle at the end of the coating process. Using a knife, make a 3-inch incision lengthwise from the root end of each cabbage and split open in half with your hands. Make another 3-inch incision from the root end of each half and split in half again into quarters.
• Make the brining solution: Combine 1 cup of the salt and 10 cups water in a large bowl and mix until most of the salt is melted. Dip each cabbage quarter in the brining solution and shake dry directly above the solution.
• After all of the cabbage is dipped and dried, use the remaining salt to distribute among the cabbage, working a quarter wedge at a time. Place the root end of each facing you, working over another large bowl. Gather the leaves with one hand and flip them open as though you're turning the pages of a book; use your other hand to salt the leaves, 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon per leaf at a time, depending on the size of the leaf. Salt well on the thick white part, closer to the root, rather than the leafy ends. Make sure to use the entire 1 cup salt for this step. (If you run out of salt while salting, continue with more salt up to 1/2 cup; oversalting can deter the fermentation process, so do not go over 1/2 cup.)
• Once the cabbage is all salted, place back in the brining solution cut-side down. If there is any salt left behind in the large bowl (or any salt sticking to your hands), add it back to the brining solution. Rotate and gently press down on the cabbage every 1 to 2 hours to ensure each quarter is submerged in the brining solution at some point. In the beginning of the brining process, not all of the cabbage quarters will be sitting in the brining solution. Let sit at room temperature until the thickest white part of each becomes pliable and bends over in half without breaking, 6 to 8 hours. If the thick white part cracks loudly and there is a rip where you folded it over, then it needs more time.
• For the dasima anchovy broth: While the cabbage is brining, add the dasima and 4 cups cold water to a medium pot. Let sit until the dasima doubles in size and the water turns a slight green-yellow, about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, remove the heads of the dasima anchovies and split them in half along the spines to remove the guts. Set aside.
• Bring the dasima pot to a boil over medium-high heat; boil until the dasima starts to foam around the sides, 1 to 2 minutes. Discard the dasima, then add the cleaned anchovies and dried shiitake. Lower the heat to low and cook at a gentle boil (where you see 2 to 3 bubbles appearing on the surface at most), for 10 minutes. At this point, some broth will have evaporated and the remaining broth will be slightly darker. Turn off the heat and let sit for 5 more minutes. Strain through a mesh strainer. Reserve the pot for later use. Cool the broth completely in the refrigerator.
• When the cabbage is properly brined, drain it and discard the brining solution. Submerge the cabbage in a running bath of cold water and wash, massaging and rubbing the thick white part of each quarter between your fingers, one leaf at a time. Drain and repeat this 2 to 4 more times, until the thick white part closest to the root is no longer slippery. Tear off a piece of cabbage and taste. The cabbage should taste seasoned after a thorough wash. Hold each quarter wedge root-side up and with one hand, gently squeeze out the water from the leafy part. Be careful not to rip the leaves as you squeeze. Shake gently to separate the leaves and place back in a colander root-side up to drain for 1 to 2 hours.
• For the rice glue: Add the glutinous rice flour, sugar and 2 cups cold dasima anchovy broth to the reserved pot and whisk until combined. Place the pot over medium-high heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture starts thickening and comes to a boil, 5 to 6 minutes. Switch to a silicone spatula, lower the heat to medium low and continue to cook, stirring, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spatula, about 1 minute. (This mixture will thicken as it sits; you should have a total of 2 cups.) Remove from the heat and transfer to a heatproof container to cool immediately in the refrigerator.
• For the paste: Put the fish sauce, dried bori shrimp, garlic, salted shrimp, quartered onion, ginger and apple in a blender and process until smooth. Transfer the blended mixture to a large bowl and whisk in the gochugaru and glue until combined. Add the radish, chives and sliced onion and stir again until incorporated. (Keep in mind that this paste is supposed to be salty.)
• Place a quarter wedge of cabbge, root end facing you, in a big bowl. Gather the leaves with one hand and flip them open as though you're turning the pages of a book; use your other hand to brush with roughly 1 tablespoon of the kimchi paste one leaf at a time, working from root to tip. Coat the entire leaf thoroughly with paste; slide most of the vegetables in the paste down by the thick white part closest to the root before moving on to the next leaf. Make sure not to coat too heavily in the beginning, as there are many cabbage quarters to coat. When finished coating, press down on all the leaves and curl up the leafy parts. Wrap the two largest, outermost leaves of each wedge around the entire wedge in a tight bundle. Repeat for the remaining wedges.
• Pack the cabbage in a clean, airtight container as tightly as possible, pressing down gently to squeeze out as much air as you can. Use a weight or a plate to weigh down the cabbage, leaving an inch or more of space on top, as the cabbage will release liquid and build up pressure as it ferments. Allow the cabbage to ferment for 2 to 4 days at room temperature on a kitchen countertop, away from the sunlight or heat, opening the container every 1 to 2 days to release built-up pressure and press down to submerge the cabbage in its juices. The kimchi will release more liquid as it sits, and bubbles will start forming; it will become slightly effervescent. (Keep in mind that the kimchi juice ferments faster than the cabbage, so taste the cabbage, especially closer to the thick root parts, as it ferments.) The kimchi will change in level of salt, flavor and texture throughout the fermentation process; when the kimchi has reached the desired level of pungency and taste, store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
• To serve, slice off the root and cut the kimchi horizontally in 1- to 2-inch pieces, keeping the leaves neatly stacked. Serve alongside rice and/or soup.

Steps:

• Dry-brine the cabbage: Rinse the head of cabbage under cold running water, making sure to get in between the leaves. Trim the root end off the cabbage and cut crosswise into 1-inch-thick slices, carving out any core if it's especially big and tough. Transfer the cabbage strips to your largest bowl. Sprinkle over the salt and toss with your hands until evenly distributed. Set aside to brine at room temperature until the hard leaves shrink and become wet and limp (but are still crunchy), 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Rinse the cabbage: Fill the bowl with cold running water and swish the leaves around to rinse them of their salt (and to clean off any dirt). Lift them up out of the water and transfer to a colander. Repeat once or twice until the cabbage leaves still taste discernibly salted, but not too salty that you can't eat it like a salad. Rinse out the bowl.
• Make the sauce: To a food processor, add the apple, onion, garlic, ginger, sugar and process until very finely chopped into a fluffy purée. Transfer the sauce to the empty bowl and stir in the gochugaru and fish sauce. Cut the scallions into 1-inch-long pieces and add to the bowl. Cut the carrot into matchsticks: slice crosswise into 1-inch lengths, then thinly slice lengthwise, stack the slices and cut lengthwise again into thin strips. Add to the bowl, along with the pine nuts, if using. Stir to combine. Add the drained cabbage to the sauce and toss with clean hands until well combined.
• Transfer the sauced cabbage to a clean 1/2-gallon jar, using your hands to gently pack it down. (A few air gaps are fine; they'll fill with liquid over time.) This amount of cabbage should leave about an inch of room at the top of the jar. Top the jar with any remaining sauce left behind in the bowl. Loosely close with a lid (see Tip). Wash your hands and rinse off the outside of the jar at this stage.
• Let the jar of kimchi begin fermenting on the kitchen counter at room temperature for 2 to 3 days, "burping" it every 12 hours or so, which just means opening the lid to let out any excess build-up of gas. After this, the cabbage should have released even more of its liquid; it's OK if the liquid doesn't completely cover the cabbage at this point, though it may. Refrigerate the kimchi to finish fermenting until it's sour, 2 to 3 weeks and up to 6 months, at which point it will be very, very sour and should be eaten or turned into jjigae. Check (and taste!) the kimchi every 2 to 3 days both to familiarize yourself with the fermentation process but also to allow gas to escape.

Steps:

• Halve cabbage lengthwise. Cut halves crosswise into 1-inch-wide pieces. In a large bowl, toss cabbage with salt and 2 tablespoons sugar. Transfer to refrigerator and let stand overnight.
• In a large bowl, combine garlic, ginger, kochukaru, fish sauce, usukuchi, shrimp, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar. If mixture is very thick, add water, 1/3 cup at a time, until consistency is just thicker than a creamy salad dressing. Stir in scallions and carrots.
• Drain cabbage and add to bowl with garlic mixture. Cover and transfer to refrigerator for at least 24 hours. It is best when kept refrigerated for 2 weeks but will keep refrigerated for up to 1 month.

Steps:

• 1. Cut the cabbage lengthwise in half, then cut the halves crosswise into 1-inch-wide-pieces. Toss the cabbage with the salt and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl. Let sit overnight in the refrigerator.
• 2. Combine the garlic, ginger, kochukaru, fish sauce, soy sauce, shrimp, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a large bowl. If it is very thick, add water 1/3 cup at a time until the brine is just thicker than a creamy salad dressing but no longer a sludge. Stir in the scallions and carrots.
• 3. Drain the cabbage and add it to the brine. Cover and refrigerate. Though the kimchi will be tasty after 24 hours, it will be better in a week and at its prime in 2 weeks. It will still be good for another couple weeks after that, though it will grow incrementally stronger and funkier.