Korean Napa Cabbage Kimchi

Kimchi is a national Korean dish made of different vegetables and it tastes better and better as it ferments. Variety of popular Korean dishes like kimchi pancake, kimchi fried rice, kimchi soup can be made using kimchi. Kimchi can be made with different kind of vegetables like napa cabbage, cucumber, perilla leaves and radish. 

Today I am sharing recipe of napa cabbage kimchi which is most popular and traditional kind of Kimchi. I made it very first time and I am super happy with outcome. I browsed many videos on youtube and also checked out various recipes and came out with this version. For better result, you should wait till kimchi ferments nicely. In Korea, they make kimchi in huge quantity and stores in traditional Kimchi jars or big air tight containers. They allow them to ferment for a day at a room temperature and then put into refrigerator for a month or more. As I am very impatient, I couldn't resist myself. I managed to wait for a day and made some Korean dishes using kimchi on second day itself. Still those were extremely delicious.

For making napa cabbage kimchi, you will need;

• Napa Cabbage – 1 (medium sized)
• Coarse sea salt - ½ cup
• Water – 6 cups
• Korean Radish – 1 cup
• Carrots – ½ cup
• Garlic chives – 1 cup
• Spring onions – 6
• Onion – ½
• Cloves of garlic – 7-8
• Ginger – 1.5 inch piece
• Korean red pepper powder – ¼ cup
• Rice flour – 2 tbsp
• Sugar – 1 tbsp
• Roasted sesame seeds – 1 and ½ tbsp
• Anchovy Sauce – ¼ cup

How to make Napa Cabbage Kimchi?

• Cut the cabbage into 4 equal parts.

• In a big bowl, dissolve ¼ cup of salt in a 6 cups of water.

• Rinse the cabbage twice under cold running water and drain. 
• Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup of salt evenly in each leaf of cabbage. Put cabbage into salted water. Then place a saucepan full of water onto a cabbage. It will help to keep cabbage under water, so that it will turn bit salty and soft. Let it rest for at least 3 hours or more if you have time.
• Meanwhile your cabbage is getting salty; keep your vegetables and rice syrup ready.

• Cut the radish, carrots into very thin slices.
• Also cut the garlic chives and spring onions the same length as that of radish and carrot.
• Mince the onion, garlic and ginger.

• Mix rice flour with ¼ cup of water.
• Bring a cup of water to a boil and add rice mixture to it. Keep stirring continuously until mixture thickens. It may take around 6-8 minutes. Finally add sugar and mix well. Switch off the heat and let the mixture cool down.

• In a bowl, pour rice mixture. Add red pepper powder. Use little less if you don't like spicy food.

• Add radish, ginger, garlic, onion and carrots.
• Then add garlic chives, spring onions, roasted sesame seeds, anchovy sauce and salt to taste. 

• Mix well and delicious kimchi paste is ready. If you are vegetarian you can skip adding anchovy fish sauce.

• After 3-4 hours, rinse the salted cabbage twice under cold running water. Drain out the water by squeezing them and set aside.

• Now stuff kimchi paste into each leaf of cabbage and put into a container.

• Kimchi is ready. Keep it at a room temperature for a day and then transfer it to a refrigerator. 

This is how it looked after 1 day of fermentation

• It will turn bit sour as it ferments and also releases some water. This kimchi water is very delicious and can be used in various dishes.

You can serve it as it is with plain Korean rice or you can make fried kimchi rice, kimchi pancakes, kimchi soup, kimchi kimbap and many more Korean dishes. I will post all these recipes soon. Stay tuned! :)