Little known outside Korea until relatively recently, this fiery fermented cabbage has taken the world by storm. Used more like a condiment than a side dish in its homeland, a little spicy cabbage peps up no end of dishes – plus it’s surprisingly easy to make and keeps for months. Which might just come in useful.
Prep 25 min, plus salting time
Cook None, but allow at least 5 days to ferment
Makes 1 x 1-litre jar
180g coarse salt, plus 2 tsp extra
1 large cabbage – preferably a Chinese one, but any will do
300g daikon or other radish
1 large carrot
3 spring onions
4 garlic cloves
4cm root ginger, peeled
40g salted shrimp (saeu-jeot), finely chopped (optional)
50g Korean red chilli flakes (gochugaru)
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce (optional)
1 The basics
There are hundreds of types of kimchi using different vegetables, seasonings and even fruits; this is a simplified version made with ingredients that should be fairly easy to get hold of locally or online. If you’d prefer to keep it vegetarian, or can’t find either dried shrimp or fish sauce, leave them out. Equally, other chilli flakes will do, if need be, though they’ll have a different flavour.
2 Boil and cool salted water
Put a litre and a half of water into a saucepan with the salt, and put over a medium heat. Heat, stirring, until the salt has dissolved, then pour into a cold bowl and leave to cool while you prepare the cabbage. Some say that you should use non-chlorinated water, which for most of us will mean mineral water, but tap water works for me.
3 Prep the cabbage
While the brine is cooling, wash the cabbage and chop it lengthways into quarters. Carefully cut out and discard the woody core from each quarter (or save for veg stock), then, working across rather than along the leaves, cut the quarters into thick slices about 4cm wide, though it doesn’t matter if they’re a little bigger or smaller.
4 Soak the cabbage in the brine
Put the cabbage slices in a large bowl and pour over the cooled water, tossing so all the leaves come into contact with the brine. Leave to sit at room temperature, turning occasionally, until the tough white stems have wilted, which will probably take two to three hours.
5 Prep the other veg
Wash and cut the radish and carrot into bite-sized cubes (if using small radishes, this may just be a question of cutting them in half). Sprinkle with two teaspoons of salt, leave to sit for half an hour, then drain. Wash and roughly chop the spring onion, using all but the toughest bit of the green part.
6 Make the seasoning
Crush or finely chop the garlic, ginger and salted shrimp, if using (if not, you may wish to add a quarter-teaspoon of fine salt to make up for them). Put these in a bowl with the chilli flakes, sugar and fish sauce, if using, mix well and loosen with 150ml cold water.
7 Rinse then dress the cabbage
Rinse the cabbage very well under cold water, washing in between the leaves to get rid of any salt still clinging on, then drain thoroughly. Shake the leaves dry in a clean tea towel, then tip back into the large bowl. Pour in the seasoning and toss to coat – gloves are advisable if you use your hands.
8 Pack the kimchi into a jar
Spoon the kimchi into a clean jar, crock or pot, pressing it in very firmly to minimise the amount of air trapped between the leaves. As much of the cabbage as possible should be submerged in the liquid it emits, so you need to weight it down – a clean plastic bag full of cold water should do the trick – then seal the jar.
9 Leave to ferment
Put the jar in a cool place out of direct sunlight for five days, checking on it and pushing it back down under the liquid as necessary (it will give off more as it sits), then taste; it should be mildly tangy by this point. Once it’s sour enough for your taste, refrigerate it to pause the fermentation process, and consume at your leisure – it will keep for months.
