Radish Kimchi
On over a year staying here in Korea, I am already used with their food. There are days that I am craving for bibimbap but can’t do anything because too shy to go inside a Korean restaurant because until now I am ignorant with their national language, I always told myself to learn it but I am always busy to do so. Maybe I will learned when we are not here anymore in Korea, sarcasm.
Anyway Kimchi is the traditional fermented Korean dish, mostly when people heard kimchi what immediately comes to their mind is cabbage. For your information it has different varieties as what I know there are 100 varieties of kimchi. This one (photo) is my favorite as of now, it is a radish kimchi. Every time I ate I have a side dish of this except with noodles of course. This kimchi is served in cubes that’s why when I want to eat I have to cut it into cubes.
If you want to make your own radish kimchi here’s how:
Cubed Radish Kimchi
1 daikon radish (weighing approximately 1 1/2 lbs.)
Water and kosher salt for brining
2 tsp Korean fine chili pepper powder
1/2 bulb of garlic, finely grated
1 1/2″ fresh ginger, finely grated
4 tsp Korean anchovy sauce
1 1/2 tsp sugar
3 tsp Korean coarse chili pepper flakes
4 scallions, green parts only, sliced into 1″ lengths
1 1/2 tsp rice flour
3/8 C water
- Fill a big non-reactive bowl (this means no metal!) with cool water and stir in a handful of kosher salt. Peel the radish and cut into 1″ cubes. Put the radish cubes into the brine and leave them there to soak for 20 minutes.
- Make rice porridge by mixing the rice flour into the 3/8 C water and bringing it to a boil, at which point it will thicken, then removing it from the heat and setting it aside to cool to room temperature.
- Sterilize a jar. (Yeah, this seems kinda silly, but all the recipes I’ve read suggest it, so why not?)
- When the radish cubes are done brining, rinse them off with cool water. Mix in the Korean fine chili pepper powder.
- Mix all the other ingredients into a paste, then mix them into the radish cubes, making sure that all the cubes are basically smeared all over with this stuff. This is tons of fun to do with bare hands.
- Put the whole mess into a jar and screw on the lid. Leave it out at room temperature for about 40 hours, at which point it is ready for eating and should be kept in the fridge henceforth.
Recipe Source: Gothamist