Korea's National Dish

Kimchi 김치

Kimchi also spelled kimchee or gimchi, is a traditional fermented Korean side dish made of vegetables with a variety of seasonings. It is often described as "spicy" or "sour". In traditional preparation kimchi is often allowed to ferment underground in jars for months at a time.

It is Korea's national dish, with hundreds of varieties made from napa cabbage, radish, scallion, or cucumber as a main ingredient.  Kimchi is also the basis for many derivative dishes such as kimchi stew (김치찌개; kimchi jjigae), kimchi pancake (김치부침개; kimchijeon), kimchi soup (김칫국;kimchiguk), and kimchi fried rice (김치볶음밥; kimchi bokkeumbap).

The earliest references to pickled vegetables in East Asia are found in the Xin Nan Shan 信南山 poem of the Shi Jing (詩經), which uses the character 菹 or 葅 (Korean "jeo", modern Mandarin Chinese "ju1"). The term ji was used until the pre-modern terms chimchae (hanja: 沉菜, lit. soaked vegetables),dimchae, and timchae were adopted in the period of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The word then was modified into jimchi, and is currently kimchi.

Early kimchi was made of cabbage and beef stock only. Red chili, a New World vegetable not found in Korea before European contact with the Americas, was introduced to Korea from Japan after the Japanese invasions (1592–1598) and became a staple ingredient in kimchi, although its use was not documented until the 18th century. Red chili pepper flakes are now used as the main ingredient for spice and source of heat for many varieties of kimchi. In the twelfth century other spices, creating flavors such as sweet and sour, and colors, such as white and orange, were added.

Kimchi is Korea's national dish. During South Korea's involvement in the Vietnam War its government requested American help to ensure that Korean troops, reportedly "desperate" for the food, could obtain it in the field; President of South Korea Park Chung-hee told United States President Lyndon B. Johnson that kimchi was "vitally important to the morale of Korean troops". It was also sent to space on board Soyuz TMA-12 with Yi So-Yeon after a multi-million dollar research effort to kill the bacteria and lessen the odor without affecting taste.

Ingredients:

Baechu (napa cabbage 10 pounds)

salt

sweet rice flour

sugar

water

garlic

ginger

onion

fish sauce

squid

hot pepper flakes

leek

green onions

carrot

radish

Directions:

1. Trim the discolored outer leaves of 10 pounds of napa cabbage.
2. Cut the cabbage lengthwise into quarters and remove the cores. Chop it up into bite size pieces.
3. Soak the pieces of cabbage in cold water and put the soaked cabbage into a large basin. Sprinkle salt.
   Tip: 1 cup of salt will be used for 10 pounds of napa cabbage
4. Every 30 minutes, turn the cabbage over to salt evenly (total salting time will be 1½ hours).
5. 1½ hours later, rinse the cabbage in cold water 3 times to clean it thoroughly.
6. Drain the cabbage and set aside.

Make porridge:

• Put 3 cups of water and ½ cup sweet rice flour (chapssal garu) in a pot and mix it well and bring to a boil. Keep stirring until the porridge makes bubbles (about 5 minutes).
• Add ¼ cup sugar. Stir and cook for a few more mintues until it’s translucent.
• Cool it down.

Make kimchi paste:

• Place the cold porridge into a large bowl. Now you will add all your ingredients one by one.
• Add 1 cup of fish sauce, 2.5 cups of hot pepper flakes (depending on your taste), 1 cup of crushed garlic, 1-2 tbs of minced ginger, 1 cup amount of minced onion.
  Tip: much easier to use a food processor.
• Wash and drain the salty squid. Chop it up and add it to the kimchi paste.
• Add 10 diagonally-sliced green onions, 2 cups amount of chopped leek, 2 cups of julienned Korean radish, and ¼ cup of julienned carrot.
• Mix all ingredients well and your kimchi paste is done.

Mix the cabbage with kimchi paste:

• Put the kimchi paste in a large basin and add all the cabbage. Mix it by hand.
  Tip: If your basin is not large enough to mix all the ingredients at once, do it bit by bit.
• Put the kimchi into an air-tight sealed plastic container or glass jar.

You can eat it fresh right after making or wait until it’s fermented.

How do you know it’s fermented or not?
One or 2 days after, open the lid of the Kimchi container. You may see some bubbles with lots of liquids, or maybe sour smells. That means it’s already being fermented.

Kimchi ma sit sso yo 김치 맛있어요 :)