The national Korean dish, along with boiled rice, which makes up the daily usual diet, is becoming more and more firmly included in our daily life, along with other Asian dishes. Someone adores him, someone is disgusted, claiming that it smells bad. But in any case, this dish must be tried more than once in order to make a final opinion about it. Cooking kimchi in Korean according to the recipes (with a photo) presented below will help to better understand and appreciate this specific dish, which is the basis for many other Korean dishes.
What is kimchi?
This is the name of a spicy dish with a specific smell, usually made from Beijing cabbage in combination with other vegetables, as well as with a certain set of spices and spices.
At home, in Korea, he may also be called jimchi, jimcha, and kimchi. But all this is about the same product, which is used to prepare appetizers, salads, soups and stews, while being an independent dish. Almost every family has its own kimchi recipe, adding something unique to it.
Simple recipe
One of the most affordable kimchi recipes in Korean (with photo) looks like this. You will need the following ingredients:
- one large fork of Beijing cabbage;
- 1.5 liters of drinking water;
- a small head of garlic;
- 3 tbsp. tablespoons of hot ground pepper;
- one onion;
- a bunch of green onions, preferably with large feathers;
- 1 tbsp. a spoon of shrimp paste;
- 2 tbsp. tablespoons of grated ginger (fresh);
- 1 teaspoon of sugar;
- 3 tbsp. tablespoons of salt, preferably sea salt.
Cabbage preparation
In different Korean kimchi recipes from Peking cabbage, you can find various types of cutting this vegetable. They use whole cabbage, cut into slices, slices, with whole leaves cut along, etc. How can one decide which way is better?
In fact, this is completely unimportant and rather a matter of taste or habit: some like whole leaves, into which you can then wrap side dishes, meat or rice, others prefer accurate cutting. Most likely, you just need to try several options to choose your kimchi recipe. Here are some ideas to get you started.
- Cut the forks of cabbage into four parts lengthwise and pour brine in this form.
- Separate each leaf from the head (do not use too small) and grease with a mixture of spices, subsequently pouring it with brine.
- Divide the head in half and in this form to ferment. This option is the longest in time, because cabbage should be in the brine for at least six days.
- Cut the head into four parts along and divide each one into pieces 3-5 cm long. The most convenient option for the holidays and feasts, as the cutting is convenient in serving.
Brine fill
Then, following the kimchi recipe, Beijing cabbage is salted: the salt is dissolved in cold water and the prepared cut is poured with this mixture. It is important that the liquid completely covers the vegetables, so if it is not enough, you should add more, according to the proportion indicated in the recipe.
In this form, cabbage should stand for at least a day, although in winter it can be longer. To make sure that it is ready for further cooking, we try to break a thick vein on a large sheet: it will not break with a crunch, but just gently bend like a rubber one. After making sure of this, you can drain the brine, and rinse the whole cut under running water and put on the wire rack so that it is a little glass.
How to make kimchi sauce?
Cooking the sauce step by step for kimchi in Korean according to the recipe (a photo of a dish of Beijing cabbage is available in the article).
- Chop onions with the thinnest straws, and feathers with larger strips.
- Grind the garlic with a press or mortar, mix with grated ginger, pepper and shrimp paste, which can be exchanged for fish sauce (it is used in Korea). Then add sugar to the mixture and mix everything thoroughly, you can use a blender.
- Add a little paprika for flavor if desired.
Fermentation process (fermentation)
Grate the cabbage with the resulting sauce, ram it tightly in a bowl (preferably plastic or glass) and leave it in a cool place, pressing it on top with oppression. For it, you can use, for example, a three-liter bottle of water. As usual, a kimchi recipe at home requires a curing of the product from three to five days: on hot days, fermentation is faster, and in winter you sometimes have to wait six days, especially if the cabbage is cut coarsely.
It is worth noting that this process will be accompanied by a not-so-pleasant smell of fermentation, therefore it is better to leave dishes with kimchi on the balcony or in the pantry - in the kitchen this can irritate households. By the way, it is this specific smell that subsequently repels those who first try this healthy dish. But if curiosity still prevails, then the pleasure and light shock of the taste of the snack are guaranteed. Then you can be sure - the kimchi cabbage recipe will surely take its place in the cookbook of your favorite dishes. But how else can it be diversified.
Kimchi with carrots and daikon (step by step with photo)
In Korean kimchi recipe, daikon is often used - a kind of radish that gives the dish more spiciness and a charge of vitamins. If necessary, a vegetable can be exchanged for a black radish or radish more familiar to a Russian resident - the taste will not suffer from this.
List of essential ingredients for making kimchi kale according to the recipe with daikon:
- two forks of cabbage and daikon root;
- one each - onion, carrot and head of garlic;
- a large bunch of green onions;
- 3 tbsp. tablespoons of sugar and hot pepper;
- 2 tbsp. tablespoons of grated fresh ginger, fish sauce and rice flour;
- 1 tbsp. a spoon of paprika.
Photoreceptive Cooking
This kimchi photorecept step-by-step illuminates all the stages of preparation of pickled Beijing cabbage: slicing, aging in brine, preparing hot dressing and directly sauerkraut.
You can also use ready-made chimchi mix, which is sold in Asian departments along with fish sauce, shrimp paste and other constant companions of Korean cuisine.
Can I make kimchi from white cabbage?
Of course you can, although its taste and appearance will be slightly different from the traditional version. Given that it is not always that Beijing cabbage is available for all regions in a kimchi recipe, you can try making the Russian version of this dish. To prepare you will need:
- one head of cabbage, it is better to choose loose;
- 1 packet of Korean seasoning;
- 1 teaspoon of hot pepper and sugar;
- head of garlic;
- 150 grams of sea salt;
- two liters of filtered water.
How to cook?
For such a kimchi recipe, it is better to take small heads of cabbage and cut them into four parts, without separating the leaves from the stalk. Place them in a saucepan, more tightly to each other, and pour salt brine (water + salt according to the recipe) for 18 -20 hours. At the same time, so that the leaves evenly absorb salt, you should turn the pieces every four hours.
When the time necessary for salting comes to an end, rinse the cabbage under running water and pour kimchi sauce made from crushed garlic, sugar, pepper and Korean seasoning. Add 100 grams of water to the mixture, mix well. Thoroughly season the cabbage flavored with sauce in a bowl, cover with a lid and store in a cool place. Four days later, it will be ready for use.
Kimchi summer version
Here is another recipe for kimchi from Beijing cabbage, which uses not dried pepper, but fresh. Therefore, in the summer, if you suddenly wanted hot, it is quite possible to cook a snack in Korean. Once again, it is worth recalling that it is better to take large forks of Beijing cabbage, as the small ones break up and look unaesthetically ready-made.
In order to cook kimchi according to the recipe, with a photo for an additional guideline, you should prepare the following products:
- 1.5 kg of Beijing cabbage;
- 50-70 grams of garlic;
- three liters of purified water;
- three tbsp. tablespoons of salt and fish sauce;
- 40 grams of vegetable oil;
- two hot chili peppers at least five cm long;
- two fleshy bell peppers of red color;
- five cm long ginger root;
- 1 tbsp. a spoonful of ground coriander seeds;
- a large bunch of green onions.
Each cabbage forks is cut lengthwise, laid in a deep container cut up and pour brine prepared from water and salt, and you do not need to boil it - just stir until the crystals dissolve. Put a clean cloth on top and bend to squeeze the vegetable well. In a warm room, leave the cabbage to salt for two days. Drain the third liquid, and carefully rub the cabbage with kimchi sauce, trying to flavor each leaf (it is better to do this with rubber gloves, since the mixture is quite hot). At the same time, we layered them with feathers of green onions, which should be cut into strips of about five centimeters.
To prepare the sauce, grind all the peppers, previously peeled from the seeds, ginger root and garlic in a meat grinder. Mix the resulting mass with coriander and fish sauce, add a glass of water and oil. We carefully fold the resulting workpiece into the dishes and put it in a cool place for four days. It is advisable to turn the pieces upside down once a day and press them with your hands so that the juice stands out - then the fermentation process will take place more evenly. If you want a quicker result, you can put the kimchi pan in a warm kitchen - the process will take only two days, but the smell of fermentation will not spread the most pleasant, this should be taken into account.
The presence of bell pepper in the recipe may “jar” some adherents of traditional cuisine, but do experimental recipes adapted to Russian cuisine have no right to exist? Moreover, according to reviews, the recipe is really good.
Cucumber kimchi
Who says kimchi recipe uses only cabbage? From fresh cucumbers with carrots, an appetizer of no less tasty, but more festive appearance is obtained. This type of kimchi even has its own name - "oh dogs." For cooking, it is better to take small fruits or cut them into two parts across. The list of necessary ingredients looks like this:
- eight cucumbers;
- one each - onion and carrot;
- 70 grams of water and soy sauce;
- a small bunch of green onions;
- 4-6 cloves of garlic;
- one spoon of hot pepper;
- two tbsp. tablespoons of salt;
- one teaspoon of sugar.
Step by step cooking
To begin with, you should wash the cucumbers, if they are large - cut across, and on each make two cuts crosswise so that the fruit is not completely cut into two centimeters. Thoroughly salt, especially inside, and leave for twenty minutes so that the vegetables are salted.
Meanwhile, prepare the mixture for stuffing. To do this, grate the carrots for Korean salads, cut onions into thin rings, and green into 5 cm slices. Pass the garlic through a press or grind in a mortar. Mix all the slices together, pour over soy sauce mixed with water and sugar, add pepper and mix the resulting hot mass again.
Fold the cucumbers in a colander or sieve and rinse them under running water, eliminating excess salt. Let the water drain a little. Then stuff the cucumbers with the cooked vegetable mixture, trying not to destroy their shape, then smear them on all sides with the remnants of the acute mass, laying them in a plastic or glass container. Literally after four to six hours, you can eat your dogs, while your snack retains its fresh taste for several days - provided that it is stored in the refrigerator.
A little advice from the masters
If you analyze all the recipes, you will notice that garlic in combination with hot pepper and green onion passes through them with a “red thread”: these three ingredients are required when preparing this appetizer. At the same time, it is recommended to purchase hot peppers in an Asian shop. It is of a special kind, not as fiercely burning as chili, but it gives a rich red color to the dish, which is also a hallmark of the snack, along with the smell.