Kimchee

MolimOrion

Veteran XV
1 cabbage
2 cucumbers
1 green pepper
3 green onions
2 cloves garlic
1 carrot
Several hot peppers, I used about 5 serrano type, and 2 jalapenos

1/2 cup salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 heaping tablespoons red pepper flakes (can use crushed red pepper or cayenne also)

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Shred the cabbage into around 1/4" pieces. Put the cabbage in a bowl, and add the salt/sugar, and mix very well. Move bowl to the side, and stir occasionally.

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Chop the green pepper, green onions, carrots, and hot peppers. Put that in a bowl, and mix with the minced garlic, a pinch of salt, and the red pepper flakes. Move bowl to side, and stir occasionally.

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Taste test the cabbage, and if it is too salty, drain off some of the liquid. If not salty enough, add more, and mix well.

Peel the cucumbers if the skin is too tough, and cut the cucumbers into slices. Remove the hard seeds from the cucumbers, and the bigger slices cut in half.

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Add the pepper mix to the cabbage, mix very well (use your hands), and then add most of the cucumbers. Mix well, and use the remaining cucumbers to soak up the remaining pepper mix from that bowl. Add it to the mix, and mix thoroughly. This is what it looks like when done:

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If it is not spicy enough, you can add more red pepper flakes. If you want to eat it right away, you can add a little vinegar for taste. I like to let it sit for a day to soak up all of the heat. If you used cucumber it lasts about 3 weeks in the fridge before the cucumbers aren't crispy anymore. If you don't use cucumber it lasts for months. It is the perfect side dish. This batch was given to friends and the remainder eaten with steamed rice, geem, zucchini pancakes, and homemade eggrolls.
 
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Pictures re-uploaded.

In the above recipe, it's important to drain off enough of that salty liquid off the cabbage mix in that one step. If you wait until the very end, and it is too salty, you have to add cabbage to it, but it won't be mixed as well, and you end up crushing the other veggies if you have to fix it like that.

When I buy kimchee at the local Asian store, I have to sift through 4 different types to find the one without shrimp or shrimp sauce in it. I don't like that flavor, and it makes it non-vegetarian. Not that I am, but alot of my friends are, and when eating Asian dishes there is plenty of other meat for me :D

Sure, you can bury it in clay pots if you have the time. Just don't put cucumber in it, and it will stay good until you eat it all. That is how kimchee was made back in the day, but I am pretty sure most of the stuff you buy at the store, and get from restaurants, isn't buried underground first :cool:
 
I am seriously considering acquiring some clay pots, researching some old_skul Korean kimchi recipes, and purchasing a shovel.

Or, I could just go down to my local Korean restaurant, which charges an arm and a leg (and a kidney for good measure) and eating their kimchi.

Kimchi makes me fart like a banshee.
 
I am seriously considering acquiring some clay pots, researching some old_skul Korean kimchi recipes, and purchasing a shovel.

Or, I could just go down to my local Korean restaurant, which charges an arm and a leg (and a kidney for good measure) and eating their kimchi.

Kimchi makes me fart like a banshee.

If you really do this, please post pics of burying the kimchee, the kind of clay pot, how deep, how long, err...this is starting to not sound like food :)

We have no good Korean restaurants in the Portland area from what I have seen. There are around 10 or so that I know of, but none that have decent tasting kimchee or bulgogi. My next 2 recipes will probably be beef bulgogi and "heart attack egg rolls".
 
I'm tempted. I just don't know if it's possible around here though since the ground freezes. I suppose I could bury it deeper. I think I would fuck it up, though, because I am white, and white people just don't make good Korean food.
 
I'm tempted. I just don't know if it's possible around here though since the ground freezes. I suppose I could bury it deeper. I think I would fuck it up, though, because I am white, and white people just don't make good Korean food.

Bullshit. Ever hear of The Frozen Chosin Reservoir? It gets cold as fuck and freezes in Korea every year.

I don't know honestly if the ground freezes where they make kimchi but there is a damn good chance it does. And if it does they find a way around it.
 
I think only the top few inches of the ground actually freezes yearly. 4 feet down it stays in the 50F range.

I want some kimchi now.
 
kim chi chi-ge (spelling? rofl) one of my favorite asian freinds mothers' dishes. so fucking hot. its a stew made with cabbage and meat and MAGMA
 
This is a pretty creative twist on kimchee. My mom still makes her own homemade kimchee, and while we don't bury in clay pots... most korean mothers these days have a special kimchee refridgerator which keeps the environment suitable for kimchee to ferment.

MolimOrion's got the right idea, but I think there's more garlic and citrus flavors involved (I've heard of moms using 7up, coke, beer, whole limes, etc.) and a WHOLE lot more spice. In fact, I would say the major missing ingredient here is korean chili paste sauce thing which is a nice puree of a shitload of different peppers. The stuff is called "gochujang" and they put a shitload of this sauce into the mix and let it ferment. That sauce is the main reason why kimchee in general is so gosh darn red

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