EASY KIMCHI

Main Ingredients

• 2 Napa Cabbage Heads (about 4 lb each)
• 1 Onion
• 4 Green Onions
• 1 Handful Garlic Chives

Cabbage Brine Ingredients

• 1⅓ Cup Coarse Sea Salt (Sprinkle)
• 20 Cups Water
• 1 Cup Coarse Sea Salt (For Salt Water)

Kimchi Paste Ingredients

• 20 Dried Red Hot Peppers
• ½ Cup Cooked Rice
• About ½ Cup Fish Sauce
• ¼ Cup Water
• ½ Onion
• 14 Garlic Cloves
• 1 Piece Ginger (Unshelled Brazil nut sized, cut into 3 pieces)
• ⅔ Cup Red Pepper Powder
• 2½ Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

Directions

Remove any bad parts from the napa cabbage.

Divide the cabbage into 4 pieces.

Remove the heart from the cabbage. (Now the cabbage has a broken heart. ㅋㅋㅋ)

Cut the remaining cabbage into 2 inch pieces. Cutting the cabbage will reduce the soak time of the cabbage. Plus, it’s easier to mix the cabbage with the kimchi paste.

Put some cabbage into the big bowl and sprinkle 1 handful of coarse sea salt onto the cabbage. In the same way, add another layer of cabbage on it and sprinkle more salt. I used 1⅓ cup of coarse sea salt in this step. Keep adding more layers in this prescribed manner until the supply of cabbage has been exhausted.

In another bowl, pour 20 cups of water and 1 cup of coarse sea salt. Stir it until the salt dissolves.

Evenly pour the salt water into the cabbage bowl. Soak the cabbage in the salt water for 3 hours. Every hour, mix the cabbage (up and down), so all the cabbage can get well salted.

After 3 hours, rinse the cabbage in cold water 3 times.

Drain the water for about 2 hours.

Wash the dried hot peppers once. Remove the stems from the peppers if they are present. Cut them in half with scissors.

To make the kimchi paste: in a mixer, grind 20 dried red hot peppers, ½ cup of cooked rice, about ½ cup of fish sauce, ¼ cup of water, ½ of an onion, 14 garlic cloves, and 3 pieces of ginger. Leave out some of the fish sauce. You can add the remainder later to adjust the saltiness to your tastes. I used a little less than ½ cup of fish sauce for my kimchi.

Cut 1 onion, 4 green onions, and 1 handful of garlic chives as in the picture.

Pour the mixture into the big bowl, and add the rest of the ingredients for the kimchi paste: ⅔ cup of red pepper powder, 2½ Tbsp of sugar, and 1 Tbsp of sesame seeds. In this step, depending on your tastes, you can add some of the left over fish sauce you saved from the grinding mixture. Add the onion, green onion, and the garlic chives into the paste. Mix well.

Add the napa cabbage.

Mix the cabbage with the kimchi paste. Put the kimchi in a glass jar or container. Leave it outside (room temperature) over night, and then put it in the refrigerator. It will take several days to a week until it is properly fermented.