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ChuangTzu
starvingphysicist



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Kimchi 2
#15102245 - 09/19/11 05:34 PM (12 years, 4 months ago) |
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A while ago geo posted a thread on making kimchi and it inspired me to document one of my kimchi making days. I've been moving around a lot and hadn't had a chance to make any more kimchi until yesterday. While normally my batches are about 3x this size, I don't have the requisite bowls and vessels to make that much yet so I scaled back to about 1 month's worth of kimchi in this batch.
Start with the following ingredients (the amounts I used are in parentheses, but everything is pretty much to taste or as-needed).
- Large napa cabbages (I used 3 this time or probably 15 pounds. Normally I use at least 10 cabbages.)
- Course sea salt (Enough to cover every cabbage leaf--about 1-2 pounds.)
- Minced garlic (1 pound of pre-minced.)
- Ginger (1 root.)
- Chilis (5 medium-sized.)
- Red pepper powder (not really sure-I just dumped some in until the consistency looked right.)
- Sugar (maybe 1/4 cup.)
- Rice flour (~2/3 cup.)
- Green onions (1 bundle.)
- Lemons (3.)
- Optional: fish sauce, dried shrimp, anything else you feel like

First, remove the outer leaves of the cabbages and cut off the bottom to remove all the brown and/or dirty parts,

then cut them in half lengthwise.


Rinse briefly under cold running water, drain well, then pack salt in between the leaves so that every single leaf is salted. Cover and leave overnight. I flipped mine over in the morning and let them salt a few more hours before proceeding.

After salting, pour off the sweat:

Rinse the cabbages thoroughly and wring out as much of the water as you can. This step is important.

Prepare the paste by mixing rice flour and water and heating over a medium flame. You're basically making rice porridge at this stage. Allow this to cool.


Mix in red pepper powder.

Mix in minced garlic.

Mix in lemon juice, minced ginger, sliced green onions, and sliced chilis.


Now pack this paste in between each of the cabbage leaves as you did the salt. Make sure every patch of cabbage is covered in paste.


Pack the cabbage into an air tight container in the manner which leaves the littlest deadspace between cabbages. Pretend you're playing tetris with floppy cabbages. Ideally you'll fill the whole container to the top, but I didn't have enough cabbage.

Leave this out for a day or two or three depending on the desired sourness and your local temperatures then refrigerate.
Afterwards, we started some baby radish waterkimchi:

Pitched the yeast in a few gallons of cider:

And had a meal of tofu bean sprout soup:

I'll post more pics in a few days when the fermentation process is further along.
Someone please tell me how to thumbnail all those pics, plz.
Edited by ChuangTzu (09/20/11 08:59 AM)
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Jake McBaked
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Looks great! My girlfriend has expressed interest in doing a kimchi batch, but right now I haven't got the time.
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LiquidSmoke
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those are some gorgeous pics man.
I'm drooling hardcore.
-------------------- "Shmokin' weed, Shmokin' wizz, doin' coke, drinkin' beers. Drinkin' beers beers beers, rollin' fatties, smokin' blunts. Who smokes tha blunts? We smoke the blunts" - Jay and Silent Bob strike Back
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
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I might have to try kimchi once more. I tried it back when geokills made his thread, but decided it wasn't for me - something about the flavor I guess. But with this red-paste concept, maybe I should try it again, see if it makes any difference. Perhaps not leave it out too long for only slight/limited acidity; I might have overdone it the first times I made it.
That tofu/bean sprout soup looks delicious btw...damn!
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ChuangTzu
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Re: Kimchi [Re: koraks]
#15105305 - 09/20/11 09:03 AM (12 years, 4 months ago) |
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Yeah, you can even refrigerate it immediately if you don't like it sour at all.
I prefer the more "rancid" stuff because the acidity and slight carbonation actually make it feel more "fresh" in my mouth. Even though it's totally the opposite of fresh.
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ChuangTzu
starvingphysicist



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Btw, how do I thumbnailize those pics?
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
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Quote:
ChuangTzu said: Btw, how do I thumbnailize those pics?
Upload them to the Shroomery, then they're thumbed automatically.
Quote:
ChuangTzu said: Yeah, you can even refrigerate it immediately if you don't like it sour at all.
I prefer the more "rancid" stuff because the acidity and slight carbonation actually make it feel more "fresh" in my mouth. Even though it's totally the opposite of fresh. 
I see exactly what you mean! Maybe I should try it unfermented first - essentially just seasoned, raw napa cabbage. Sounds delicious...
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ChuangTzu
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Re: Kimchi [Re: koraks]
#15106112 - 09/20/11 12:01 PM (12 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
koraks said: Upload them to the Shroomery, then they're thumbed automatically.
Yeah, that pesky 500kb upload limit always dissuades me from doing that since I would have to resize everything first...
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snoot
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thats like thumbnailing porn picturse man. no need. also, looks delicious I've never actually tried to make kimchi, but have always wanted to, this looks easy enough. not to mention sexy.
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LiquidSmoke
My title's cooler than yours DBK

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Re: Kimchi [Re: koraks]
#15109506 - 09/20/11 09:53 PM (12 years, 4 months ago) |
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Kimchi is all about the funkyness bro.
It's a natural side dish, something to be eaten with a big bowl of rice and some barbqued meat or stew, or some roasted fish with rice.
I can eat so much of it now, love it.
-------------------- "Shmokin' weed, Shmokin' wizz, doin' coke, drinkin' beers. Drinkin' beers beers beers, rollin' fatties, smokin' blunts. Who smokes tha blunts? We smoke the blunts" - Jay and Silent Bob strike Back
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
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Quote:
LiquidSmoke said: Kimchi is all about the funkyness bro.
I guess the funkiness of kimchi is to my what the blandness of tofu is to greysRDbest I'd love to love it, but until know, I haven't been able to...
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boO


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joo. on hyvää
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ChuangTzu
starvingphysicist



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Re: Kimchi [Re: boO]
#15112128 - 09/21/11 01:58 PM (12 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
boO said: joo. on hyvää
kiitos, kiitos.
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geokills
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Serendipitous timing... I just fired off some pic's to D's phone two days ago of my newest kimchi batch! We are kimchi brethren. 
I have also gotten into the habit of mixing my seasoning ingredients together first to form a paste, however I have never used rice flour (though I have gotten in the habit of using an increasingly higher proportion of oyster sauce). Is the purpose of the rice flour simply to provide more fuel for the lactobacilllus bacteria, or is it something else?
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greys
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I think it just makes the chili paste have more weight.
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ChuangTzu
starvingphysicist



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Quote:
geokills said: Serendipitous timing... I just fired off some pic's to D's phone two days ago of my newest kimchi batch! We are kimchi brethren. 

Quote:
I have also gotten into the habit of mixing my seasoning ingredients together first to form a paste, however I have never used rice flour (though I have gotten in the habit of using an increasingly higher proportion of oyster sauce). Is the purpose of the rice flour simply to provide more fuel for the lactobacilllus bacteria, or is it something else?
I was speculating on this myself. It might be nutritional, or it might just be to adjust the consistency of the paste to get it to adhere to the leaves better.
According to this site, it may be both.
It's a bit cool here now so I'm going to give the kimchi at least one more day before refrigerating. I've been poaching some here and there along the way though and it's already delicious!
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geokills
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I love my kimchi at all stages of development.
Funny enough, I'm down in San Diego at the moment at a friend's office, 14" or 15" monitor in front of me, electronic components all over the place, a cool little jar of Ferotec magnetic oil that's really fun to play with, and a quart jar of my home made kimchi sitting on the table that I brought down to chow alongside some spicy Korean style pork, and a glass of Chili Pepper Spicy Ale from Six Rivers Brewery (this stuff is hot).
Anyway, just wanted to let you know, I have a vested interest in this topic of conversation!
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ChuangTzu
starvingphysicist



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D's phone doesn't get great reception in our apt. so we only just now got to check out the pics. Looks good!
I need to get a hold of some half gallon jars to store some of the kimchi in. I find that jars hold the pressure better and allow the kimchi to get more bubbly than when its stored in tubs.
The chili pepper ale sounds delicious.
Is the ferotec magnetic oil a ferrofluid? I've made a couple versions of that and it definitely has some interesting properties. Have you seen videos of that Japanese artist's displays that use gallons of the stuff? I can't remember his name...
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greys
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I have an idea...
Why don't we assemble a kimchi mega thread and sticky it?
It seems appropriate, there's a kimchi thread or kimchi question pretty frequently here.
just sayin.
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falcon



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Re: Kimchi [Re: greys]
#15120542 - 09/22/11 11:32 PM (12 years, 4 months ago) |
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Ha! Megathread is a good idea.
and,
oh, my babies! Get salty evenly!
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