Kimchi

All my girlfriends can't seem to get enough of kimchi. Most of us crave for this yummy salad and end up going out for korean too often. I was always keen to learn how to make it myself. Initially i considered getting the kimchi paste at this japanese/korean departmental store near by  (Yamato-ya at b6 market, Safdarjung enclave) but ended up making it myself. 

The store bought paste apart from costing Rs.500/- at INA market  for a small box (200gms) also has corn starch in it. Yamagato that generally keeps the paste charges less comparatively but they are only available in winter months as informed to me by the patient girl who works there. 

Two components to this :

• the vegetable.
• the paste. 

Get yourself 1.5 kg of nappa cabbage, chop it up into medium square pieces  and throw it all into a large bowl and add a half cup of salt and mix well but be gentle. Keep it aside for 10 minutes while it wilts. After 10 minutes rinse the cabbage well and remove all salt and dirt. Squeeze gently and let it rest on a veggie strainer. The picture below shows you the part which needs to be chopped and thrown away into your garden compost.

Lets make the paste. 

Ingredients for the kimchi paste:

• 4 tbsp chilli powder ( gochugaru, a korean chilli powder which is sweet spicy and has a smokey flavour. i substituted this with 3 different types of chilli powder with hints of each flavour, sold at any spice store at INA market )
• 4 tbsp fish sauce (most important ingredient, substitute for salt as well as a flavour enhancer)
• 1 tbsp sugar (powdered/syrup)
• 1 large onion.
• 1/2 red bell pepper.
• some green onion leaves.
• 8-10 cloves of garlic
• a thumb size chunk of ginger (oops!!! no picture available)

I used a hand blender to turn all of these into the kimchi paste. (taste the paste and add some salt if you wish)

 This is what you will be staring down at if you get everything right and then you know its time to mix away.

You can eat some immediately and store most of it in a clean box in your refrigerator for  2 weeks.  

 This is a very versatile salad to have in your fridge. Watch out for Kimchi soup with meatballs and kimchi fried rice!! Enjoy and share this recipe with your loved ones.
Remember to cook with your heart!!