@Frank: I love artichokes in olive oil. Its good with daing na galunggong/bangus, tuyo, danggit or even adobo!! Now I’m hungry..=p

He also had a link to a You Tube video on making Kimchi in his June 22, 2007 blog.
https://www.desertmodernism.com/blog/

Kimchi
I’m always on the lookout for the perfect cabbage kimchi recipe, and this one’s the best so far. It’s taken from “The Book of KImchi,” published in Korea. I recommend it to anybody seeking out a kimchi recipe that produces restaurant quality kimchi.

Deconstructed, here’s how kimchi breaks down:
sea salt, dried chili pepper flakes, sugar, ginger, garlic
watercress
green onion
julienned radish
napa cabbage after being soaked in a sea salt brine for at least 6 hours

1. Start by selecting a good napa cabbage that is heavy and firm. Remove the outer leaves and reserve. Cut the cabbage with knife 1/3 of the way into the base. Use hands to tear the remainder of the cabbage into two pieces. Sprinkle sea salt into the inner leaves.

2. Create a salt brine by mixing three handfuls of sea salt with water (I used filtered) in a ceramic or glass (not metal) bowl large enough hold the submerged halves. Mix the salt in thoroughly with clean hands. Submerge the two cabbage halves. Place the outer leaves on top. (If necessary, place a plate on top of them and weigh the plate so that the entire cabbage is submerged.) Allow to sit in the brine for at least 6 hours in a cool place. Overnight is convenient. (Never use a metal bowl as it’ll react with the salt.)

3. Rinse the cabbage halves in cold water and drain thoroughly. Now it’s time to measure out the basic seasoning ingredients. I have struggled with recipes that call for “x” number of grams of this and “x” number of oz. of that. Dispense with this nonsense. Instead use a breakdown of ingredients by percentage. Using the weight of the cabbage as a “100” value, counterpoint seasoning ingredients as such: 20% julienned daikon radish, 3% green onion, 3% watercress, 2-3% chili pepper flakes, 1.5% garlic, 0.7% ginger, 3-5% fish sauce, 2-3% salt. This is the standard breakdown for a basic cabbage kimchi. (In other words, if you have a 100 lb cabbage (haha) you would use 20 lbs of green onions in your seasoning. Make sense? Note that not all the salt is used in the seasoning — most is used in the brine. In the case of a one-cabbage kimchi, you would only used about 1 tsp sea salt in your seasoning. The reason is the fish sauce is already very salty.)

4. Combine 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, chili pepper flakes (see above), 1 tsp pine nuts, fresh ginger (see above), fresh garlic (see above), anchovy sauce (see above — this is my preference for fish sauce but you can use others), watercress (see above), green onions (see above), julienned daikon radish (see above). Clean hands thoroughout and mix with your fingers.

5. Now you will need to cut out the hard base of the cabbage halves with a knife. This is done because it will go bad if not cut out. Now pack the reasoning between each leaf of the cabbage halves. With done, wrap one outer leave around the exposed interior portion tightly. Place into a sealed, ceramic cannister. Repeat. With the removed, exterior leaves, use these to cover the cabbage halves. Sprinkle a little sea salt over them and add just a bit of fish sauce as well.

6. And now for kimchi’s “big secret.” Have you ever noticed that kimchis made at home never, ever taste as yummy and savory as restaurant or store-bought kimchi? The secret is pre-refrigeration fermentation. Before the seasoned cabbages are placed into a refrigerator, they are allowed to ferment for 40 hours before being refrigerated. This “activates” the fermentation which is what makes kimchi special. Place in a cool spot for 40 hours and then place into the refrigerator. You can enjoy your kimchi in just a matter of days, depending how “fresh” or “sour” you like it.

Additional Tips

Most people don’t have a Korean store immediately available in their neighborhood, so if you’re interested in making kimchi, I suggest Kgrocer.com. I’ve received nothing but superior service from them and they have everything you’ll need, minus fresh ingredients.

If you’re shopping for kimchi ingredients in a real store but you don’t know what to look for, print out the following products:

salted anchovy sauce for kimchi

I don’t recommend using Thai fish sauce as its very sweet and the taste of the final kimchi will never be “right.” But there are lots of Korean options to anchovy sauce, including croaker and baby shrimps.

chili flakes

I really don’t like Wang brand, so try to find a Korean brand instead. The color of the chili flakes should be a bright red. Also, don’t be confused by the packaging. Look for packages of flakes regardless of what the packaging indicates. Chili powder is available in Korean markets but this is used in stews generally.

Another tip for great kimchi is the use of an air-tight ceramic cannister. These can be purchased at a Korean market but I have yet to see any available online. The plastic top creates an air-tight seal, perfect for the fermentation process and also good for keeping smells at bay.

Good and luck and happy kimchi-making!
Evil Jungle Prince, November 23, 2006