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| Yoon Sook-ja, president of Institute of Korean Traditional Food / Courtesy of the institute |
Korea recognizes the practice of "kimjang" as Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 133. Interestingly, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs put the best date for making kimchi as Nov. 26. We've reached out to some top master chefs from Korea to share their kimchi-making recipes.
Yoon Sook-ja, president of the Institute of Korean Traditional Food, shared a recipe for wrapped kimchi from her native hometown Gaeseong, North Korea. There are more ingredients and the cabbage stems are used as flavoring inside, because of the difference in the cabbage grown in Gaeseong, she said. Here is the recipe.
Three heads of Napa cabbage (4.5 kg), 2 1/2 cups coarse salt for salting cabbage.
Seasoning ingredients: 1 radish, 1 pear, 50g mustard leaves, 30g green onion, 50g water parsley, 3 shiitake mushrooms, 5 layers of manna lichen, 10 chestnuts, 10 dates, 3g dried red pepper,2 table spoons of pine nuts, 1/2 cup salted shrimp, 1/4 cup salted corvina, 1 cup fresh oysters, 1 small octopus, 160g Welsh onion, 2 garlic cloves, 50g ginger.
Inner seasoning: 2 cups ground red chili powder, 4 table spoons fine salt, 3 table spoons sugar
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| Gaeseong-style wrapped kimchi / Courtesy of the institute |
1. Slice cabbages in half, salt them for eight hours, occasionally turning them over. Wash the cabbage clean, and get rid of water by placing them in a sieve The outer leaves should be used for wrapping the kimchi, while the cabbage stems are sliced into edible sizes to be used with the other ingredients.
2. Cut the radish and pear into 0.5 centimeter-thick rectangles, while slicing the mustard leaves, green opinion, water parsley and Welsh onion into three to four centimeter pieces. Soak the dried shiitake and manna lichen mushrooms and then julienne it. Peel the chestnuts, julienne seven of them and thinly slice the rest. Also julienne the dates and cut dried pepper threads two to three centimeters long.
3. Salted shrimp and corvina should be finely minced; small octopus cut into two centimeter pieces.
4. Soak the red chili powder in lukewarm water, and then mix all ingredients except the oysters, dates, manna lichen mushrooms and the pine nuts.
5. Place three to four layers of outer cabbage leaves in a bowl, put the sliced-up cabbage stems inside first, and then put in radish, pear and the seasoning. Place any leftovers on the top, then place the oysters, the chestnut, dates, manna lichen mushrooms and the pine nuts on the top. Then bring the leaves hanging over the bowl over the inner stuffing and seasoning to wrap it tight.
6. Place these wrapped units of seasoned cabbage one by one in a pot, pour salted-corvina water that has been added with fine salt for the right taste. Leave the pot in room temperature for a day, after which it should be kept in a fridge.
One tip for the layman: you can put the stems, all the ingredients and the seasoning together during step five before wrapping it up.
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| Yoon Mi-wol, owner chef of the two Michelin-starred Korean restaurant Yunke in Tokyo/ Courtesy of Yoon Mi-wol |
Sungchimchae, which is the oldest kimchi recipe, requires ingredients such as salted yellow corvina and abalone so Yun gave me one of her simple recipes, using five heads of Chinese cabbage. Two days will be required for this process but the labor and effort is worth it.
Ingredients; Five heads of cabbage, 1,250g salt
Seasoning ingredients: 1,200g radish, 100g ginger, 200g garlic, 250g big chives, 150g small chives, 200g salted shrimp, 500g ground red pepper, 200g mustard leaves, 500g sticky rice starch, 500g pear, 100g water parsley, 70g salt
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| Yoon Mi-wol's kimchi |
A. Yoon prepares the seasoning that will be used with the cabbage the day before.
1. First wash the white radish and julienne.
2. Then grind the ginger and garlic in a mixer.
3. Then wash the big chives, and slice diagonally.
4. Cut out the root of the small chives and cut them into three centimeter sections.
5. Cut the root out of the mustard leaves and cut them into three centimeter sections.
6. Take off the leaves of the water parsley, cut out the root part, and slice into three centimeter sections.
7. Peel the pear, take out the seed part and julienne it.
8. Make sure to use the freshest salted shrimp.
9. Make sure the ground chili powder is red.
10. Prepare fine salt.
11. Turn the sticky rice starch into gruel and leave to cool.
Then mix all these together and leave it in a fridge for a day. Use seasoned salt at the last stage, after tasting whether the seasoning is sufficiently spicy or salty.
B. Salting the cabbage will require eight hours. Cut the cabbage into half, and slice these three times in the cabbage head. Spread salt among the cabbage leaves and leave them for eight hours. After the first four hours, switch the cabbage leaves on the top with those on the bottom. When the cabbage has been salted, wash thoroughly three times. Let the remaining water out by placing the cabbage in a colander.
Take out the seasoning prepared the day before, and place on each layer of cabbage.
Then wrap it up with a cabbage leaf, and leave it in a fridge for a day before serving.
