How-To Make Kimchi in 3 Minutes

William Cho (Discover Korea (Travel and Culture and Sports and Hiking) on FaceBook) invited us out to his flat, where a few others to learn his secret to making kimchi joined us. Most don't take the time to make kimchi because they believe it to be a hard process. William makes it easy!

What you need: *NOTE* This is for one head of cabbage.

1 head of Chinese cabbage
1 Korean radish
1 cup red pepper
½ cup sugar
½ cup salt (fine grain)
10 cloves peeled garlic
3 nodules peeled ginger
Lots of coarse grain salt
Gloves

The process of making kimchi will take a whole day, but it's so much fun! Here's how you do it the fun (and easy) William Cho way.

1) Peel off your leafy, outer cabbage leaves. These make for bad kimchi. Once you get the good stuff, cut off the stem of the cabbage. Finally, quarter the cabbage and place it into a large container.

2) With the coarse salt, make a saltwater solution with warm water. You'll want to use a lot of salt and dissolve it completely. Pour this mixture over the cabbage. Do this until the cabbage is about 40-50% is submerged. Let sit for 4-6 hours.

Now's a good time to watch a movie, play some games, or just sleep.

3) Pull the cabbage out of the saltwater and rinse and scrub the leaves to make sure they're clean and free of any pesticides. Once the cabbage is clean, chop it up into what ever size you want. (The traditional Korean method doesn't do this, but William thinks it's easier to manage and I agree.)

4) Cut the Korean radish into julienne strips.

5) In a blender, add a small amount of water to the garlic and ginger. Blend into a sauce.

6) Add the red pepper, fine grain salt, and sugar to the Korean radish. Put on your gloves and mix for a few minutes. Add the garlic and ginger paste. Mix all together. Now add the cabbage.

7) Once everything is mixed well. Store it for 2 days in containers before refrigerating. Enjoy!

The entire process is really easy and produces the best kimchi I've had in Korea.

Discovering Korea Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=108698559171327
Music, used with permission.

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[anothersujufan]

Wow, what good english for a Korean guy! XD And kimchi...I'll probably just stick to order them when I go to Korean restaurants than make them...haha

[qiranger]

@anothersujufan William is from the US.

[iluvindia01]

U forgot the fish sauce? Is it ok if u don't use? But then u won't get the smell plus the fermentation won't take place:(

[qiranger]

@iluvindia01 Nah, not much for the fish sauce.

[ImBeingJustMe]

can you also just put it in the fridge or do you HAVE to let it sit for 2 days? I'm afraid that it will spoil if you just leave it there... oh and what do you mean with "nodule of ginger"? (I am not from america so maybe this just sounds stupid :S)

[qiranger]

@ImBeingJustMe A chunk of ginger, perhaps? Yes, let it sit outside for two days. Kimchi gets better with age. I just finished off a batch made in 2009. If you put it in the fridge right away, then it won't have time to get the fermentation process going!

[himesakura87]

doesn't look like really 3 minutes XD

[FEELSORRY4URASS]

3 MINUTES????

[mooky939]

make kimchi in 3 minutes? then you take days. you're wasting my time and using this medium to falsely present your dish. GO FUCK YOURSELF

[enigmaticma]

@phionYu Gomawoyo ^^ I will try to make the white kimchi (as Kim jaejoong did lol)

[Aqzaqa]

@enigmaticma I think you can use many many vegetables. I've seen variations on kimchi that use bokchoy and heard you can use a ton of different things

[PhionYu]

@enigmaticma There is a history of cabbage kimchi made during Vietnam war. You can use most of ingredients but you also need to add grind(I think) carrots to add a sweet flavor.

[enigmaticma]

Can't we do it with normal cabbage??? i mean Nappa cabbage is a bit expensive here

[MrWirelesscaller]

@ImBeingJustMe

Kimchi is a form of pickling process, it was designed in the past to address food storage since refrigerators didn't exist. You don't even have to get it down to refrigerator levels of cold, in the past they buried it in the earth and ate it months later.