(Note from Moderator: This thread was broken off from a conversation in the West Lake Ho’ Down Thread, so if things seem a bit out of order that is why)
I just got back from all day kimchi making at my mom’s! Fun times. Do let me know how your kimchi turns out. And I would highly, highly recommend having some bossam when you make your kimchi. There’s a lot of variations of it, but its core is fresh kimchi and boiled pork. It’s not kimchi day without it.
There’s a ton of different recipes out there but you don’t have to put any effort into it for it to be delicious. Go out and get yourself some pork belly, and braise/simmer it for about 30 minutes, slice into bite size pieces and eat with some fresh kimchi. Use the yellow inner leaves.
Let me know if you need any help with the pork… I mean making kimchi.
I made kimchi once. It was delicious and tangy. I don’t think anyone else even got a taste. This was in the midst of my fermented cooking phase. I was experimenting a lot with sourdough bread. Sadly, we went away on vacation. I completely forgot about my starter and it died. I’ve just been making regular bread since.
You can hit up the asian market on 79, but your best bet will be H Mart in Edison. I’m partial to the store made H Mart kimchi because I like getting them unfermented, but the branded ones are generally very good also.
WAIT! I meant Hawthorne Valley not MIL although MIL is good too … sorry … it came to me as I was making dinner
BTW my downstairs neighbor when I lived in condo in NY was Korean and she regularly made Kimchee, once in a while someone would call the Fire department to complain of a gas or sewage leak, it really was that bad! It tasted good though … she would always bring something home for me when she made a Queens run to M Mart which she preferred to H Mart
I’m off tomorrow and plan a great kimchi adventure. I’ll let you know how it goes. It looks like we have a fairly large group kimchi HOs. Maybe we need to go on an kimchi road trip.
Forgive my kimchi ignorance, but I never even knew there was unfermented kimchi. I thought the whole idea behind kimchi was the fermentation. This is why I like this place. I learn things all the time
I mean there is unfermented everything that is fermented. It’s the same thing, just… like on the day you make it (before it ferments). Like a new pickle.
If you refrigerate immedately you can keep it in the unfermented (not sour) state for a few days to a week or so. It’s a treat, because there’s only a small window when you can consume it this way.
I don’t remember exactly but that price seems about right, I bought it at Fresh Market, maybe you can find it at a better price at one of the stores listed?
MIL https://milkimchi.com/apps/find-us
Curlz, while you are in the Asian aisle can you also see if they have gochugaru pepper flakes? I want to try my hand at making some Kim chi one of these days. Thanks!
On the topic of cabbage, I’m making stuffed cabbage tonight!
Yeah, the kimchi keeps fermenting in the fridge. It eventually gets really funky, and Koreans usually save the extra aged stuff for stews and cooked applications like fried rice. #nodumbquestions
If you don’t want to hike up to Edison def check out the asian market on 79, they’ll have everything you need!
I think I will try it soon. I need some of the pepper mix so I guess I might have to make a trip or Amazon.
I’ve watched some videos on YouTube and I don’t see them putting any sliced/diced fresh pepper in the jar. Any reason for this? It seems like a cool idea to do that but maybe it screws something up.
I put it in the fridge to keep it “fresh” longer but left some on the counter for dinner tonight. Not pork belly as @joonjoon suggested but grilled marinated pork chops instead.
The recipe calls for making a “porridge” of water and sweet rice flour, and cooking that into glop (my word) and then mixing it with sugar. I added ginger, shallot, garlic and fish sauce that were pureed together to the glop and mixed everything together with the nappa. I also used Chinese chives, grated carrot and thinly sliced leeks. No salted squid as called for by the recipe.
