Ingredients:
Napa Cabbage
Raddish
Green Onion
Onion (Optional)
Red Pepper Powder
Salted Shrimp
Anchovy Sauce
Garlic
Ginger
Glutinous Rice Flour
Salt
(Exact amount is hidden)
Country of origin: South Korea
First, wash the cabbage and pickle in salt water. Leave for 12 hours and wash again before getting rid of the excess water. While the cabbage is in the salted water, prepare the other ingredients for the kimchi. Mix the glutinous rice flour with water before boiling. Let it cool. While this is cooling, prepare the sauce. Cut the radish into small and long strips and leave in salted water for 30 minutes. After getting rid of the excess water, put it in a large bowl and mix with red pepper powder and let it stay for 1 hour. Afterwards, add the garlic, ginger, green onion, salt, salted shrimp, and anchovy sauce before mixing again. You can also add a small amount of sugar in the batch. After the sauce is prepared, apply it to each individual cabbage leaf.
It was one Saturday night when I was eating the usual store-bought Kimchi on the dinner table. Kimchi is one of my favorite Korean dishes, and I’ve tasted many different kinds of Kimchi in my life. But even the very one that I was tasting that night could not emulate my grandmother’s handmade Kimchi.
Then I began to wonder what made my grandmother’s Kimchi so special that I could not find one that tastes close to hers. “I miss my grandmother’s Kimchi. How come the same Kimchi tastes so different?” I asked my mom in curiosity. My mom smiled as she grabbed onto a slice of Kimchi and answered, “Well, it’s because your grandmother puts in special ingredients that make it taste so unique.” Then she started to explain to me about the special recipe my grandmother uses to make her signature Kimchi. As she continued listing all the ingredients that go into my grandmother’s Kimchi, it started to bring back memories from the time I spent in her house during my summer vacation.
It was the last summer when I went to back to Korea to spend two months on vacation. My grandmother’s house is near the airport, so I always get to stay at her house for a week or two. [= from the jetlag. I was hungry. As I exited out from my room, I was immediately comforted with a delicious smell coming from the kitchen. I went into the kitchen, excited to find out the source of this smell. To my surprise, I found my grandmother preparing the seasoning mixture. In a big bowl, she was busy mixing the water, fish sauce, sugar, chili powder, minced garlic, minced ginger and diced onions together.
“It is sea staghorn, oyster, and salted shrimps she adds into the seasoning mixture that gives her Kimchi the special taste.” My mom’s voice interfered as I was reminiscing the memory from the summer. Then I remembered how my grandma asked me to cut the sea staghorn into small pieces as I walked into the kitchen rubbing my eyes.
“It is a lot of work to make one fine Kimchi, Jiho. Your grandma had to wake up early to prepare the cabbage. She will cut the cabbage into 2-inch pieces, sprinkle the kosher salt over the cabbage, and toss to combine. Normally people let the salted cabbage sit at room temperature for about 2 hours but she let it sit for about 6 hours. This allows the cabbage to release its water and become more pliable. The seasoning mixture would be then added to the cabbage, and we would use our hands to massage the cabbage and make sure it was well coated with the seasoning.
Once the cabbage was fully coated, we would pack it tightly into glass jars and let it sit at room temperature for 24-48 hours. My grandmother would check on the kimchi every day and press down on the cabbage to make sure it was fully submerged in the liquid. The aroma of the fermenting kimchi would fill the house, and I couldn't wait to taste the final product.
Finally, when the kimchi was ready, we would transfer it to the refrigerator. The kimchi was always so delicious, tangy and slightly effervescent. We would enjoy it as a side dish, a condiment, or as an ingredient in stews and soups.
Making kimchi with my grandmother was not just about the recipe, but it was also about the tradition and the memories. I will always treasure the time we spent together in the kitchen, creating something delicious and nourishing for our family.