A Daring Adventure: Radish Kimchi

The thought of attempting to make kimchi had never crossed my mind... until 5 days ago.  My older sister L invited us over this past Saturday for a Korean meal filled with BBQ short ribs, various side dishes (which I've learned is called "banchan") such as napa cabbage kimchi, cucumbers, seaweed salad, black beans, jap chae (stir-fry glass noodles), along with dried seaweed and rice.  I wanted to bring something special over and contemplated what to bring to a Korean meal.  I really love kimchi made from radishes, more so than the "traditional" kind made from napa cabbage.  After a quick search on the web, kimchi seemed easy to make.  I called sis L quickly to see what she thought, and luckily, she provided encouragement for me to go on this fermenting adventure.

The result?  A successful first try! (PHEW)

Radish Kimchi
From Honey and Butter

A few tips...
...very important: buy the correct radish!  Korean radish are stumpy fat-looking radishes, pretty cheap at Korean supermarkets (I got mine at 39 cents/lb).  My sister L has a friend who makes kimchi and that was the only thing her friend warned her about.  Be brave and ask one of the Korean ladies that works at the supermarket - they will steer you in the right direction.

 dice into bite-size pieces.  time-consuming?  yes.  but it will pay off in the end!

....I bought 2 stumpy radishes and it turned out to weigh about 2 3/4 lbs.  From the recipe, I estimated that I had about 1/3 of the radishes that the recipe called for, so I divided all the ingredients into thirds.
...if the mixture is not spicy enough for you, add more red pepper powder!  Don't be afraid!

the stuff!

...the recipe calls for fermenting on the kitchen counter for 12-24 hours, but I felt that it needed more time than that.  I had a taste after 24 hours and it wasn't "kimchi" enough, so I left it out for another day.  After 48 hours?  Yum!
...use tight lid jars.  It's key.  This will help with the fermenting process, and as the recipe calls for, intense workout-like shaking to mix the radishes with "the stuff".  I was sweating after a minute of shaking.

shake shake shake!  it's ready to ferment now.

banchan