Kimchi for my Flatmates
Songsoo Kim's introduction to making kimchi, plus two daikon-based pickles. Photographs by Songsoo Kim and Georgia Rudd.
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Welcome to Vittles Recipes! In this weekly slot, our roster of six rotating columnists will share their recipes and wisdom with you. This week’s columnist is Songsoo Kim. You can read our archive of cookery writing here.
Kimchi for my flatmates
Songsoo Kim's introduction to making kimchi, plus two daikon-based pickles.
To me, kimchi and pickles are the perfect sharing food. I make them for my flatmates to convey a sense of home and friendship, and when people come over for dinner, I often pack them a container of kimchi to take home. In our flat in London, jars of kimchi and pickles sit in the fridge like hearts beating to the pace of the household’s eating habits. When I cook us a simple meal – rice and stir-fried veg, maybe an egg each – I serve a quick pickle alongside it, and we add kimchi on the side when we eat curries. Pickling embodies the spirit of living with my flatmates: mixing and matching, finding harmony in savoury, salty, and sour moments.
Kimjang (making kimchi) and pickling also help me to keep in touch with the seasons, to prolong and preserve them. I like to make mine with vegetables directly sourced from veg boxes or the farmer’s market, like leeks, onions, cucumber, beets, or daikon. In this column, I’m sharing three easy daikon-based recipes: one kimchi, one quick ferment, and one vinegar-based pickle. I chose to centre daikon because I enjoy how it changes texture and form over the seasons. In winter, for example, the cold makes daikon’s cell structure tighter, creating a more robust vegetable that results in an especially crunchy and delicious kimchi, which adds a perfect sour umami to kimchi stews made with oily fish, pork, or beef. Whatever the time of year, pickling is a community affair. So remember to make enough to share and give away.
Notes on kimjang
Equipment
You don’t really need any special equipment to make kimchi other than glass jars for storage and a blender or food processor to make the kimchi porridge (see below). To prepare the jars, clean them with soap and warm water and rinse thoroughly before filling with very hot water. Leave the water to cool slightly, then pour it out and transfer the jars to a drying rack. The jars should be completely cool and dry before you use them to store kimchi.
If you plan on making kimchi regularly, then a pickle press could be useful for achieving maximum crunch.
Salting and scheduling
The crunchiness of a kimchi is quite integral, and so salting the vegetables for adequate time – which draws out their water – is crucial to avoid making vegetable mush. As a rule, I use a quantity of salt equivalent to 2–3% of the entire weight of the vegetables (depending on the recipe). So, if your vegetables weigh 1000g, use 20–30g salt. Between six and eight hours of salting is optimal if your vegetables are cut into bigger chunks. But if you chop the vegetables into small wedges or cubes, salting for two or three hours is plenty.
Storage and temperature
Traditionally, my ancestors in Korea stored kimchi in an earthenware pot called an onggi, which they would bury in a ‘kimchi cave’ made by digging a hole in the ground. The temperature inside the onggi was controlled, which allowed for the kimchi’s gradual fermentation. Today, many homes in Korea have designated kimchi fridges replicating the effects of a kimchi cave, with temperatures maintained between 0-4°C (colder than a regular fridge). Without a kimchi fridge, Kimchi can be stored at temperatures between 4-10°C.
During autumn and winter in the UK, I keep my kimchi jar outside, watching the vegetables ferment slowly (although you can just leave it indoors at room temperature). In summer, I make smaller batches and put them straight in the fridge to prevent the summer heat from overcooking the kimchi, which will make it sour too quickly, overpowering its various flavours with just one (rapid kimchi fermentation can also cause mushiness). However, in the summer, you can also leave your kimchi out for a night to ripen before then putting it in the fridge the next day to slow down the fermentation.
Making the porridge
Often, a porridge or paste is added to kimchi to provide carbohydrates for the microbes and to produce a stable ferment. Everyone makes their porridge differently. Several people suggest using a mixture of rice flour and water, which I do sometimes, but I find that a blend of cooked rice and pear (or another fruit) results in a lower water content and cleaner flavour.