Description:

This recipe is for a vegan napa cabbage cut kimchi with authentic flavor. Usually, kimchi contains various fish stock and sauce, so traditionally, it is not a vegan food, but I twisted the authentic recipe a bit so that vegan people also can enjoy the authentic flavor of kimchi.

Ingredients (for approximately 2 jars of 32 oz):

• 1 head of Napa cabbage (approximately 3 to 4 pounds)
• 250g of Daikon radish
• 3 to 5 shiitake mushrooms
• 20 g of Kelp flakes
• 200g of coarse sea/kosher salt
• 3 tbsp. of rice flour
• 100~120g of coarse chili power (gochugaru) (depending on your preference of spiciness)
• 8-9 cloves of garlic (approximately 1 bulb)
• 1 bulb of shallot
• 0.5 to 1 thumb of ginger (peeled)
• 0.5 cup of liquid aminos
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 2 bundles of green onions (cut into 1 in)
• 1 bundle of green onions for stock (cut into 2 in)
• 750ml of water for stock and rice porridge
• 2L of water for salting cabbage

Note:

The storage jars must be boiled so that the bacteria on the jar surface can be removed. The best way is, in cold water, put jars so that the downside is up. Then, boil the water in medium heat. When the water boils, let it be boiling for 5 mins. After that, cool and dry the jars.

Moreover, depending the amount of cabbage, the volume of salted water can vary. Just keep the ratio. 1L:100g.

Recipe:

1. Remove the outmost leaves of napa cabbage. We will not use this part of cabbage.
2. Cut vertically a head of Napa cabbage into 4 pieces. Then, slightly cut the root part to get rid of some hard part, and cut cabbage in length of 1 in.
3. Pour 2L of water into a stock pot and melt 200g of sea salt in it well.
4. Put cut cabbage into salted water. We will leave this for 2 hours.
5. Now, we cook stock. With 750ml of cold water, put kelp flakes. Boil it, and soon after boiling begins, the kelp flakes will float on the water surface. Remove them or leave it 2~3 mins.
6. Into the kelp stock, put shiitake mushrooms and 1 bundle of green onions, and boil it with medium heat for 10 mins.
7. Remove the mushrooms, and filter this stock with a strainer.
8. We now make rice porridge. Put rice flour into the stock, and boil it while stirring well. It will take about 5 mins so that porridge is done. Well-cooked porridge has the texture like pudding.
9. Shimmer and cool down the porridge by letting it in room temperature. For faster cooling, you can put the pot inside iced water. Wait until cooling is done.
10. Now, we make seasoning. Chop garlic, ginger and shallot. Mix this with chili powder. Pour liquid aminos and sugar. Stir well. Pour rice porridge on this so that the seasoning has the texture like a paste. If the saltiness is not enough, add more salt.
11. Cut green onions in length of 1 in. Slice radish so that it has the 1 in square shape.
12. When salting cabbage is done, the stem part of cabbage can be bent easily not teared. Wash salted cabbage in a colander, and let the excess moist be removed.
13. In a huge bowl (or you can use the stock pot again), put salted cabbage, green onions and radish into it, and mix them with seasoning.
14. Put the kimchi into jars. For better fermentation, the jars should be filled without air gaps inside. Fill the jars as much as possible, but leave some space to the lid. When you lock the lid, seal the neck with plastic wrap, and push it inside so that the inside can be air tighten.
15. Leave the kimchi in the room temparature for 24 houes, and store in a fridge for at least 3 days. After that you can enjoy it, or for better fermentation, you can leave the kimchi for more than 1 week.