Korean recipes:

Yeolmu mulkimchi (young summer radish water kimchi)

Yeolmu mul kimchi is usually eaten in summer in Korea. Making Bibimbap with barley rice, doenjang jjigae, yeolmu kimchi, hot pepper paste and sesame oil is one of the most popular and delicious dinners in hot summer. My mouth is watering while writing this explanation!

Ingredients:
2 bunches of yeolmu (young summer radish), salt, flour, fish sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger, onion, green chili pepper, red chili pepper, and water.

How to handle yeolmu:

  1. Buy 2 bunches of yeolmu.
  2. Peel the radishes with a knife and remove the dead leaves.
  3. Cut it into pieces about 5 cm in length and put them into a big bowl. Add some water.
  4. Add some salt (½ cup) and mix it carefully. Let it sit in the salt for 30 minutes.
  5. 30 minutes later, turn it over to salt evenly and let it sit another 30 minutes (total salting takes 1 hour).
  6. Wash the salted yeolmu 3 times and drain in a colander.

Make paste for yeolmu kimchi:

  1. In a small pot, mix 1 tbs flour and 1 cup of water and heat it over medium heat.
  2. Keep stirring until the liquid thickens. When you see some bubbles, it means the porridge is cooked well.
  3. Add 1 tbs sugar (optional) and ½ cup of fish sauce (you can replace this with salt).
  4. Turn off the heat and cool it down.

Make yeolmu kimchi:

  1. Get a big stainless steel bowl.
  2. Slice half an onion, ginger (½ tbs), 2-3 red chili peppers, and 2-3 green chili peppers , 4 cloves of minced garlic, and put them into the bowl.
  3. Add 2 tbs of hot pepper flakes and mix it with a spoon
  4. Pour the cool porridge into the bowl and mix it.
  5. Add the clean yeolmu into the bowl and mix it .

*Congratulations! You made “yeolmu mul kimchi”! : )

  1. Transfer the yeolmu kimchi into a container or glass jar.
  2. Pour water into the container until all kimchi is submerged (you can use either purified water or boiled but cooled down water) and cover the lid.
  3. Keep it in room temperature for a couple of days.
  4. When the kimchi is fermented, keep it in the refrigerator.

*When you serve it, put some kimchi in a glass bowl or ceramic bowl and add some ice cubes

30 Comments:

  1. mona

    i was wondering if u can make a video of mul kimchee ..which u use daikon,onion springs,suger,salt,green chilly,nashi pear and garlic..and u put it in a jar to ferment it..it wud be nice if u can do that..i hardly find any exact details using these ingredients…and not much info about it..thnkx

    Posted November 1, 2009 at 8:21 pm | #
  2. ddrfan210

    are there any other types of fish sauce?

    my brother can’t eat fish like. catfish, perch, shrimp, crawfish, crab, most fish that feed off the bottom of water lakes. he’s hebrew.

    Posted September 6, 2009 at 5:30 pm | #
    • hanaxela
      joined January 26, 2010

      You can buy a fish sauce that was made from anchovies (a Kosher fish). I just bought some the other day (we eat Kosher).

      Posted February 13, 2010 at 8:51 pm | #
    • orionflux
      joined August 19, 2009

      hanaxela is correct. i am a messianic hebrew & i keep a “clean” diet, so i don’t eat those types of things, either.. you can use anchovy fish sauce. :) anchovies are a “clean” fish. any time any recipe calls for fish sauce, i use some made from anchovies.

      Posted February 14, 2010 at 3:30 am | #
  3. j_0252

    Hi Maangchi!

    I was wondering instead of using flour can you use sweet rice flour? Thank You!

    Posted August 29, 2009 at 12:07 am | #
    • Maangchi New York City
      joined August 6, 2008

      hmm, I have never used porridge made with sweet rice flour for mulkimchi, but why not? By the way, you can skip the porridge if you want to clear soup kimchi. I sometimes make mulkimchi without making porridge.

      Posted August 29, 2009 at 10:38 am | #
  4. jo

    but how much salt instead of the fish sauce?? thanks so much for this btw. i really love your site. =)

    Posted August 21, 2009 at 10:15 pm | #
    • Maangchi New York City
      joined August 6, 2008

      My recipe says “Add 1 tbs sugar (optional) and ½ cup of fish sauce (you can replace this with salt)”

      I don’t know how much salt will give the same saltiness as 1/2 cup of fish sauce..

      Why don’t you add 1/3 cup salt first and taste it if it’s too bland or not. If so, add more salt.

      Posted August 22, 2009 at 1:41 am | #
  5. Anonymous

    Hi Maangchi,
    I have been waiting for the summer to make this recipe.
    I think everything turned out good. I wanted to make two batches one with water and the other without. I wasn’t expecting the leaves to take as long to wilt down, maybe I didn’t put enough salt. I made everything yesterday and tasted the water yeolmu and it tasted so good I think by tonight I will be able to refrigerate it. Houston is extra hot this year I think that effects the fermentation possess.
    Thanks to you I’ll have a wonderful dinner!

    Posted July 17, 2009 at 3:24 pm | #
  6. Sylvia I'm a fan!
    joined September 10, 2008

    Hello Maangchi,
    I had a lot of yeolmu in my garden and made a second batch of kimchi.
    This time it’s fermenting much faster. I have bubbles within 24 hours instead of two days. I know that there are many factors affecting fermentation time, like yeast with bread dough. My kitchen was about the same temperature both times. I am wondering if salting time makes a difference. This time I had to leave it over an hour I got too busy.
    I’m wondering if salting time a factor in fermentation time?

    Posted July 2, 2009 at 9:14 am | #
  7. Sylvia I'm a fan!
    joined September 10, 2008

    I made yeolmu mul kimchi with radishes I grew in my garden!! yay for me, I am so excited about this accomplishment. I left it on the counter for 2 days it was nice and bubbly. It is DELICIOUS. Your recipe is easy to follow. I did watch the video a couple of extra times to be sure I had everything in the correct place and timeline.
    Thank you again for helping us learn the wonderful cuisine of Korea.

    Posted June 28, 2009 at 4:54 pm | #
    • Maangchi New York City
      joined August 6, 2008

      wow, it sounds like you made delicious radish mulkimchi! Congratulation!

      Posted June 28, 2009 at 9:10 pm | #
  8. Maangchi New York City
    joined August 6, 2008

    Anonymous,
    I can’t tell you exact amount, but how about using 1/4 cup-1/2 cup of salt instead of 1/2 cup of fish sauce? I mean start 1/4 cup salt and taste it and increase the amount if it’s too bland.

    Posted February 9, 2009 at 8:19 pm | #
    • Mac

      I think that even 1/4 cup of salt will be way too much salt to replace 1/2 cup of fish sauce. I don’t like fish sauce taste and usually I don’t even put any extra salt for cabbage kimchi or kkakdukki. The vegetables absorb a lot of salt that comes out into the sauce as it ferments. Maybe 1 – 2 tbsp would be enough?

      Posted April 27, 2009 at 9:31 am | #
  9. Anonymous

    How much salt should I use to replace the fish sauce.

    Love your site!

    Posted February 9, 2009 at 7:43 pm | #
  10. Maangchi New York City
    joined August 6, 2008

    Fiona,
    I usually don’t use this recipe for cucumber. Cucumber kimchi turns mushy easily. Ask this question on the forum. I hope someone else may give you good answer.
    http://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/general-discussion

    Posted January 18, 2009 at 8:04 am | #
  11. Fiona

    Hi Maangchi

    Thanks for all the great Korean recipes :)

    Would it be ok to use cucumber instead of young summer radish to make this kimchi?

    Posted January 18, 2009 at 1:15 am | #
  12. ancestersmemories

    your wonderful

    Posted October 27, 2008 at 11:30 am | #
  13. Maangchi New York City
    joined August 6, 2008

    kl1278,
    Sorry, I did not write the amount of garlic in the recipe even though I am showing in the video. You will need to use 3 or 4 cloves minced garlic for this recipe.

    Posted September 6, 2008 at 12:59 am | #
  14. kl1278

    This is a great website. Just a question, the ingredients list says garlic. But how much garlic?

    Posted September 5, 2008 at 7:39 pm | #
  15. Maangchi New York City
    joined August 6, 2008

    catherine,
    No problem, thank you for asking me. : )
    Spinach will not be good material to make kimchi I guess. If you want, why not experiment?

    Posted August 22, 2008 at 7:03 am | #
  16. catherine

    You’ll have to excuse this question since I’m pretty clueless, but is spinach ever used in kimchis like these? Thanks

    Posted August 22, 2008 at 3:34 am | #
  17. Maangchi New York City
    joined August 6, 2008

    anonymous,
    Yes, you could make mul kimchi with other kinds of vegetables such as radish, watercress, or green mustard.

    Posted August 19, 2008 at 4:54 am | #
  18. anonymous

    Hi – Can’t wait to try this. Could I use other kinds of greens to make it if i can’t find yeolmu? If so, which ones will work? thanks

    Posted August 19, 2008 at 12:37 am | #
  19. Maangchi New York City
    joined August 6, 2008

    Hi, Anonymous,
    You said you want to get contacted when I post a new recipe through email. I don’t know your email address btw.
    Check out http://twitter.com/maangchi and join it.
    The reason I joined it is to update what I’m doing, what I’m cooking including my new recipe.

    Posted August 16, 2008 at 7:33 am | #
  20. Lovely post. Please add my email address to your list and email me the updates if possible. I always like to read your blog and comment on it.

    Posted August 15, 2008 at 9:19 pm | #
  21. Maangchi New York City
    joined August 6, 2008

    Gina,
    Yes, you can eat this kimchi with noodles. Actually any kind of kimchi goes with noodle soup. My favorite noodles are thin noodles called “so myeon” in Korean. I will post it on my blog soon.

    Posted June 6, 2008 at 1:13 pm | #
  22. gina

    is this the kimchee that you can eat with noodles? and if so, can you tell us exactly which noodles to use?

    Posted June 6, 2008 at 12:33 pm | #
  23. Maangchi New York City
    joined August 6, 2008

    hellow Ann
    thank you for showing me your cooking photos! Fantastic!
    http://picasaweb.google.com/annemh2/Cooking

    Posted May 19, 2008 at 12:11 am | #
  24. anne.h

    I love summer dishes with ice cubes in them. esp. neng myun!

    I finally posted pix of my Korean cooking endeavors here. I followed your recipe for all of them, but I substituted paprika for hot pepper flakes in the kimchi jjigae. It was still delicious!

    Posted May 18, 2008 at 12:12 pm | #

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