Napa cabbage kimchi and radish kimchi

Baechu-kimchi, kkakdugi 배추김치, 깍두기

Kimchi is a staple of Korean life and many Koreans include it in their meals three times a day. You can eat it by itself, or use it in so many different Korean recipes. When Koreans make kimchi, they make an effort to make the best kimchi possible and include many regional ingredients.

Today I will show you how to make a traditional-style kimchi with oysters, and we’ll also make radish kimchi (“kkakdugi”) with the same kimchi paste, which saves us from having to make these two kinds of kimchi separately. This is how I make kimchi and kkaktugi, because I need both in my house, but you might be interested in my “easy kimchi” (mak kimchi) recipe if you don’t have a lot of time, or in my kakdugi recipe if you want to make only kakdugi, or make my traditional napa cabbage kimchi recipe by itself if that’s all you need. Also, if you don’t like oysters, you can leave them out.

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Many people think you have to wait for kimchi to be fermented before eating, but personally I prefer to eat fresh kimchi, as soon as I make it. And I like to make stew (kimchi-jjigae) out of older kimchi.

Ingredients

  • 2 large size napa cabbages (about 8 pounds: 3.6 kg) and 2 Korean radishes (about 4-5 pounds: 2 kg)
  • 1½ cup of kosher salt
  •  ½ cup  sweet rice flour, ¼ cup sugar, water
  • 4 cups of hot pepper flakes
  • 1 cup fish sauce,
  • 1 medium sized onion, minced (about 1 cup)
  • 1 cup of  fresh garlic, minced
  • 1 tbs minced ginger
  • 7 stalks of green onions, chopped diagonally
  • 2 cups worth Buchu (Asian chives), chopped,
  • 2 cups of matchstick-cut radish
  • fresh oysters (optional)

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Directions

  1. Cut the cabbages in half, and then slit each half through the core, but not through the rest of the leaves.
  2. Soak each piece in cold water and sprinkle salt over the each leaf , and then set it aside for 2 hours.
    *tip: the stems should get more salt than the leaves
  3. Peel 2 kg of Korean radishes and cut them into 1 inch cubes. Do this by cutting them into several disks, and then cutting horizontally, and then vertically. Put them in a big bowl and sprinkle them with ¼ cup of kosher salt. Then set these aside, too.
  4. 2 hours later, turn the pieces of cabbage over so they get salted evenly. Turn the radishes as well.
  5. Another 2 hours later, you will see the cabbage look softer than before, and it should have shrunk.
    *the total salting process will take 4 hours
  6. Rinse the salted cabbage and radish with cold water 3 times.

kimchi_salting

Making Kimchi paste:

Make porridge

  1. Put ½ cup of sweet rice flour and 3 cups of water into a skillet and mix them up. Then cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
  2. When you see some bubbles, pour ¼ cup of sugar into the porridge and stir one more minute. Then cool it down.
  3. Place the cold porridge into a big bowl. Now you will add all your ingredients one by one.
  4. Add  fish sauce, hot pepper flakes, crushed garlic, ginger, and onion
    *tip: it’s much easier to use a food processor.
  5. Add green onions, Asian chives, and radish.
  6. Add  2 cups of frozen oysters, but this is optional. (I found out lots of people can’t eat them.)
  7. Mix all ingredients well.

Are you ready to spread our paste on the leaves and make your kaktugi?

* I recommend you wear rubber gloves so that you don’t irritate your skin.

  1. Spread the kimchi paste onto each leaf of the cabbage, and make a good shape out of the leaves by slightly pressing with both hands.
  2. Put it into an air- tight sealed plastic container or glass jar.
  3. Mix your leftover paste with your radish cubes to make kkakdugi.
    kimchi

You can eat it fresh right after making or wait until it’s fermented. Put the Kimchi container at room temperature for 1 or 2 days and keep it in the refrigerator.

How do you know it’s fermented or not?

One or 2 days after, open the lid of the Kimchi container. You may see some bubbles with lots of liquids, or maybe sour smells. That means it’s already being fermented.

Posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 4:16 pm. Last updated on July 30, 2021.
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1,110 Comments:

  1. Atitatit Ohio joined 11/18 & has 2 comments
    Posted November 15th, 2018 at 3:53 pm | or create a profile.

    Hi! Maangchi. I love your videos and I made some of your recipes always turned out good so delicious.. im about to make my napa and raddish kimchi but just wondering if u can use thai fish sauce, would that be ok? And can I use fermented shrimp instead of oysters? Thank u so much

  2. Shannydoo Kent, WA joined 11/17 & has 1 comment
    Posted July 4th, 2018 at 12:26 pm | or create a profile.

    Mmmmm, I made an extra big batch because everyone loves it so much!


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  3. [email protected] Gent joined 9/17 & has 1 comment
    Posted September 27th, 2017 at 11:10 am | or create a profile.

    Maangchi, I was very excited to find all the ingredients… until I saw that the rice flour is not glutinous rice flour, just normal rice flour. Will this negatively effect the recipe/taste of my kimchi if I can’t get glutinous rice flour?

    Also I have a second question. How much does this recipe make? I cook for one (me) and have a very small fridge. Does it work to make half of the recipe?
    Thank you :-) Love your recipes :)

    • igotrice Manila joined 9/17 & has 1 comment
      Posted September 28th, 2017 at 3:27 pm | or create a profile.

      Hi! I just made an account so I could let you know that there should be no distinguishable difference using either rice flour variety as the glutinous kind just has more starch content, but I’m positive boiling the regular rice flour in water will make a thick paste as well.

      I think its purpose anyways is to just have sort of a vehicle for the other ingredients to be easily spread throughout the batch, and help in the fermenting as well. It’ll still end up thinned out and not sticky at all.

      tl;dr: Your rice flour you have on-hand is fine for this purpose! Enjoy making your kimchi! ;)

  4. Sille Florida joined 7/16 & has 3 comments
    Posted September 2nd, 2017 at 8:26 pm | or create a profile.

    Hi! I just finished making it. Tried it and it is awesome, better than the store bought. Thanks for sharing your recipes.


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  5. Mi Heui Iran - Tehran joined 5/16 & has 18 comments
    Posted June 1st, 2016 at 5:30 am | or create a profile.

    HI maancghi
    can i add frozen shrimps or fish in kimchi???

    • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,049 comments
      Posted June 5th, 2016 at 8:24 am | or create a profile.

      I add Fresh shrimp and fish when I make my special winter kimchi which is very salty. You can add shrimp and fish to your normal kimchi but the kimchi should be made with much more salt than usual kimchi. After making it, keep it in the fridge for a few months before eating until the shrimp and fish are well fermented. I will post the recipe someday.

      • andrew_ysk germany neuss joined 6/17 & has 1 comment
        Posted June 30th, 2017 at 7:51 am | or create a profile.

        hii Maangchi,

        your cooking recipes are wonderful. love it.
        just made a batch of my napa cabbage kimchi.. oyster is expensive here in germany.. 1 oyster is 1.50 euro.. i used 5 just to make a taste better. i think.

        you said can use shrimp and fish. do you have video on it ?
        do you also know how to do oyster sauce ? sometime ago, i went to holland and got a lot of oyster.. i am thinking can make a true oyster sauce out of it.. unlike the oyster sauce in the market , all fake..

        thanks.
        andrew
        germany

        • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,049 comments
          Posted July 1st, 2017 at 11:40 am | or create a profile.

          “You said you can use shrimp and fish. do you have video on it ?”
          No, not yet. But I will post a video someday. If you add fresh shrimp or fish to your kimchi, you should wait until the kimchi ferments before eating it.
          Shrimp or fish take time to ferment. When I add shrimp and fish (pollack), I eat the kimchi at least 3- 4 months after making it because it won’t ferment in a short time. So I add shrimp and fish to my kimchi only for winter kimchi. I make my winter kimchi usually in the beginning of December but I divide the kimchi into 2 containers. One is for eating right after making and the other is for eating later that contains fish and seafood.
          And regarding your 2nd questions, I don’t know how to make oyster sauce.

  6. meowsen Singapore joined 3/16 & has 1 comment
    Posted March 2nd, 2016 at 2:11 am | or create a profile.

    HI! IS there any way to save my kimchi? I added thai fish sauce in the kimchi and it tastes weird now! HELP NEEDED!

  7. LouiseDaniel USA joined 1/15 & has 11 comments
    Posted January 6th, 2015 at 9:35 am | or create a profile.

    Kimchi is quite popular as well as delicious Korean food. Most people love it.

  8. juls Montgomery TX joined 10/14 & has 2 comments
    Posted November 2nd, 2014 at 7:22 pm | or create a profile.

    Thank you for a user friendly site. I wanted an Onggi pot and your site suggested Super H market in Houston. I live about an hour outside of the city. Love that store!
    Lots of Koreans in the store very friendly, clean and super stocked. They have #3, #10 and #5 Onggi earthenware pots in stock. I will be making Kimchi very soon as the weather is turning cool finally. Thank you again and i will tell you how it turns out, hopefully won’t have to buy store bought Kimchi in a jar anymore. PS went to the 99 Ranch store since they are about a block apart it was very nice too, but the Super H will see me again.

  9. ArinDCD Colorado joined 4/14 & has 1 comment
    Posted April 3rd, 2014 at 8:15 pm | or create a profile.

    After I’ve made the kimchi, is it ok to cut it up and put it into pint sized mason jars to ferment or do I need to let it ferment whole before cutting up and jarring?

  10. Dreamtrekker Pennsylvania joined 3/14 & has 2 comments
    Posted March 18th, 2014 at 12:15 pm | or create a profile.

    Made this yesterday and now waiting, impatiently! Can’t wait to try your stews and pancakes.

  11. byron182 Philippines joined 3/14 & has 2 comments
    Posted March 13th, 2014 at 1:22 pm | or create a profile.

    Hi Maangchi

    I made three batches of Kimchi from your recipe and it turned out fine. But On the fourth batch it turned out slimy and gross. The cabbages where still crunchy but it has a slimy coating. I can’t seem to figure out what happened. What is the cause of this? and what are the key steps insuring that this doesn’t happen. Thanks again

    • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,049 comments
      Posted March 15th, 2014 at 12:00 pm | or create a profile.

      There could be a few reasons. First, use fresh good quality napa cabbage. Second, be sure to salt the cabbage evenly. If cabbage doesn’t salt enough, the kimchi may go bad instead of fermenting. Third, after salting and rinsing the cabbage, be sure to drain it well. Good luck!

      • byron182 Philippines joined 3/14 & has 2 comments
        Posted March 16th, 2014 at 1:30 am | or create a profile.

        I just finished my latest batch yesterday and this is what I did. I chopped the cabbages into bite sized pieces. Then I used the wet method and added more salt than I was comfortable with about 1:10 salt/water ratio for 5 hours. I also added a tablespoon of vinegar to the paste because I forgot to keep my good kimchi juice for the starter culture. Then I placed the kimchi in an old unused fridge for a day to ferment. I just tasted it and it was fine. Thanks for the tip about the salt.

  12. bondperry florida joined 3/14 & has 1 comment
    Posted March 4th, 2014 at 9:53 am | or create a profile.

    Hello,
    I am 73 years old and my partner is 65. He is Japanese and calls Kimchi “kamuchi”; we both love it. The supermarket carries a brand that gets us by…but it isn’t very good. The Asian market has a brand they get from Brooklyn, that is really delicious….good flavor and fermenting. The local Asian market makes their own…but it is much too mild and fresh for our taste.

    I want to try your recipe and technique. I have the ingredients on hand EXCEPT, I bought a pound bag of Shin Sun MI Korean Red Pepper Coarse Powder (not flakes)….this is a lot of red pepper powder…..can I substitute it for the flakes? Can I use the fresh Packaged oysters from the seafood counter, can I use chives or green onion instead of the Asian chives…..I haven’t seen them locally.

    Thank you for your help

    • Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 12,049 comments
      Posted March 4th, 2014 at 10:57 am | or create a profile.

      Yes, you can use it. “Red pepper coarse powder” sounds like it’s hot pepper flakes.

      “Can I use the fresh Packaged oysters from the seafood counter” yes, it’s even better.
      “Can I use chives or green onion instead of the Asian chives” yes, you can.

      Good luck with making good kimchi!

  13. Toto Bonn, Germany joined 6/10 & has 34 comments
    Posted December 29th, 2013 at 12:42 pm | or create a profile.

    Dear Maangchi,
    after making Kimchi for 3 years now I just had a question: I saw some recipes where they didn’t salten the cabbage directly but putting it into a brine for 3 hours or so. Is there a difference in taste or consistency or is it just the same? Is there actually any difference in the end product at all?
    Thank you, Toto

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