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.
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 Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru)
- 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)
Directions
- Cut the cabbages in half, and then slit each half through the core, but not through the rest of the leaves.
- 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 - 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.
- 2 hours later, turn the pieces of cabbage over so they get salted evenly. Turn the radishes as well.
- 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 - Rinse the salted cabbage and radish with cold water 3 times.
Making Kimchi paste:
Make porridge
- 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.
- When you see some bubbles, pour ¼ cup of sugar into the porridge and stir one more minute. Then cool it down.
- Place the cold porridge into a big bowl. Now you will add all your ingredients one by one.
- Add fish sauce, hot pepper flakes, crushed garlic, ginger, and onion
*tip: it’s much easier to use a food processor. - Add green onions, Asian chives, and radish.
- Add 2 cups of frozen oysters, but this is optional. (I found out lots of people can’t eat them.)
- 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.
- 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.
- Put it into an air- tight sealed plastic container or glass jar.
- Mix your leftover paste with your radish cubes to make kkakdugi.
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.
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
Maangchi,
Thank you for your reply. Now I have some problems :(.
I didn’t make radish kimchi with your recipe and some how all the kimchi paste was enough for the cabbage kimchi, so I used it all up.
Kimchi was done at 1 AM last night and this morning after being left out on the kitchen counter, there are tons of water in kimchi and the paste seems to be too much now. I tasted one of the end tip of the leaves and boy, it is salty!!! How can I fix this at this point?? Did I do the salting too long (I did it for 4 hours total like you said but used coarse sea salt without measuring) or put too much paste? Should I remove some kimchi paste or water? I do like kimchi water for cooking soups and do like sour kimchi. I don’t want another salty kimchi. Please help.
KiYon
KiYon,
Please folllow my written recipe in my blog. I don’t remember what I said. I think 1/2 cup of sugar is too much though.
You can use brown sugar instead of white sugar.
I use just table salt.
Thank you for your interest in my recipes.
Hello,
I stumbled upon your Youtube videos a few days ago and am making Kimchi right now following your recipe. I do have a question though. In your video you said to put 1/4 cup sugar into sweet rice flour porridge but recipe and on the video screen, it says to put 1/2 cup, could you tell me which one is correct? Also what can I substitute if I don’t want the sugar? I’ve heard that I can use apple but how much/many should I put? How about brown sugar, would it be ok? Also in your video, did you use regular table salt to salt the cabbage? I’m using coarse sea salt (Korean brand) and afraid that I might have put too much….
I can’t wait to try your other recipes.
Thank you so much.
KiYon
Enjoy your stay in Korea!
Lynn R.,
Did you use red chilly pepper powder or flakes? Check my ingredients blog. you will see what you have to buy.
And if your kimchi is too hot for you, next time you make it again, drease the amount of hot pepper flakes. Oh, you like ver fermented kimchi. Put the kimchi container at room temperature until it’s fermented. It usually takes a couple of days depending on your room temperature. When the kimchi is fermented, you can keep it in the refrigerator. Good luck!
Hello, I am so glad I found your web site. I made kimchi the other day but I used cayenne pepper and my kimchi is much, much hotter than the ones in the Korean restaurants…practically too hot to eat! Can you recommend a brand of Korean pepper that I can use. I have tyo say I like very spicy food but this was too hot…I would like to make more and perhaps mix it together. The kimchi that I like is very fermented, so I can keep a lot in the fridge. Thank you for showing how to make your wonderful recipes.
Lynn R.
hi maangchi! this is stephanie again regarding the kimchi i made. i made both the radish and the cabbage kimchi. and i just gave away some for my relatives to try.
they complained that the radish one smelled weird as if it is going to spoil.
is it true that kimchi can go bad?
Stephanie,
There will be no problem with opening the container to check to see if it’s fermented or not.
When you open it, press kimchi down with a spoon so that the top part of kimchi wouldn’t dry. Sooner or later it will be fermented. Keep it at room temperature until it’s fermented.
hi maangchi i couldn’t wait to make the kimchi so i made it last night.
well so today after one day of fermenting, i thought the kimchi would be sour enough. after opening the tupperware, and tasted some. it wasnt sour enough.
is it okay for me to close it back and leave it to ferment further. or is it because i opened the container now the fermentation process has disturbed and the kimchi no longer ferments?
thank you
Stephanie,
Don’t forget to take a photo of your kimch and send it to me.
I will post it in my blog.
Good luck with your kimchi making!
hello maangchi! :) the kimchi looks so good and i am going to try it out this weekend. ^^
thank you so much!
Hey,
I just posted my ultimate kimchi recipe and cannot wait to try it again. Yours look so much alike. What else can we kimchi? Mustard, leaves, kohlrabi?
Christine,
Your kimchi fried rice looks good!
Bokkie,
Don’t use fish sauce if you can’t eat it. Some people make kimchi without fish sauce.
Hi Maangchi,
Love your recipes and youtube vids, i have question about the kimchi though, is there anything i can use instead of Fish Sauce? since some of the people i want to make kimchi for are allergic to shellfish like shrimps. so Fish Sauce is not an options, and thus i need something else. any tips?
thanks
Bokkie
Hi Maangchi! I made some kimchi fried rice the other day. It’s on my blog!
http://mumspotting.blogspot.com/2008/04/bon-appetite.html
Thomas,
oh, you like fresh kimchi. I like to eat fresh kimchi, too. You can keep it in the refrigerator right after making kimchi. No problem!
Dear Maangchi, Thank you for this site and showing me how to make fabulous Korean food. I just made the kimchi and it turned out delicious. I like the not so sour kimchi that is served at our local restaurant, oysters and all, so I did not let it ferment and only left it out for a few hours and then into refrigerator. Will this still keep well even though not fermented? OK, next the jeon and then the soon du bo jjigae.
Hi Maangchi,okay, many thanks for your kind advise on my question, and would like to say sorry for that..
Hi, Anonymous
I’m leaving my response regarding your question here:
“Hi maangchi,i just finish made the kimchi,i m not sure how the taste yet. btw how should i keep the kimchi paste if i have made to much of the paste for the kimchi,the size of the cup i use is abt (height) 10 cm, so as a result extra paste for two cabbage.can i just keep it in fridge and continue tomorrow?besides,based on your video,1/2 cup of sweet rice flour require 1 cup of fish taste, i just follow the quantity but using my cup to measure it, is it ok with this ?”
My answer:
I am sure your kimchi will turn out good! : )
This recipe is for 2 heads of cabbage kimchi and 2 mediums size of radish kimchi, so if you follow the direction to make only cabbabge kimchi, I’m sure extra kimchi paste will be left.
You can keep the leftover kimchi paste in a container and put it in the freezer and use it when you make kimchi another time.
Please try to use a standard measuring cup instead of using your own cup.
Be sure that the amount of porridge for kimchi paste should not be too thick, then it will be difficult for you to spread the paste between each cabbage leaf.
hi maangchi,
saw ur videos on youtube.com and have been addicted to ur recipes on your site. i havent tried any as today is my first day watching and ive seen half of the videos already!
im living in sri lanka where stuff like korean radish and chinese cabbage, sweet rice flour are not available. what are other alternatives which i can use?
can i use chilli powder as opposed to pepper powder?
Hi, Brian,
oh, you are a very excellent cook.
You have made kimchi only twice, but it sounds like you can make perfect kimchi now. I’m very glad to hear that.
Hi Maangchi,
I am on my second batch of this recipe. The first batch was so-so because I think I let the cabbage stand too long in the salt and it came out too salty. My Korean friend said the radish kimchi was very good.
I made a second batch and didn’t let the cabbage stand so long in the salt plus I used extra fish sauce. It is sooooo good. I also used carrots instead of radish this time and it is also very good.
I love the fish sauce in the recipe. It is one of those tastes that I loved but never knew what it was.
After the kimchi sits for a week or so, I will be trying your kimchi jigae recipe. Anything that has kimchi AND pork belly has to be wonderful.
You are right: practice makes perfect.
Thanks again for the recipes Maangchi!!!!
If the paste is too wet for you, use less porridge next time you make your kimchi. 1 day after making kimchi, usually lots of liquid from kimchi comes out. The liquid will be turning into delicious juice later. Press the kimchi down with a spoon so that the kimchi is submerged instead of being floated.
Practice makes perfect. : )
Hi Maangchi,
I made some Cabbage and Raddish Kimchi last night. The paste was too wet although I followed your recipe exactly. What do you think is the problem?
Hi, sitting still,
stir-fried rice with kimchi (Kimchi bokkumbob)! I will remember your request. Thanks,
Hi Maangchi! Since this entry is about making kimchi I figured it would be the perfect place for me to request…Me and my friend love Kimchi Bokumbop and we’ve tried to make it one time but it didnt taste the same…so may I please request for you to make a video on how to cook it? Thnx :D
Hi!
Thank you so much for the kim chi video.
I have one question. Do you add salt to the kim chi paste? If so, how much? In other web sites, I saw recipes that said I need to add salt to the kim chi paste. I am a bit confused. Thank you for your reply!
Jason…
Hi Maangchi,
Thanks so much very your very informative video. Just one question, I noticed that you were wearing gloves while squeezing the water from the cabbage. If one doesn’t use gloves, will this have any effect on the process ? Should one not handle the cabbage bare-handed after it has been salted ?
Hello. I’ve become a recent fan of Korean food after I happened to find a jar of kimchi in Walmart of all places! I can’t believe I’ve overlooked Korean cuisine! I love Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese foods but have never encountered Korean before.
I’d never heard of kimchi but it looked interesting and I fell in love after making a tuna jigae. I am an amateur cook and I do like experimenting and I went online looking to see exactly what kimchi was and I found your youtube page.
Of course I had lots of ingredients except for Korean ones in my cabinet! Who knew that there was a Korean market five minutes from my house? So, I tried making kimchi yesterday and it didn’t turn out so well! I think I miscalculated amounts and put too much of everything; I also think I used the wrong kind of red pepper powder. I got a kind that said “coarse” on it and it just didn’t seem to dissolve very well. Should I have bought fine powder?
Oh, and would you mind posting your recipe like you did for the kimchi soup, please? From your video I couldn’t tell how much red pepper powder, ginger, oysters, green onions, leeks, and chopped radish to use.
Hi,Sandy,
It’s great news that you will post the pictures of kimchi you made on your blog. I can’t wait to see it.
Thanks.
I just made this today and will be posting a little blog about it (with pictures) on my website. I hope it ferments well. Thanks for all your help and for posting the recipe on your site.
Hi,Deena,
That’s why we squeeze all the water from salted cabbage before spreading kimchi paste between the cabbage leaves. Even though you don’t see much water when you are making kimchi, you will see lots of liquid from kimchi come out afterwards. No worry. Press kimchi using a spoon. The juice from kimchi will be delicious when it fermented.
You don’t know what to do with the leftover kimchi paste?
I usually Keep it in a freezer and use it someday when I need to make kimchi quickly.
hi! I made kimchi a couple of days ago, using the help of your video. however, after putting it in the container and leaving it…I notice there is a lot of liquid. Is that normal? Actually, I think I made too much of the mixture thing to begin with. Should I pour it out? Also, some of the mixture is left over, in a different container in the fridge. Can I do anything with it? (Another recipe perhaps?)
Thanks in advance! And thanks for making that kimchi video :)
Hi,
Here is another successful kimchi making from my recipe.
He made 3 kinds of kimchi: cabbage, raidish, and cucumber. They all look delicious!
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=76025&st=197#
i saw this video for your kimchi on evil jungle prince’s web page. i tried it! and i think it’s come out well? i have not actually tried it yet b/c i just haven’t had the time to yet. but, i forgot to squeeze the water out of the vegetables before mixing with the paste. will this affect the kimchi?