![]()
Korean cabbage
Selecting a good cabbage is the cornerstone to make tasty kimchi. The middle size is good, and light white of inside and light green of outside make the perfect choice. When you lift the cabbage, it must be rather heavy to be filled out inside, and an inside leaf must be savory.
When trimming up the cabbage, first, tear off tough outer leaves, and poke the root with a knife as about 10cm long, and then split it with hands. When the cabbage is big, divide it into 4 sections and small, 2 sections. Then put them into about 12% of salty water for about 6 hours. During this time, it's better to upside the cabbages down every 2~3 hours so that they get salted well.
Radish
Conditions of good radish are density and hardness, and its green parts are young and fresh. It's important to consider the season and the usage in choosing radish. Making stuffings for cabbage kimchi, hard, watery, and big radish is used, while small and watery radish is used for kkactugi.
Radish for pony-tail kimchi is small and hard with young and fresh top leaves. Under part of good radish is rather wide and the tail part is thick. The surface of radish for dongchimi kimchi must be smooth and its leaves are fresh, also, the upper part of radish is not so green.
When trim up radish, first, tear off the top leaves and take out fine hairs and soil with a knife, then clean them with a brush. leaves to be Left are used when make stuffings.
Red pepper
Red pepper is divided into two kinds, which are sun-dried red pepper and fire dried red pepper depending to producing place and ways of dry. Sun dried red pepper is large and bright, and tastes very hot. Fire dried red pepper is hard and sweet and has thin skin. To make tasty kimchi, it's better to use both kinds together.
Garlic
Good garlic for kimjang kimchi is hard and its peel colors red. Garlic is used to all kinds of kimchi with different shapes. When makes paek kimchi, garlic is cut in thin stripe, and for dongchimi, flat sliced garlic is used. Ground garlic is put in cabbage kimchi.
Ginger
Good ginger is big, moist and easy to peel. When breaks a joint, good ginger has no thin strings. Same as garlic, ginger is used to all kinds of kimchi with different shapes. When make paek kimchi, ginger is cut in thin stripe, and for dongchimi, flat sliced ginger is used. Ground ginger is put in cabbage kimchi. Ginger clears germs and odor, and prevents rottenness of food.
Green onion
When picking up green onions, there must be lots of white part near root with smooth surface. Good small green onions are short and not dried and the thickness is even. For big green onions, fresh leaves are a key to choose good one. When make kimchi, small green onions are usually used rather than big green onions because of much moist and mucus of big green onions.
Mustard leaf
The leaves and branches with special smell and rather hot taste are used for making kimchi, and seasoning greens while yellow bead shaped seeds are ground to be used for mustard or yellow mustard as medicine.
There are red and blue mustard leaves depending on the usage. Red leaf mustard is better for kimchi made of powdered red pepper such as mustard leaf kimchi, cabbage kimchi, and sliced radish kimchi, while blue mustard leaf is preferred for paek kimchi and dongchimi. The thickness of the color means strength of its smell. So, if you don't like the special smell, try to find ones with light color.
Leeks
There are traditional leeks and reformed leeks. The former has thin leaves and the latter has wide ones. When make kimchi with leeks, traditional leeks with shorter leaves make good taste. The leaves are to be bright green and try not to choose ones with dried or broken leaves. Compared to other vegetables, leeks are easy to smell greens, so special care is needed. Wash the leeks in flowing water by shaking them tenderly. To make kimchi with leeks, salted water of anchovies is better than salt for salting.
Parley
Parley is usually cooked as a side dish after boiled or parboiled, and uncooked parley is put to kimchi to give off unique smell and freshness.
To choose good parley, see if it has long and rather thick branches, and shorter and mild but exuberant leaves. The overall surface is reddish and the one with much moist is good one.
Salt
Salt is used in all kind of kimchi to salt the vegetables and make taste. Furthermore, it deactivates bacteria so that the kimchi can be preserved for a long time. Rough salt is for salting Korean cabbage and radish, and fine salt is for making a taste. When pick good rough salt, the particles of salt must be big and rather black colored. For fine salt, the particles must be small and contain white color. A common condition to choose good salt of each kind is that the salt must not contain moist and dirt.
Raw oyster
Oyster can be enjoyed both raw and cooked in various ways. Raw oysters in kimchi makes the taste cooler. Good oyster has big body and clean color. Wash them in salty water by shaking mildly lest it should be broken. See to it that you put oyster only if you plan to eat out the kimchi in a month.
Salted fishes
Salted fishes is the traditional food in Korea and it's been loved as side dish, flavors making dishes, and materials for kimchi. Furthermore, salted fish contains calcium and fat as well as qualified protein.
There are as many as 140 kinds of salted fish depending on the region, season and its materials, and among them about 60 kinds are used in kimchi.
Commonly used salted fishes are anchovies and shrimps, also some families have their own recipe to use special salted fishes.
Salted fishes is used both in raw and boiled.
Salted shrimps
This is made of shrimps and salt. It tastes cool and fresh. Salted shrimps for kimjang kimchi is best to be made in June and ones made in May or the fall is good as a side dish.
Salted shrimps is commonly used to make cabbage kimchi or sliced radish kimchi and also served with sliced boiled pork.
Good salted shrimps for kimchi is thick, fat and pink color made with unbroken shapes of shrimps. Choose the water colors is white, it must be tasty.
Salted anchovies
Salted anchovies is most commonly used with salted shrimps, and it tastes good and sweet.
Pick salted anchovies with well fermented as the bones can't be seen, and taste if it has no fish-like odor. If it has a bit sweet tastes and colors light black and red, this is a good choice.
When sieved through Korean paper there comes clear water, which is used for cabbage kimchi, while chopped anchovies is put in sliced radish kimchi.
Salted anchovies are used in mustard leaf kimchi, leek kimchi, green onion kimchi, and Korean lettuce kimchi.
Top
Paechu Kimchi Kkaktugi Chonggak Kimchi Tongchimi
Paek Kimchi Nabak Kimchi Possam Kimchi Oisobaki