During a recent trip to Koreatown (aka Wangjing), our table conversation turned towards the “modernization” of banchan, specifically kimchi. The sad fact is that most spicy fermented cabbage is machine made and though I’ve never eschewed the gratis kimchi offered at most restaurants, I felt inspired to learn this dying art.

The recipes for cabbage kimchi are as diverse banchan itself. In the most basic recipes, cabbage, garlic, ginger, onion, Korean red pepper flakes, fish sauce, sugar and salt comprise the simplest pickled cabbage. Many people also add scallion, carrot, radish, Asian pear and raw oysters. Me? Given availability, I’d add them all.

With the exception of the Korean pepper flakes, all of these ingredients can be easily and cheaply procured at the local market. Including the red pepper flakes (RMB35, which can yield four large batches), five pounds of cabbage kimchi can be handmade for less than RMB55. As it was my first attempt at pickled cabbage, I avoided non-traditional ingredients like pear and raw oysters.

Simply Super Kimchi

5 jin napa cabbage

½ cup salt

¼ cup sweet rice flour (optional)

1/8 cup+ sugar

½ cup fish sauce

1.5 cup+ Korean red pepper flakes

½ cup garlic

2 tbls ginger

½ cup onion

5 scallion (optional)

1 bunch jiucai (Chinese scallions) (optional)

¼ cup carrot (optional)

1 cup radish (optional)

Chop cabbage into bite size pieces and sprinkle with salt and water; toss every 30 minutes to evenly distribute the salt. After soaking the kimchi for one and a half hours, wash the cabbage thoroughly (at least three times) to wash off excess salt.

While waiting for the cabbage to pickle, add finely diced ginger, garlic, onion, fish sauce, sugar and red pepper flakes in a separate bowl (if you own a food processor, now is the time to whip that puppy out, otherwise hand dicing is a true labor of love). An optional step that I highly recommend is to prepare a thickening agent to help improve the consistency of the kimchi juice. Optional: bring sweet rice flour (or I used sweet potato flour because it was the only thing I could find) and 1.5 cup water to a simmer until the liquid becomes opaque. Add this to the garlic mixture. If you do not use the thickening agent, simply add 1cup of water to the garlic mixture. Add julienned carrot, radish and scallions to the pepper flake-garlic mixture and pour the all of the contents over the thoroughly washed cabbage. Mix and pack loosely inside plastic containers or glass jars. Leave room at the top of the container and loosely attached lid—as the kimchi ferments it will start to expand.

I love eating fresh kimchi. It should start to pickle after a week and should be good to eat for several weeks. If you want to accelerate the process, leave the kimchi at room temperature for a day before placing kimchi in the refrigerator. Kimchi is great over white rice, or added to an Asian-style soup, though I love adding an egg, ½ cup flour and some more jiucai to a cup for finely chopped kimchi (plus extra kimchi juice) to make a pan-fried kim chi pancake. The possibilities are endless…