Kimchi Tutorial

                Making kimchi is a community or family activity because it requires lots of hands to do all the work that is required. Wayne thought he would be out-of-place in a room full of “harmonies” (Korean for grandmothers) but the Koreans insisted he participate from the cutting of the first cabbage. Sister Park hosted the event and had many of the ingredients already to use such as trimming the green onions, mincing the garlic and grinding the red peppers into a coarse powder. She had the special fruit preserves that looked a bit like plum jam to be used as sweetener.

Sister Park took me to the market to purchase cabbage, radish, long grass herb, carrot, and yellow onion but she also had tiny shrimp in a salty brine, anchovy oil and rice flour.

                One of the basic ingredients of Korean kimchi is cabbage. They plant these cabbages in late August and harvest them before the first hard freeze in November. Sister Kong is explaining how you cut the base of the cabbage about five inches into the head and then use your hands to separate the remainder of the leaves. The same cut is made into each half and then they are separated by hand. When traditional kimchi is made, the cabbage leaves are salted in these quarters, one leaf at a time and left to leach the water from the leaves for about ten hours. The finished kimchi is then left to ferment for one to three years before it is ready to eat.

                 We made the short kimchi which only required salting the cabbage for three hours so Wayne and I cut the cabbage leaves into five inch strips before they were salted. Our kimchi should be ready to eat in one to three months so I think they call it fresh kimchi. We only cut three cabbages for our kimchi. Sister Kong said that her mother often used as many as 100 cabbages to make the kimchi for the family.

                The living room and kitchen were transformed into an extended kitchen with two tables to accommodate all the different ingredients. The bowl of cabbage is overflowing when we filled it with fresh cabbage.

              The one type of kimchi I enjoy the most is made from a very large white radish. I asked if we could make radish kimchi so as Wayne finished cutting the cabbages I peeled the radish and then we cut it into three-quarter inch cubes. The size of the cube needs to equal one bite. The first cubes were too large and that was demonstrated by Sister Song by showing that it didn’t fit into her mouth. She has a way of making everyone laugh.

                After the cutting the next step is to wash the cut cabbage and radish. This is when I learned that the anteroom on the front of every apartment is not there to dry clothes on drying racks. It’s the preparation room for washing the ingredients for kimchi. There is a faucet with access to water and the floor is angled to drain into a drain in the floor near the faucet. The cabbage was washed three times. The large blue colander on my right was used to drain off the extra water between washes.

                 Contemporary harmonies use a little squat stool to support their bottom as they squat and work. The stool I used initially was a little higher and more comfortable. When it was my turn on the squat stool, I wasn’t sure I would ever stand upright again.  

Next came the salting. One layer of cabbage was returned to the pan and covered in salt, ten a second, third and final layer. Another bowl was placed on top as a cover and the cabbage was left for two hours while the water drained from the leaves.

                Sister Park salted the radish cubes and they were left for the water to drain from them as well.

Now it was time to wash the catnip leaves, green onions, and long grass you can see in the red bowl that are similar to chives in that they have a smell of onion. Sister Kong insisted I do this washing myself with her help. I am sitting in front of the floor drain so my socks were totally soaked when I was finished and my body felt permanently curled.

This done, it was time for dinner. We had a two-hour wait for the cabbages and radishes so Sister Park brought out fresh apples which I helped cut. Sister Kong peeled her apple slices but assured me that both peeled and unpeeled were delicious. We had Korean tangerines grown on Jeju Island that are the sweetest in the world. I did not argue this claim; they were very delicious. We also had the cherry tomatoes and bottled water with flavoring. I love the fresh fruit and produce grown in Korea. We ate and giggled and ate some more.

Then Sister Song decided would have kimchi (jeon) pancakes. I did my best to convey that I could not eat wheat flour. I did such a good job that they used rice flour to make the pancake. Sister Song giggled as she explained the name of the pancake begins with a word that means little bug, then she slapped her hand to indicate flat. So I’m not sure whether the little bug is flat when it is alive or that the little bug becomes flat when you see it and smash it. She did her share of smashing the pancake in the pan to make it thin and flat. First she cut “old” kimchi (Considering it isn’t ready to eat for two to three years, I didn’t want to know the definition of the “old” kimchi.) into small pieces, about half of a large cabbage.

Then she cut about a quarter of a yellow onion in thin slices and added it to the flour and water mixture. This, she said, was poor man’s pancake. She pulled out two eggs to add and indicated that the rich man has eggs in his pancake, too. Then she wanted a can of tuna fish but Sister Park didn’t have one. We had a small can of wahoo fish from the discount shelf at the commissary so Wayne was sent to our apartment to retrieve it. He didn’t know that he needed to also bring his can opener because most Korean cans have the ring and pull top opening. Sister Park had to demonstrate to him how to use her can opener. It was a new device for him, but he was successful in freeing the fish from the can.

                There was a generous portion of oil in the bottom of the pan, a dipper of batter, and then smashing to fill the pan. The end product tasted too good. I think Wayne and I probably ate a whole pancake each plus several of the little vegetable pancakes.               

  Next came the vegetable pancakes that started with a mass of very thin, white mushrooms with tiny tops. Sister Park and Sister Kong worked at separating the stems of the mushrooms from one another. They added grated carrot, sliced green onion cut into five inch segments and cut lengthwise. They added eggs and a little bit of rice flour dissolved in water. It was a much thicker batter.

                Sister Song shaped this batter into pancakes about five inches in diameter and fried them in sesame oil as well. These are a milder pancake, a bit chewy, but very delicious.