Rachel's Kim Chi
Kimchi - Spicy Fermented Cabbage
The first part of this recipe is for making a kimchi paste - after you make the paste you simply shred napa cabbage into a ceramic crock or pot with a lid, add the paste, stir it in and let it ferment a day or two. Typical kimchi has salty squid added to it and this recipe excludes the squid but still uses fish sauce. You can replace fish sauce with soy sauce if you wish.
Paste:
1.5 cups water
1/4 cup AP flour (since I never remember to buy sweet rice flour)
2T sugar
1/2 c fish sauce (use a smaller amount of soy sauce to make it veggie)
1 cup Korean hot pepper flakes. It's pretty critical to get the Korean kind. They may sell them at Pacific Mercantile downtown, definitely at HMart on South Parker Rd., or online.
Additional kimchi Ingredients:
1 - 1/2 napa cabbage head (depends on the size of the cabbage but approx. 7 pounds of cabbage)
1/2 cup or less garlic
1 T ginger
1/2 cup onion
10 diagonally-sliced green onions
2 cups amount of chopped leek
2 cups of julienned Korean radish (can use daikon),
1/4 cup of julienned carrot
I ferment the cabbage mixture outside the fridge only for a day or two, then in the fridge. You can start eating it at any point. It may bubble, that's fermentation. Don't seal it tightly! Anyone you may want to smooch after eating kimchi must also eat kimchi.