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Cooking With Mother: Kimchi (김치) and Ggakdugi (깍두기)
01/06/10
12:37:31 pm, by admin 
, 340 words 
Categories: ...and Takes On, Family, Travel, Korea, Food and Drink
Cooking With Mother: Kimchi (김치) and Ggakdugi (깍두기)
Mother taught me how to make kimchi "the lazy way." We made very easy, no-frills kimchi and radish kimchi together. Here's what we did, step-by-step.
Napa Cabbage
Daikon
Kimchi/김치: Traditionally, napa cabbage kimchi (general old "kimchi") is only cut in halves or fourths and is stuffed with the pepper materials in between each layer. However, Mother taught me "the lazy way," which is how she generally makes it. Cut the cabbage into pieces.
Ggakdugi/깍두기: If making daikon kimchi, peel and then cube.
Salted Cabbage
Kimchi and Ggakdugi: Generously salt using coarse sea salt or coarse kosher salt. Salt in layers and leave for a few hours, so water is released.
Gochu (Red Pepper Flakes)
Daikon Radish
Kimchi
Kimchi: After a few hours, rinse the cabbage well several times so that the salt is removed. Add a generous helping of minced garlic, some chopped up scallions, some julienned radish, and oligoldang.
Oli-what?
Oligoldang
This bottle is rice oligoldang. I have absolutely no idea what that means. It's basically a rice syrup. Mother also used it on pancakes instead of maple or pancake syrup. We were able to find that exact same brand and syrup at our local Korean market, but if you can't, substitute a couple of tablespoons of sugar.
A Palm of Oligoldang
Kimchi
Ggakdugi: Mother seasoned the ggakdugi differently. She threw a (eww, gross, gross) handful of baby shrimp in the bowl first. Then she added pepper and a little oligoldang.
Shrimp, Complete with Eyes
Ggakdugi
Finally, Mother packed the two versions of kimchi into plastic containers before storing them in her kimchi fridge.
Finished Kimchi
These were really basic versions of kimchi. I'll probably try making these myself first, before playing with adding different things (carrots, oyster sauce, etc). They tasted good as-is, though!
Mother said it was important for women to know how to make kimchi, but too many young women don't know how. I asked her if Sister knew how. "No," she said, "but she must learn before she gets married."
7 comments
Thank you for posting the Kimchi recipe. Can you post the Kimchi Jjiagae recipe as well?
Umma, seriously, the only "recipe" I have for jjigae is what I posted on the 1st. She just threw a ton of kimchi in a pot, a tiny bit of water, and the other stuff I described. I have no photos because it happened so quickly. If I end up making jjigae her style soon, I'll take photos of the ratios as I eyeball them. One of the frustrating things is that, like you'd expect from someone who'd been doing this for 30 years, she didn't really have exact amounts. It was a lot of that "hand flavor."
Glad you're enjoying the posts. ^^
Still want to go to Korea one day...
*going to Yechon this weekend* Weeeee! ^_^.
So is it standard to be taught how to make it as an adult, but before marriage....or would this instead be traditionally taught as a child was growing up?
Now, in Seoul at least, it seems that most women in their 20s and early 30s never learn. They simply buy it in the store.
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