Finally, I made my first kimchi after procrastinating for a long time.
The main reason I wanted to make kimchi is I wanted a vegetable that could be stored longer than fresh vegetable and I hoped that it is not that expensive. (*a 300g kimchi is around RM13.50 in Tesco). I bought bottles of fermented tofu , pickled lettuce, frozen peas, kimchi and I added it into the instant noodle because I figured I needed some fibers and other nutrients. Anyway, I didn't go home due to the RMCO and watched a lot of youtube videos during the weekend, I watched more than 10 videos on how to make kimchi. However, I felt that the steps were too much for me and I didn't have equipment and tools at my rented house, I only have pots to cook instant noodle. I didn't want to spend money on something that I might only use once.
Then, I started to read recipes online for kimchi, I searched for 'easy kimchi', and tonnes of recipe came out. Almost every recipes requested for the ingredients to be blended. I almost wanted to go buy a blender then. But, I managed to control myself. I was thinking that I will do it once I got the chance to go back home. Then, I read on the ingredients to make kimchi, the most difficult ingredient to get is the gochugaru (hot pepper flakes), I couldn't find it in Tesco and I don't think I could get it in my hometown. Actually, with shopee and lazada around, we can buy it online, but I just couldn't justify the cost for gochugaru, the main reason is to save money, if I have to spend more on the gochugaru, I might as well just buy the kimchi, easy and no need all the works. So, I read more on other options and even join a facebook group 'fermenting for beginners' to learn more. Hahaha.
A blogger mentioned that she used paprika because she couldn't get gochugaru in her place, so I tried to search for it in supermarket, I found one and I felt that it is so expensive, a small bottle of 45g paprika cost around RM4 to RM5. Then, I walked the spices and condiments section and saw our Malaysian favourite, Baba's Chilli Powder, a 125g packet is only RM2++, less than RM3 per packet. So, I tried to search whether anyone uses this to make kimchi, paprika is chili powder and someone managed to make kimchi with it, I think Baba's will work.
Dang dang dang! 2 results came out. Both of them mentioned that they used the exact same Baba's Chilli Powder.
So, I decided to use this cheap and affordable Baba's. Anyway, I didn't follow exactly the recipes because I am stingy.
One fine morning on the first day of 2021, I was back at home and it's a public holiday. And after reading and watching so many kimchi related stuffs, I really had the oomph to make this kimchi. So, I walked to a nearby supermarket and bought half a head of Napa cabbage (before this, I didn't even know this vegetable is a type of cabbage!), a carrot, a packet of Baba's chilli powder, a packet of table salt (I know many called for kosher salt or any other salt that does not contain iodine but table salt is so cheap) and I couldn't bring myself to buy the green onions because it was so expensive, a packet of green onions (not sure how many stalks within a packet though) is RM8++. Anyway, I decided to skip green onions, not worth it. I didn't buy radish because I didn't see it.
Anyway, all the steps could be found online. So, I am not going to go details on that. When I bought the vegetables home and told my mom I wanted to make kimchi, she was like,"there's no vinegar at home, how to make kimchi?" She was doubtful when I said there's no need for vinegar for kimchi because this is a fermentation process, not pickle. Anyway, I started my kimchi making. First, I cut the Napa cabbage into small pieces and rubbing salt into it to draw the water out, I want to be alive after eating my own kimchi, so I put so many teaspoons of salt on it, at least the salt can kill off some bad germ maybe? I have no kitchen scale, so all ingredients were added according to my feelings.
After few hours, visible liquid could be seen underneath the colander, so I washed the cabbage as per recipe instruction. I don't understand why we need to wash away the salt, isn't that salt can make anything and everything more tasty? And another question is why we don't need to draw out the water for carrot too? Why only cabbage? Anyway, follow instruction first. After I washed away the salt, I cut the carrot, I know every other people cut into thin match size, but actually by that time, my interest wore off a bit already, so the carrot is cut into a not so small portion. You all can see from the photo, the carrot size is big, hahaha!
Then, blending time. Normally people uses ginger, garlic, onion, fish sauce and apple or pear. However, only garlic is available at home that time and I didn't want to waste an apple for this experiment. Fish sauce is substituted with soy sauce because my family don't consume fish sauce, for us, it tasted weird. So, I only blended garlic, brown sugar and soy sauce until I could't see the chunk of garlic. I poured this into a big bowl and added the chili powder. I think I added until half a packet of that chili powder. So when I mix the mixture with the napa cabbage and carrot with my hand, all I could smell was the chili powder. I was worried that it might be too spicy later. After mixing everything, I put it into a pyrex glass container that I got as a free gift when I went servicing my car at the Perodua service centre. Then, I put the container in a shady corner. The next day, bubbles could be seen forming inside the container, it means that it started to ferment. After 2 days, I transfered it into the refrigerator.
Normally, all the recipes ended here. No many people mentioned what to do next. Luckily, I joined the facebook group on fermenting. Someone mentioned that the kimchi she made cause such a mess (burst out) because she didn't release the gas (CO2) occasionally and finally when she wanted to eat and opened the jar, the gas popped out and the kimchi liquid messed up her place. I was at my rented place that time and it have been few days after I started the kimchi. I quickly call my mom to release gas. Hahaha, luckily my mom said she just heard a popping sound, the liquid didn't burst out.
Anyway, now after 2 weeks of fermenting, albeit slower in the refrigerator, I had my first DIY kimchi. It's a bit sour, not so spicy although I added so many chili powder. And I didn't have stomach ache and still alive, thank God! Next time, maybe will try pickle vegetable!
