Malaysian Styled Kimchi Cabbage

I always like kimchi, it was my go to vegetable when I was in Japan during winter. A big container of made in Japan kimchi was around 500 to 600 yen only (I only picked the cheapest), there were other more premium made in Japan kimchi. The made in Korea kimchi was more expensive in Japan supermarket. That was more than 10 years ago, I didn't know what is the price nowadays. Anyway, kimchi in Malaysia is not that cheap either. Although I am a stingy person, I still bought kimchi now and than from supermarket, only small bottle and normally it's more than RM10. I searched for "kimchi" in Lazada and sort from cheapest, there're many kimchi products from China. Read in an article somewhere that even Korea imported kimchi from China nowadays. 

From the sorting in Lazada, the cheapest kimchi is around RM5 per 100g. To me, actually it's still ok. But sometimes, one needs to do some DIY, not just to save money, but also to spend time and energy on something that is not a digital activity. I have been making kimchi for a few times. 

I watched a lot of videos of easy kimchi making and read the theory of fermentation. This round, for the first time, I also added white carrot (daikon). Daikon was added because I saw it in the supermarket. Last few times, I didn't see it, so I didn't buy it. Since it's the first time I would add daikon, I read in FB, reddit on theory whether it's needed to draw the water out of daikon. Then, whether to use brining or dry salted. Finally I settled on brining. Well, I felt that it's easier to brine. 

I bought cabbage (not Napa cabbage, it's easier to just get cabbage), carrot, green onion, daikon, red chilies (I took 10 and only 2 were being used), Baba's chili powder and salt. I didn't get chili flakes, I felt that it's kind of expensive. I also add a bulb of red onion and two cloves of garlic.   

daikon and green onion

carrot, cabbage and red chilies

I cleaned everything, then cut daikon into cubes, carrots, red onion, green onions into sticks, and cabbage into pieces. Then, for the cabbage and daikon, I put all into a bowl and filled it up with water and added salt. I didn't measure how much salt I added, just by feeling. I think I put too little because I started the brining process on around 10pm, the next morning 8.30am, when I checked the cabbage, it could still be broken easily. So, I changed the water and added more salt until I tried the water and it's very salty. The second round, I brined until around 3pm, the cabbage was more flexible. Then, I washed the cabbage and daikon to get rid of the salty water and let it to dry. The weather was hot, around 6pm, when I checked, it's ok, so I started to put everything together.

brining

drying cabbage and daikon after cleaned off the salty water

First, I poured the carrot, green onion, red onion, chili, garlic into a big mixing bowl. Then, I added 2 big spoons of sugar. The role of sugar was to provide food to the yeast. For those who are health conscious, one can use fruits like apple or pear. I am cheap, I use sugar. But I think I added too much sugar, because the next day 10am, I found that it's already bubbling. Normally, not so fast. After sugar, I added chili powder and soy sauce. Mine can be considered vegan kimchi, my family don't use fish sauce. 

carrot, green onion, red onion, chili, garlic

add chili powder and soy sauce

After added all the ingredients, I mixed with hand, and after mixed evenly, I put all into glass containers. Only one of the glass containers was bought, others were reuse fruit jam jar and free gift. I would use this on instant noodles, or eat as it is, or cooked it with tofu soup.

before start to ferment

After that, it's left outside at room temperature to ferment, maybe due to the weather or too much sugar, on next day, after around 14 hours, I could see there are many bubbles, means that it already started fermenting, producing carbon dioxide. From my last experience, to reach that level, normally I needed around 2 days. Anyway, after I saw that active carbon dioxide production, I stored all into the refrigerator, I don't like it to be so sourish. 

bubbles - start fermenting

Finally, cost calculation, for the 3 containers, it's around RM20. Actually, the vegetables didn't cost so much, it's the chili powder and soy sauce that make up major chunk of the cost. Anyway, still cheaper than store bought. 

item	price (RM)
cabbage	3.03
carrot	0.71
red chilies	0.32
daikon	1.76
green onion	2.50
chili powder	5.30
salt	0.60
soy sauce	3.00
others	2.00
total	19.22