Vegan & Gluten-Free Radish Kimchi

While most Americans are familiar with napa cabbage kimchi, radish kimchi is also one of the most popular kimchis in korea. In Korean, this kimchi is called 깍두기 "Kaktugi". Usually eaten with hearty soups and stews, this kimchi is the easiest and fastest kimchi to make.

The Ingredients:

• 1 medium size Korean radish (approximately 2 pounds)
• 1 Tbs and 1 tsp of kosher salt (for initial salting)
• 1 1/2 Tbs of Korean red pepper powder
• 1 1/2 Tbs of sugar
• 1 Tbs of minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp of minced ginger
• 2 stalks of scallion cleaned and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 tsp of kosher salt

The Three Part Process:

• Prepping and salting the radish

Peel the Korean radish, cut off the ends and wash. Cut the radish into 1 inch cubes and put in a bowl. Add 1 Tbs and 1 tsp of kosher salt and toss. Let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, drain and discard any liquid that pools at the bottom of the container.

• Mixing the ingredients

Add Korean red pepper powder, sugar, minced garlic, minced ginger, scallions and 2 tsp of kosher salt and mix well. Once thoroughly mixed, taste and add more salt, sugar or red pepper powder to suit your preference. Store in an air tight container (otherwise, your whole refrigerator might smell like kimchi). Make sure to leave a bit of room at the top of your container. The radish will continue to give off liquid increasing the volume of your kimchi.

• Fermentation
  

The kimchi is ready to eat. It will be refreshing, crunchy and flavorful with a nice spicy kick but this fresh kimchi will be missing that unique sour taste of ripe kimchi.

To let it ripen, keep at room temperature for 1 to 2 days to get the fermentation process started and then store in the refrigerator. Store for another 2-3 days before you begin to eat. While edible at any time, you will definitely taste the fermentation occurring most strongly during this period.

As the kimchi ripens, it will get more sour and bubbles may form. Kimchi will last for several weeks/months and does not go bad. Rather, the kimchi will taste more sour as time goes by. When it gets too sour for you to eat you use it to make stews.

• Notes

As a side note, many Koreans replace sugar with a sugar substitute for this particular type of kimchi. You will notice that once ripened, the radish kimchi tends to give off more liquid than the typical napa cabbage kimchi. As the radish ripens, the spicy red liquid tends to become gummy if sugar is used. While using a sugar substitute prevents the radish kimchi "soup" from becoming viscous, its really a matter of preference. Also, more health conscious Koreans use ground up sweet onion or Korean pear instead of sugar to sweeten the kimchi.

Korean restaurants tend to add a lot more sugar to their kimchi to cater to the western palate.

The best part of Korean dramas are the food scenes and in the greatest Korean drama ever, the 2005's "My Lovely Sam Soon", the heroine dumps an entire bowl of rice plus a generous portion of 깍두기 liquid into her hangover soup before inhaling it. Made me drool...that is until she spits it all out over her boss after he proposes they date. I make this kimchi simply to recreate that scene. :)