One of the crowd favorites and a staple dish on the menu, two aspects of our kimchi fries are fermented in house. Both our fries and kimchi are Lactobacillus or LAB fermented.
More on the fries later, but Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish that originated over 3,000 years ago. Fermentation was a form of preservation of foods before refrigeration was created. Making Kimchi a healthy staple of the Korean Diet. It can be fermented with radishes, cabbages, cucumbers, scallions, and a whole range of veggies.
Our recipe below showcases how we produce our tangly, zesty, delicious Kimchi!
- Cut cabbage into 1 to 2-inch pieces and add them to a large bowl
- Salt the cabbage leaves, mixing and massaging them, and let it rest for 1-2 hours.
- Rinse the cabbages in cold water 2 to 3 times to remove excess salt and dirt. Drain well and set aside the cabbage.
- Blanch ginger in a bot of boiling water for 5-10 minutes to soften it.
- Combine sambal, gochugaru, fish sauce, garlic, and ginger puree and mix well with Food Processor. This will be your wet mix. More gochugaru will make the kimchi spicy; use it to your preference.
- Roughly chop scallion and combine it with cabbage.
- Julliene or Thinly slice, onions and radish and combine it with cabbage.
- Thoroughly mix cabbage/veg with your wet mix. We recommend using gloves to avoid any smells or stains.
- Split the kimchi into fermentation containers, and pack tightly, press the kimchi mix down to decrease any presence of oxygen. Feel free to use any excess liquid from the jars to help seal. Leave some breathing room for burping.
- Ferment in them in a cool dark place for a few days.
- Burp your kimchi to release the gases every day or other day. Press down on the veggies to keep them submerged and taste till it reaches your liking.
- When the desired flavor and aroma are achieved, kimchi can be placed into the refrigerator and can last months.
Please note this does not stop the fermentation process just slows it down, as kimchi will still get more sour overtime, then a new fresh batch should be made. Old Kimchi is great for kimchi soup, aka kimchiguk!
Tips/Tricks for Kimchi
- Optimum kimchi pH is around ~4.2
- Use salts that are free of iodine, as iodine can inhibit fermentation.
- Using Distilled or Filtered water are better options, if your tap water is high in chlorine.
- Feel free to venture with new ingredients and different flavors such as Asian pears, fermented shrimp paste, and glutinous rice flour.
Did You Know?
- Natural organisms, such as Lactic Acid Bacteria, sometimes known as probiotics, are present on the vegetables and through the soil.
- Providing an optimal environment (ideal temperatures), with little to no oxygen, let’s these organisms thrive and eat different starches and sugars, creating many flavors and aromas and producing lactic acid, bringing down the pH level and making it safe for consumption.
- Food below a pH of 4.5 is considered acidified foods and are safer for consumption. This is due to many organisms cannot survive at these lower pH levels. Making it a form of preservation.