Green Cabbage Kimchi

Ironically, I cook all the time and rarely ever make Korean food and I am Korean (even though my last name sounds very Chinese now... still getting used to that).  It was always a mystery to me as a child of how Korean food was prepared and sometimes still is because it's hard to find solid recipes with correct measurements.  I am the type of person that needs exact measurements and I get frustrated easily if I don't have them and the dish doesn't come out right the first couple of times.  Thank goodness for Maangchi.  It totally demystifies traditional Korean cooking and makes it look easy.  

I looked through the website and found the easiest kimchi recipe to try out.  This is a very mild form of kimchi that can be eaten with rice or noodles and put into kimchi stews or kimchi fried rice.

Recipe

From Maangchi and I added minor notes

Ingredients

2 lbs green cabbage, cut into thin strips about 2 to 3 inches in length and 1/4 inches wide

1/4 c kosher salt

1/3 c hot pepper flakes (I have only found this in Korean markets.  It is difficult to find elsewhere)

1/4 c fish sauce (I avoid fish sauce with preservatives and look for the ones that only have anchovies and salt in the list of ingredients.  This can also be found at the Korean market)

1 tbs sugar

1/4 c minced garlic

1/3 c green onions, chopped and stems removed

1/4 c carrot, julienned

Directions
Please cabbage in a large bowl and add 1 cup of cold water and kosher salt.  Mix it well with your hands to properly salt the cabbage.  Set it aside for 10 minutes.

In a separate bowl, mix hot pepper flakes, sugar, fish sauce, garlic, green onion, and carrot.  This is called the kimchi paste.

Wash and rinse the salted cabbage in cold water a couple of times.  Drain the water.

Mix the kimchi paste in the cabbage thoroughly.  Put the kimchi into a plastic container (be careful of red staining from the hot pepper flakes), glass jar, or plastic bag.  Press the top of the kimchi down with your hands to protect your kimchi from being exposed to too much air.  You can eat it right away, just like salad, or keep it at room temperature and it will ferment in a few days.

Everything fit in a traditional small glass kimchi jar for me.  Luckily, I had one of these lying around in my kitchen cabinet.