There’s lots of different types of kimchi. Traditionally, bae-chu (cabbage) kimchi is made with napa cabbage, but we got some bok choy and pink little radishes in our Odd Box so I made kimchi with it. Pink radishes are sweeter and less dense than korean radish, but work beautifully and they’re so pretty!

INGREDIENTS

1 bok choy
20 radishes
100 g salt
45 g anchovy fish sauce
30 g spicy chili powder (Use less if you don’t want it too spicy)
3 inch knob of ginger
1/2 head of garlic
Green onion stems if you have them
100 g flour
300 g water
- The flour and water is for a roux that’s going to be the “food” for the fermentation. I don’t add sugar and the flour/ water mix kinda takes sugar’s place as an energy source for the fermentation bacteria. It also gives you more juice so you can throw some into a korean kimchi stew later on or grill your pork belly in kimchi juice or add a tablespoon to your bibimbap. All the things.

INSTRUCTIONS

Let’s start with our roux. We’re going to heat up 100 g flour and 300 g water on a low heat. Be very vigilant and keep an eye on things, constantly whisking so nothing sticks to the bottom or clumps together. It’s done when you can drag a spatula through the mix and leave a clean trail. Put that to the side and let it cool.
Now, rinse the bok choy and then chop it up 1 - 2 inch sections.
Place bok choy into a 2 liter bowl. Fill with enough cold water to submerge everything.
Add 100 grams of salt. The water should be as salty as the sea.
Leave for 1 hour. An hour later, check the leaves. You know it’s ready when the leaves are all bendy instead of snapping in half when bent.
Peel a knob of garlic and half a head of garlic and if you have a food processor, use it. I don’t so I had to hand chop it. Put all the minced aromatics into a bowl.
Add the fish sauce, chili powder to the aromatics. It’s going to turn into a pungent bowl of smells.
Wash and cut the green part off the radishes and then halve them.
After an hour of the salt water brine, and the leaves are all bendy, just add everything together.
Don’t rinse the Bok choy. Pull it straight out of the salt water and put it into a large bowl for mixing. Add the radishes, bowl of smells (garlic, ginger, fish sauce, chili powder), and roux.
Mix it all together. I use my hands because it is juicy juice and a spatula is gonna make things splatter.
Into a large Kilner jar, add the spring onions to the bottom (I make them into little knots because they’re cute, but also, they’re bite sized that way). Now add handfuls of the kimchi and all the juice.
Push it all down so it’s submerged. You want to make sure it’s sitting under the liquid. (You can add a layer of plastic wrap or small silicone cut out to the top and weigh it down with rocks). Also, if you don’t have a lot of liquid today, don’t worry, you’ll have more tomorrow as everything breaks down.
Let it rest outside. Mine is sitting on a plate cus I don’t want kimchi juice to stink up or stain our wooden balcony floors. It will be ready to eat in about 4 days, but make sure you open it and check on it every day. Remember, you want your veggies to be under the water.
Enjoy !