Recipe: Radish Kimchi

Radish Kimchi

Radish kimchi is just as good as the kind made with Napa cabbage, and at typical prices for daikon is also a lot cheaper to make. We like the recipe from My Korean Kitchen because it contains a number of halmoni (grandma) techniques, and have changed it only to genericize some of the ingredients. Makes about a half gallon, enough to fill one of those big kimchi jars.

Ingredients:
2 lb daikon, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
3 green onions, including some of the green part, sliced crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces
2 T sugar
2 T Kosher salt

½ small brown onion, peeled and chopped
½ small red apple, cored and chopped
3 T fish sauce
1 T garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
½ T ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
¼ c gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)*
1 T rice flour or white flour
¼ c water

After mixing, ready for the cure.

Method: toss the radish with the sugar and salt and rest for an hour at room temperature. It will throw off quite a bit of liquid. Rinse well and drain in a colander. Mix in a bowl with 2 T gochugaru (adding it separately provides extra color to the kimchi) and green onion. Meanwhile, mix rice flour and water till lumps are absorbed then heat in a microwave oven for 1 minute. It will become a sticky paste. Combine in a mini-chop with onion, apple, fish sauce, garlic, ginger and 2 T gochugaru and blend into a slurry. Combine with the radish mixture and blend until very well mixed. (Tradition is to use your hands, wearing gloves, but a big spoon works fine.) Allow to cure at room temperature for 24 hours then transfer to a jar and refrigerate. Radish Kimchi will be ready to eat in a week and will stay crunchy for several weeks thereafter.

*This provides a fairly mild chili taste, which is desirable if you are serving this along with a spicier kimchi in a panchan assortment. But feel free to add more gochugaru if you like, either during the preparation or after tasting the next day before you refrigerate.