Life in Korea: Kimchi- Korea's Food

Kimchi-Making Event (Gimjang)

Kimjang (Kimchi-making) usually started in late October or early November and lasted for 2 or 3 days with help from many people. The number of cabbages prepared depended on the number of household members, usually between 100 and 200 cabbages. Considering the number of cabbages and amount of preparation for Kimjang, it was not a job for just 1 or 2 persons. People considered it as a major annual event, so close relatives, several neighbor housewives, and a few strong men all pitched in and worked together. People who participated in Kimjang helped wash cabbages, prepared materials, and stuffed ingredients inside each cabbage leaf.

The task usually lasted all day for 2-3 days, so the hostess treated each person to a big lunch every day. After the kimchi-making was done, she also gave some of the kimchi to the participants. When one of the other participants was ready to do their own Kimjang, all of members get together again to help her out. In this way, everyone finished their kimchi-making with help from everyone else. Although the event has grown less important in recent years due to changes in life styles and family size, it was great fun to enjoy the warm heart of neighbors and relatives in times past.

Materials
5 cabbages, 2 radishes, 5 cloves of garlics, 5 cups of thick salt, 4 green onions, 1 bundle of dropwort. 3 ginger roots, 300g of mustard leaves, 1/2 cup of fish paste, 2 cups of red chili pepper, 1 cup of sticky rice paste, 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of oysters

Recipe

After cleaning the cabbages, cut them into 2 or 4 pieces.
Prepare salted water with a ratio of 2.5 cups of salt to 10 cups of water, then soak the cabbages in it for 6-8 hours.
Rinse the soaked cabbages in running water 3 times and then wait for them to dry a bit.
Cut dropwort, green onions, and radishes into lengths of 5 cm, then chop the garlic and ginger.
Prepare fish paste and add red chili pepper to it with sticky rice paste.
Wash oysters in salt water.
Mix the ingredients from steps 4, 5, and 6.
Put the mixture inside of each leaf then store in a kimchi pot. On the top, cover cabbage with a leaf and sprinkle some salt. Then place a heavy stone on top to compress it.

Materials of Kimchi

Category	Material	Names
Main Materials	Vegetables	cabbage, radish, eggplant, cucumber, lettuce, chili pepper leaves, green chili pepper, garlic, Korean lettuce, bean sprout, mustard leaf, green onion, scallion, dropwort, sweet potato, turnip
	Meat / Fish	dried pollack, flatfish, oyster, frozen pollack, pheasant, chicken, abalone
Side Materials	Vegetables	mustard leaf, dropwort, carrot, turnip, crown daisy
	Grains	barley, sticky rice, flour, hulled millet, malt, malted rice
	Others	mushrooms, bamboo leaves
	Meat / Fish	oysters, frozen pollack, squid, beef, pork, cod, octopus, salmon, shrimp, croaker
	Spices	green onion, garlic, powdered red chili pepper, scallions, mustard, black pepper, onions, cinnamon
	Condiments	salt, soy sauce, vinegar, artificial condiments, sesame oil, sesame seeds, taffy
	Fish Paste	salted shrimp paste, salted anchovy paste, salted hair tail paste, salted clam paste, salted croaker paste, salted turbo paste

Types of Pickled Fish Paste
Three different kinds of different fish pastes are used in making kimchi: pickled sea food paste, fermented rice punch (sikhae), and pickled fish paste. Adding pickled fish paste into kimchi promotes the fermentation process and activates the level of amino acids, enhancing the taste and nutritional value of the kimchi.

Pickled Seafood Paste
Pickled sea food paste has 2 types:
- fermented with only salt (pickled shrimp paste, pickled clam paste, pickled hair tail paste, pickled anchovy paste)
- salt and other seasonings (pickled pollack roe paste, pickled squid paste, pickled gill paste, pickled spicy oyster paste)
Pickled Fish Paste (Sikhae)
Sikhae differs from pickled sea food in that its materials are grains. Grains are matured with rice, malt, millet, and hot pepper powder or reddish shreds.
Pickled Fish Paste
Unlike other paste, this pickled fish paste needs to be fermented longer (about 6-24 months). The longer the maturation period, the more active hydrolysis is on fish, achieving a pickled fish paste.

packaged pickled fish paste

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