The Best Korean Kimchi Recipe 韓國泡菜, The National Dish of Korea!

Hi everyone! This is Stacy and with me here I have Shaq as the choreographer. Today I want to make the perfect kimchi. So people have been telling me that. If I want to make the perfect kimchi, I have to talk to you. Yeah, I would say so. I mean, I'm a pretty expert. I've been doing it since I was basically like 2 years old with my grandma. So I learned from the best. So people easily say I have the best kimchi in New York City. So here I have a catfish. How do we make kimchi? What are the ingredients here? One head of napa cabbage. You want to trim the outside, just like the head. Right here, just to clean it up a bit. You just do this. Cut it in half? Yeah, all you have to do is that and then go like that. For this one, I'm probably going to quarter it just because these cabbages are very big. Okay, just like that. And from here, my grandma always used to trim the outside just a little bit, just to clean it up. About a cup of water and rock salt here. And a tablespoon or two. Can you just get regular kosher salt? I would not. I would get the rock salt. Only because kosher salt has different salt content than the rock salt. It's a lot saltier. So if you could, I would try to get the rock salt. Like this. Wet it a little bit and then you have to make sure you salt every, you know, because that way it is all evenly salted. And then after four hours, you'll flip it like that. Okay, so that's eight hours in total. Yes, I would say eight to ten. And you really need to taste it and make sure the salt is embedded into the cabbage. This is after ten hours. Basically, all the moisture went out. So we're going to make the kimchi paste, as you would call it. And I am using a lot of ingredients, but this is very, very special. If you add this to your kimchi, nothing can replicate that flavor. It's amazing. It's dried fish. This one is dried cod. And you can find this in any Korean supermarket. Yeah, any Asian supermarket. Any Asian supermarket. From here, I'm going to add a little bit of warm water just to, you know, moisten it up just a little bit. And this way it helps it, you know, shred. Oh, I can already smell the fishy taste. Daikon here. And this is for the texture or for the taste? Yes, texture, taste, and everything. Scallions here. You know, that's probably one bunch. And then apple puree. Apple puree. And you know what? You can probably just put it all in a food processor and pulse it all at once. Okay, this is one apple? Yeah, one apple. One apple. And you're going to use one apple in this? I would say half an apple. I'm going to use a quarter cup here. And ginger, I'll probably only use a tablespoon. You don't want it to be too pungent. Minced garlic, I'm going to also use probably a little bit more than ginger, like two tablespoons. This is onion puree. And I'm going to use a quarter cup of this. First one is our salted shrimp, which acts like a fish sauce. A quarter cup of that. Anchovy fish sauce. Equal amounts, you can just think equal amounts. Anchovy fish sauce. This is lance fish sauce. This is some plum extract. Or you can use mirin or a little bit of sugar instead. This is rice roux that I made in advance. So this is the heart. This makes it pasty and sticky. Where can we find this? This is actually very simple. It's just rice flour that you boil in a pan with a little bit of water. And then it becomes this thick. It becomes like a paste. So you just simmer it for 10 minutes, I would say. And then it becomes like this. So this I'm going to add. I've been eating kimchi a lot, but this is my first time making one. I didn't know it was this complicated. It seems complicated to me, but if you get used to it, it's not. That's true. Dried fish. You just add that in there. Please put on a pair of gloves, I would love your help. I love to use a lot of Korean red chili flakes because I like my kimchi spicy. But if your tolerance is not as great as mine, probably... It's not spicy, though. It's just for the color, I think. It's not quite spicy, but if you add a good amount of it, then it's really spicy. First, I'll add this. Mix everything. Mix everything really well. And then I'm going to pound it. Let's start with just that much, and then... I was expecting it to be spicy. You smell it, right? I'm like, oh, well, you know, it is actually kind of spicy. But you can really smell it. Yeah, you smelled it. It starts to smell like kimchi. It's like peppery. So I just added half a cup. This is very, very red. Yes, very red. You kind of want to do this because that way it becomes a paste. And then from here, when the pepper soaks up the fish sauce and the liquid from the daikon and all the ingredients, it becomes pasty. So you want to give it a lot. In a circular motion? Yes, circular motion. Kind of like rubbing it. Oh, rubbing it. You have this already. Now you're ready to put this inside our cabbage to make kimchi. So I'm going to have you do one, and I'm going to do one so we can do one together. Typically, you do this, and you just start rubbing. I'm just rubbing it. Start rubbing it. And then under each one, you want to add a little bit of paste. With the daikon, you know. And then, you know, you just have to go there. You want to rub it in. Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. I mean, but imagine doing this. You would really need to have a lot of passion. Is that traditional? It's not. It's just me. For any types of vegetables that you can imagine. As long as it's seasonal. Hey, you're doing a really good job. Are you sure you never did this before? Are you sure you're not Korean? I'm half. Half. We all come from the same ancestors. Okay. You would, how my grandma did it, she would take the outer leaf. Let's do it. Wow. Salty, spicy? It was such a huge bite. What do you think? It's really crunchy. Really crunchy. Really nice. It's a little bit spicy, sour, with a hint of sweetness somehow. It's really delicious. From the apple. And, you know, and then we did put the plum extract in here. It's really good. You know, fill it all up. We have two more to go, so we'll work on that. But you ferment this, I would say for two to three days at room temperature. And then you put it in the fridge for five days. And then that makes the perfect fermented kimchi. But, you know, some people like it very sour, then they'll leave it longer. Oh, that's where the sourness comes from. Yes, exactly. You're creating acid. So it's almost like making vinegar. So just to let you know that, I will also put Esther's recipe down in the box below. And then if you like the video, like our recipe, please subscribe to this channel, like, comment, and share this video. My fingers are all red. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all that. And Esther, she's here at Mok Bar in Chelsea Market. If you don't want to make this at home, you can taste it at Mok Bar. You could also do that. Exactly. Do you want to try a little bit more? Sure. She's, like, beating me. I know. This is what my grandma used to do to me. Do you want to try a little bit? Yeah.