I hate to brag

[prairiemom]

Well, not really. Sometimes I do like to brag. After waiting 8 wks for my first batch of kimchee to cure, I finally opened my first jar. I have to say it is really, REALLY good. It even surprised me how good it was--and I like sauerkraut. This beats the daylights out of sauerkraut.

So now I'll put in another plug for the book How to Preserve Food Without Canning or Freezing. Since you don't can the food, you can make batches as big or small as you like. That means you can do one jar if that's all that you have enough food for. AND you can use any jar that has a good tight lid, not just Mason or canning jars.

[Noahs ARK]

Good for you - you brag all you want!!

I love kimchee, but I've never made it.

[ZDMZ]

I ate a lot of kimchee on my mission in Korea. There are lots of kinds of kimchee. I would be interesting in knowing how you made yours.
Did you make it hot?
Glad it turned out.

[prairiemom]

I made it with peppers and black peppercorns so it's spicy but not too hot. Certainly not as hot as some that I've had.

I used Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning as my guide--just shredded veggies (cabbage, carrots, daikon radishes, onions and peppers) layered with salt, tamped down in the jar, then added brine to cover the veggies, 1" headspace. Put the lid on and let it cure. No canning needed.

[sunsinger]

I had a roommate from Korea. Never tasted it because it smelled so strong. I understand it is suppose to be good for the gut.

[Dolcezza]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi


I had a little read about it and I am amazed. I tasted it for the first time last week in Saf, a celebrity raw food restaurant in London. It was sooooo hot that I spat it out, I was on fire for 40 minutes! :yikes: And I love spicy food but this was way over my limits!

Apparently it's a good food for you but also connected with cancer....(according to Wiki)

Nutrition and health

Kimchi is made of various vegetables and contains a high concentration of dietary fiber, while being low in calories. One serving also provides up to 80% of the daily recommended amount of vitamin C and carotene.[citation needed] Most types of kimchi contain onions, garlic, and peppers, all of which are salutary. The vegetables being made into kimchi also contribute to the overall nutritional value. Kimchi is rich in vitamin A, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), calcium, and iron,[10][11] and contains a number of lactic acid bacteria, among those the typical species Lactobacillus kimchii.[12][13][14] The magazine Health named kimchi in its list of top five "World's Healthiest Foods" for being rich in vitamins, aiding digestion, and even possibly reducing cancer growth.[15]



Kimchi jjigae. A popular stew made with kimchi, it is commonly cooked with kimchi, fresh vegetables and pork or tuna although countless variants exist.
On the other hand, some research suggests that consumption of kimchi and other related fermented vegetable foods contributes to Korea's relatively high rates of gastric cancer. [16]

One study conducted by Seoul National University claimed that chickens infected with the H5N1 virus, also called avian flu, recovered after eating food containing the same bacteria found in kimchi. During the 2003 SARS outbreak in Asia, many people even believed that kimchi could protect against infection, although there was no scientific evidence to support this belief.[17][18] However, in May 2009, the Korea Food Research Institute, Korea’s state food research organization, said they had conducted a larger study on 200 chickens, which supported the theory that it boosts chickens' immunity to the virus.[19]

Who knows?

Well done, Prairemum...as for me....I doubt I could ever eat something THAT spicy again!:vork:

[ZDMZ]

Most kimchee's are hot. I used to be able to handle the hot stuff but not any more.

They also had a rice dish called pi pim pap, it was basically rice with a red pepper paste mixed in. The pepper paste was the hottest thing I ever ate, way hotter than jalapeno peppers. Kimchee is only mildly hot in compairison.

One of my favorite kimchee's was called mul kimchee, or water kimchee. It was water and cucumbers with some mild spices. Not hot at all and very refreshing on a hot summer day. Delicious.

I have not had any good kimchee since coming back to the US. I did buy some at the grocery store once. It was in a glass jar, not very good.

Right now would be kimchee making season. It is quite a production for the family. It was hard to do any missionary work at this time of year so we would sometimes help people make kimchee. Mostly just cutting up vegetables. Every family had their own recipe, but after watching them make it it kind of made you not want to eat it. Some families used a lot more fish parts than others.:scared:

Kimchee stays good in their big ceramic jars for a long time. They make it in the fall and it will last into early summer. You can tell when it is too old,
the texture and flavor really start to deminish.

I would imagine that in the last 30 years as Korea has become more modern that fewer families make kimchee.

As I think about it, some good kimchee would be quite a treat to have again.