Discover Korean Food #4: Dr. Sook-Ja Yoon's "Cabbage Kimchi" (THE EAST Campaign in Association with The Institute of Traditional Korean Food)

Baechu-kimchi is made by fermenting brined Korean cabbage with Korean radish, vegetables, salt-fermented seafood, ground red pepper and various seasonings. Kimchi is a quintessential side dish that is served without fail on dining tables in Korea. Kimchi was approved as an International Standard Food by Codex in 2001. Certain studies have shown a link between Kimchi and cancer prevention.

◎ Ingredients & Quantity
* 4.8 kg (2 heads) Korean cabbage, 700 g (4⅓ cups) coarse salt, 4 kg (20 cups) water

* 1 kg (1 ea) radish, 100 g watercress, 200 g small green onion, 200 g mustard leaf 200 g (1 cup) oyster : 6 g (½ tbsp) salt, 400 g (2 cups) water

* seasonings : 130 g (1⅓ cups) ground red pepper, 100 g (½ cup) salted anchovy juice, 100 g salted shrimps, 12 g (1 tbsp) sugar, 200 g green onion, 80 g (5 tbsp) minced garlic, 36 g (3 tbsp) minced ginger,

* Kimchi liquid : 100 g (½ cup) water, 2 g (½ tsp) salt

◎ Preparation
1. Trim the bottom and outer leaves of the cabbage (4.5 kg), put a deep knife slit lengthwise and split it into two parts by hands, marinate them in salt water in which half (350 g) of the coarse salt dissolved, and spread remained half of the salt in between the petioles. Let it sit cutting side up for 3 hours, and then another 3 hours after turn over.

2. Rinse the cabbage under running water for 3~4 times, drain water on a tray for about 1 hour (3.2 kg).

3. Trim and wash the radish, shred into 5 cm-long, 0.3 cm-wide/thick. Trim and wash watercress stalks, small green onion and mustard leaf, cut them into 4 cm-long. (watercress 60g, small green onion 150 g, mustard leaf 150 g).

4. Wash the fresh oyster softly in mild salt water and drain.

5. Mince the solid ingredients of salted shrimps finely. Soak ground red pepper in the salted shrimps juice and salted anchovy juice.

◎ Recipe
1. Add soaked red pepper to the shred radish, mix well, add remained seasonings, and mix well again. Add vegetables and oyster, mix softly and season with salt (1.5 kg).

2. Pack the seasonings in between each leaf of the cabbage, fold over the outer leaves to hold the seasonings.

3. Place it in a jar one by one until 70~80 % of the jar filled, cover the top with marinated outer leaves.

4. Make Kimchi liquid by adding some water and salt into the Kimchi mixing container. Then finish by pouring Kimchi liquid into the jar and pressing down.

About The Beauty of Korean Food: With 100 Best-Loved Recipes

Korean food has been appraised as a genuine, slow, healthy food for its organization with the seasons and regional specialties, harmony of food ingredients and combination of food groups. In spite of high interest in Korean food by global villagers, there haven't been any good books introducing Korean food with internationally comprehensible recipes. As part of the project "Research and Development Project for Standardization of Korean Cuisine" driven by the Korean government, this book is designed to standardize the recipes of the selected 100 Korean foods by using international system of units (SI unit) and to present the pleasure of cooking healthy Korean food easily for everyone around the world. It also gives useful tips, such as service temperature, total cooking time, suggested utensils, nutritional information for one serve, along with specific instructions for preparing ingredients and cooking.

About Dr. Sook-Ja Yoon

As a principal researcher of the Research and Development Project for the Standardization of Korean Cuisine, she has been in the lead to popularize and globalize the Korean food. She has been extending diverse R&D, lectures and writing books, and also acting as a publicity ambassador for the globalization of Korean food at the various overseas exhibitions. She has held the Special Exhibition of Korean Royal Court Cuisine during the APEC Korea in 2005 and promoted the 4th Korean Food Festival in UN Headquarters in 2007, won high praises from ambassadors to UN and overseas journals for the beauty and excellence of Korean food. Major works are: "Korean Food," "Traditional Korean Food," "The Store and Fermentation Food of Korea," "Korean Traditional tteok," "Cookies and Beverages," "Good Morning, Kimchi," "Gyuhapchongseo," "The Beauty of Wedding Food" and so on.