So I know how to make Kimchi with my favorite being Cucumber Kimchi. My ex mother in law was Korean so I learned a lot about the food and my love and appreciation for Kimchi grew.What I like about this Kimchi is it’s nice and light. You get that crisp clean taste from the Cucumbers that blend well with the heat of the pepper.
When I make this dish I kind of throw it together from memory. I don’t really measure, I just do. I vary the cuts of my cucumbers sometimes making them thinly paper thin sliced or nice thick cuts to really enjoy. This time I chose my thick cuts so I’ll try to give some direction on how to make this. If you love Kimchi, you’ll love this..
You should start out with a good amount of Cucumbers, say 5 or 6. I like to make a bulk amount to last me since I don’t make this quite often. Cut them however you like, it’s really up to you then put them in a large bowl and salt them with a nice sea salt. Toss the cucumbers with the salt and let sit for a couple hours or overnight if you have the time. Don’t add too much salt but kind of eye it. The salt makes the cucumbers leech out their liquid goodness which will be the base for your brine. You’ll see a lot of liquid in the bottom of your bowl so don’t drain that off, you want that.
Slice up maybe 4 or 5 green onions in any fashion. I usually slice them down the center so that the inside of the green onion can marry with the cucumbers better. I use about 1 TBS of fresh or minced Garlic and 1/2 tsp of sugar. I only use organic raw sugar since refined white sugar is not so good for you but that’s up to you. I add a heaping helping of about 3 to 4 large TBS of Kimchi Crushed Red Pepper Powder. I buy this from my local Ranch 99 and they’re usually found in large bags for use to make Kimchi. I go heavy handed with this but you can add as little or as much depending on how much heat you can take. I sometimes add more later because the more the kimchi sits, them more marinated and yummy it will be so sometimes I’ll put a tiny bit more sugar and red pepper to balance the saltiness.
This is after you mix the ingredients together. I usually let this sit for another hour before eating since the longer you wait the better it gets because the flavors have time to intermingle and get friendly with one another.
I eat this with a steaming bowl of white rice drizzled with a bit of sesame seed oil and soy sauce. I like the nutty flavor of the oil with my Kimchi’s. I then put a heaping spoonful of my Kimchi with the brine (yum) and I go to town.
Life’s good.
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