Almost Kimchi with a Thai Twist

Kimchi is a pickled Korean cabbage dish that is spicy and flavorful. It's usually a side dish but I for one will eat it as a main dish with something else as a side. It's also used as an ingredient in many Korean dishes.
This dish is always considered as an "acquired taste" to those who aren't familiar with it. I personally got to know about this wonderful dish from my mother, who would bring it home in a jar from either one of her fantastic clients or from one of the Asian markets that we had close by to where we lived as I grew up.

However there isn't an Asian market anywhere close to where I live or a store with enough ethnic variety to carry Kimchi, so as you can guess I was thrilled when I saw that Mary Moh over at Keep Learning Keep Smiling decided to share a homemade recipe for her Kimchi.

Because I don't have the luck to get all the ingredients she uses I of course had to change things up a bit by changing some of my spices and the type of cabbage I had to work with.


Kimchi - adapted from Mary Moh's Kimchi recipe 

2 Nappa Cabbage (original calls for Chinese cabbage)
1 cup salt

Cut the cabbage down the middle the long way so that the root holds the leaves together at the bottom still and submerse in water mixed with your 1 cup of salt, making sure it covers the cabbage completely. This needs to sit in the solution for about 3 hours, or till the cabbage has softened quite a bit. Remove and squeeze out extra water.

Kimchi melange - flavoring 

1 cup Thai seasoning mix (original calls for Korean Chili powder)
3 tablespoons Thai garlic chili paste
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 knob ginger, peeled
5 cloves garlic
1 bunch spring onions
1 tablespoon sugar
1 carrot or about 1/2 cup of grated carrots

Rough chop your garlic and ginger then using a garlic press, press them through. If the ginger doesn't come out use the garlic press to smash it then take out and mince it until it's fairly small like the garlic. If you are lucky enough to have a food processor use that to turn the garlic and ginger into a paste.

Trim the ends off your green onions then cut them length wise down the center, and again into 3 inch long pieces. Grate carrots. Put all of the above into a bowl along with sugar, thai seasoning, chili paste,  and fish sauce and mix together.

Kimchi fermentation mixture

4 tablespoons rice flour
1 1/2 cups water

In a sauce pan combine rice flour and water, mixing well while cooking on a medium heat until thickened. Make sure to keep stirring so it doesn't burn. Let cool before adding to the melange above. Mix the two together then spread on cabbage, making sure it gets down in between the leaves and is well coated. Let sit covered on the counter for a few hours before moving to the fridge to continue fermentation.



This can be eaten the next day, but allowing it to ferment a few more days will give it more flavor, I personally couldn't wait much longer than the next afternoon to eat it. It wasn't exactly the same as normal Kimchi but it tasted great. The hubby who loves Kimchi as well, agreed that it wasn't the same but all things considered it was a great substitute. This also works well with rice as a side dish, or if you are like me and can eat it by it's self, it winds up being a great meal for hot weather or just when you are craving that flavor!