original recipe is from https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/yangbaechu-kimchi (video available in this link) added some personal note below in ( )
Ingredients
Cabbage, kosher salt (regular salt is fine for replacement), hot pepper flakes, fish sauce, sugar, garlic, green onions, and carrot.
Directions
- Cut 2 pounds of cabbage into thin strips about 2-3 inches in length and ¼ inch wide. Place into a large bowl. (a small cabbage could be just 1 lb, so all the ingredient portion need to cut by half. This happen to me last time I made it, good thing that I did not put everything (the kimchi paste) in with the cabbage or else it would be too salty)
- Add 1 cup cold water (if used, prefer is already boiled safe drinking cold water, not tap water, or can skip the water in this case too and just add salt) and ¼ cup kosher salt. Mix it well with your hands to properly salt the cabbage.
- Set aside for 10 minutes (or a bit longer if you skip the 1 cup cold water earlier and just put salt. In this case, you'll see water coming out after it sit for a while; indication that it's marinated/ready; same way to marinate the cucumber)
- Make kimchi paste by mixing these ingredients in a bowl:
⅓ cup hot pepper flakes,
1 tbs sugar,
¼ cup fish sauce, (may need to cut it more as this could be too strong)
¼ cup minced garlic,
3-4 stalks of chopped green onion (⅓ cup worth),
¼ cup’s worth of julienned carrot
- Wash and rinse the salted cabbage in cold water (could use tap water here but try to drain well and use drinkable cold water for the last soak/rinse) a couple of times. Drain the water.
- Mix the kimchi paste into the cabbage thoroughly.
- Put the kimchi into a container, jar, or plastic bag.
- Press the top of the kimchi down with your hands to protect your kimchi from being exposed to too much air. (Press down hard into the container, if there's space/gap, use a plastic Saran wrap to cover so there's less air exposure for the space between the kimchi and the container top)
- You can eat it right away, just like salad. Or keep it at room temperature and it will ferment in a few days. Fermented kimchi can be used for kimchi stir-fried rice or kimchi stew, and it will be delicious.
