Chef Frank & Kyra Attempt Kimchi

Kyra & I love kimchi so we thought we should attempt to make it. I hope you enjoy the process as much as we did.

Film, Editing & Production:Karen & Frank Proto

Original music by:Max Ludlow & Brandon Schock

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2 heads Napa cabbage
2 cups kosher salt
1 asian pear
1 small white onion
5-6 cloves garlic
1/4 cup/68 g salted shrimp
1 hand ginger
2 tbsp/29 g sweet rice flour
1/2 cup/115 g fish sauce
2 cups/189 g Korean chil flakes
1 bunch Chinese chives
1/2 diakon
5 carrots

[shanisokay]

I like Kyra's commitment to showing the passing of time by getting bangs while it was fermenting

[manuk]

Very impressive first try, legit ingredients (even the saeujeot shrimp!) and love that you did it father & daughter together! A few quick tips based on my experience in Korea so that you can tweak your next batches:

1. there are different kinds of kimchi, which will impact how you ferment it and cut it:
a. geotjeori (겉절이): fresh kimchi, cut in pieces like you did. Best enjoyed right after making as the key is enjoying the freshness and crispiness of the veggies. No need to ferment it at room temp, or just maybe 1 day max and then fridge.
b. mat kimchi (맛김치): cut like you did and usually ferment 1-2 days at room temp, then fridge and eaten quickly.
c. pogi kimchi (포기 김치): cabbage cut in half, and paste put between leaves, fermented for a few days before storage, usually eaten during winter.

2. since you fermented for 5 days at room temp + 2 weeks in the fridge, this is what gave it that extra sourness (it is called singimchi 신김치 when sour), so probably good to enjoy your kimchi right after making it (no fermentation) and within 1-2 weeks after (ferment 1 day and then fridge). When you have sour kimchi, turn it into kimchi jjigae (stew) or kimchi jeon (pancakes)

3. for the paste:
a. probably have more garlic than ginger, but that's up to you
b. have a thicker rice flour paste so you can reduce the amount of chilies but keep the same consistency
c. the key to know if the paste is well-seasoned is if eaten with a brined cabbage leaf, it should taste too salty. If it tastes just right, add more salt. As the paste and cabbage ferment, the excess salt in the paste will actually make a balanced mix.

4. for the radish cubes Kyra likes, you may refer to kkakdugi if they are the ones with chili flakes or chicken-mu if just plain white and usually eaten with fried chicken. Just adding that in case you want to find recipes for those, should be on Maangchi's website :)

hope this is helpful and that you get to try making more cabbage kimchi and then also experiment with the other kinds of kimchi! (if you like big radish chunks, try out seokbakji!)

[Evanescence]

Loved the recipe! I'm not Korean but I married into a Korean family and started making my own kimchi about a year ago. My MIL used to make it granny style where nothing was measured, so I took her general technique/ingredients and compared to a few kimchi recipes from Korean chefs and came to a pretty good reliable recipe to work with 1 head of cabbage at a time, which is about a month's worth of kimchi for me and my husband. I keep the cabbage in quarters and do a wet brine, and skip the rice paste, carrots, and fish sauce altogether. I puree the onion, pear, garlic and ginger like you did but keep the brined shrimp whole/unprocessed. The shrimp go in with the green onions (I just use regular scallions), gochugaro, radish (I use Korean radish instead of daikon and I grate it on the large holes of a box grater), and sugar. Then mix with the pureed mix, coat the quartered cabbage layer by layer, and leave on the counter for about 3-4 days (my husband doesn't like it super fermented). I play a little fast and loose with the fermentation -- I just ferment in an old glass jar with a cracked lid. Then chop it up and store it in the fridge!

I'm experimenting on a vegetarian/vegan kimchi right now where I omit the shrimp and add in a vegetarian fish sauce. The "fish" sauce I found was on the sweeter side, not as fishy/funky as I would've liked, so I'm curious to see how this affects the final flavor. It's been fermenting for a couple days already so I'll know pretty soon.

[allmyhomieshatefreud]

Hi Chef Frank! Just here to say that the black spots on napa cabbages are perfectly normal and edible. They're not really an indicator of quality since they can happen for a lot of reasons. Of course, I understand leaving them out for a good looking final product. Cheers!

[pushkpro]

Kimchi is easy to make, like every other fermented stuff.
...and we love it.

[amarukrosis]

I don't have a Korean grandma, but there is a local place here that makes several variations of kimchi. My favorite is called Immunichi, which is a bit more basic than what you made, but very delicious! It's ingredients are just cabbage, carrots, apples, ginger, habaneros, turmeric, and salt. It's very yellow instead of the traditional red.

[ossituominen]

I just started to go in vocational school to study as a chef and these videos have been very helpfull for a starter chef

[jyh]

헐!! 김치라니~! 지금 한국은 김치를 만들기 시작할 때예요(kimjang-chul). 우리집은 작년에 200포기를 해서 올해는 하지 않으려고요. 그리고 김치를 상온에 두면 발효가되는데 너무 발효되기 전에 냉장보관해야해요ㅋㅋ 김치가 신맛이 강하다면 김치볶음밥이나 김치찌개같이 익혀먹으면 정말 맛있어요. 그리고 김치 만드는 날은 보통 수육(su yuk)이라고 하는 삶은 돼지고기를 금방 만든 김치와 함께 먹는답니다. 잔칫날이죠~ 한국은 집집마다 김치 레시피가 조금씩 다른데 프랭크 셰프님만의 김치가 탄생했네요~ 따님이 부럽네요😊😊 항상 한국에서 잘 보고 있어요~ 영상 잘 봤습니다.

[dlee]

For the pickled radishes you mentioned Kyra likes from Banchan Chicken. They are super simple to make! Just cube up the Daikon and pickle it in white vinegar, sugar and salt in the fridge over a few days. You do have to go heavy on the sugar to get the level of sweetness needed though, like 50% of the volume in sugar, and a couple hefty pinches of salt.

You can throw the pickling juice on the stove to dissolve the sugar and salt fully, I would probably let it completely cool down before adding it to the daikon if so. But I personally just throw it all into my jars and throw it straight in the fridge and come back to stir it a couple times over the next couple days.
Also be a little conservative on the sugar because you can always add more to fix it.

[francissreckofabian]

Two cooks. What could go wrong? Well done. That was fun.

[-EchoesIntoEternity-]

now we wait for Frank to lvl up his kimchi game and start adding some fresh shucked oysters to his kimchi 😁

[davidschwartzman]

The Container that you used also has some clay mixed in with the plastic so that the container functions similarly to a classic kimchi pot. Part of the fermentation process in is that the pots do "breathe" ever so slightly and the addition of the clay to the plastic allows for that process. I have a 2.2 gal (8.5L) version of the container which is larger than the one you used. I have tried a variety of recipes (learned some of them form Korean friends) for my kimchi (including using green and red cabbage vs Napa, which yields a somewhat sweeter product), but my next batch is going to be your recipe. One thing that you might also try is using Korean Gochujang (chili paste) instead of the powder, or a mix of the two. It was great seeing you and Kyra together.

[illoo]

There is a specific fish sauce made out of Pacific Sand Lance (Kanari). Most Asian markets carry them so check it out.

Also, I have repeately heard to never cut the cabbages. I don't know why but it is said that it ruins the fermentation.

[joeb]

Kimchi was a food I both loved and hated when I was in Korea back in the 80s. It was horribly delicious!

[forteandblues]

Chef Frank is such a good teacher, if only he could teach me how to deal with my crappy mom relationship

[breaker]

Thanks Kyra for asking the question I was going ask.

I hear that food always tastes better when eaten with a Star Wars Tasting Spoon.

[Metoobie]

Awesome! Shrimp paste is also a nice alternative to the whole shrimp. I make a v-cut at the bottom of the nappa cabbage to remove the hard stem bit and actually find it easier to keep the leaves whole, but to each their own! Very awesome culinary adventure, everyone's kimchi is different, and always fun to make with your loved ones. Where is Kyra's apron from? It's really cool!

[Pine]

Kimchi is actually a winter dish so thus fermented in cold weather. So, by fermenting it out on the counter, you might have over done it a bit ^^

[DauvitAlexander]

One of my Korean students phoned her mum to tell her that her tutor makes his own kimchi! She couldn't believe that this very pale Scotsman makes kimchi.
Been making my own vegetarian kimchi for years and eat it most days that I'm home.

[ColinRichardson]

YES FRANK!! You promised, and you delivered..
I guess I jumped the gun and got worried..
If I just had waited another week this video would have arrived...
Sorry if it felt like I was pressuring you for a video.