I am horrible at keeping up with posting. Someday I will be a disciplined blogger. Of course, judging by the large gaps between my “Coming Soon!” post and when I actually write the post, that day may be a long time coming. I never said I was perfect.
Anyway, once upon a time I briefly dated a Korean girl. By briefly I mean one month and during this month I had a constant supply of her mom’s homemade radish kimchi in my fridge. It was a really good month. Then I screwed up and I’m pretty sure she still hates me and I definitely still miss that kimchi.
Cabbage kimchi is … good. But, radish kimchi is the shit. The texture of the daikon, crisp yet a little soft; lots of heat yet cold; the red pepper and the green onions. Pretty much perfect.
After a Food Not Bombs cooking night I had a ton of daikon and Jerusalem artichokes on my hands. I had to make kimchi even though I knew I didn’t have all the right stuff. Whatever, I had to make kimchi.
You’re supposed to use:
- daikon
- garlic
- ginger
- fish sauce (use soy sauce or mushroom sauce)
- sugar
- red pepper powder
- green onions
- salt
This is what I had:
- daikon
- garlic
- Jerusalem artichokes
- soy sauce
- sugar
- paprika and red pepper flakes
- arugula (which I picked out of a bag of dumpstered salad mix)
- salt
I cubed the daikon, covered with salt, and let it set while prepared the other ingredients. Jerusalem artichokes may look a lot like ginger, but there are no flavor similarities. I minced it like ginger anyway and used a lot since I had a ton and they have such a mild flavor.
I rinsed the daikon and mixed everything together in a bowl. Korean red pepper powder is NOT the same thing as red pepper flakes (like you put on pizza). Red pepper flakes come from cayenne peppers which means they’re pretty hot. I used the paprika, which is quite mild, and added a little bit of red pepper flakes to add some heat.
Pre-fermentation:
I covered it with an inverted plate and plastic wrap and let it sit unrefrigerated for 24 hours to ferment. Then I put it in small containers and put them in the fridge. It didn’t even compare to REAL kimchi, but it was good enough considering what I was working with.
Here’s one of the recipes (with nice photos) that I referenced when making my janky kimchi.
Post-fermentation:
And that’s the story of how I made the world’s jankiest radish kimchi.
