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A glass jar of freshly mixed napa cabbage kimchi with radish, carrot and green onion in red chili paste, a small dish of kimchi with sesame seeds beside it

Easy Kimchi (Small Batch)

Small-batch mak kimchi: bite-size napa cabbage salted for 2 hours, coated in a gochugaru and rice paste seasoning with radish and green onion, fermented 1 to 2 days, then refrigerated.
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Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Salting Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 45 minutes
Servings: 16 servings (1/2 cup)
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Korean
Calories: 50
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

For salting the cabbage
  • 1 head napa cabbage about 3 lb (1.4 kg)
  • 6 tbsp coarse sea salt or about 4 tbsp fine salt
  • 1 cup water 240 ml
For the rice paste
  • 1 cup water 240 ml
  • 2 tbsp sweet rice flour glutinous rice flour
  • 1 tbsp sugar
For the seasoning
  • 1/3 cup fish sauce 80 ml
  • 1 tbsp salted fermented shrimp saeujeot, optional
  • 9 garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp ginger peeled and chopped
  • 1 small onion roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup Korean (Asian) pear chopped
  • 1 cup gochugaru Korean red chili flakes; 1/2 cup for milder
Vegetables
  • 6 oz Korean radish or daikon about 170 g, matchsticks
  • 1/4 cup carrot matchsticks
  • 6 green onions cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
  • fresh oysters shucked and chopped, optional
  • toasted sesame seeds for serving only

Method
 

  1. Halve the cabbage lengthwise, cut out the core and cut it into bite-size pieces, about 2 inches (5 cm). Rinse in cold water and drain.
  2. Stir the salt into 1 cup of water. Pour it over the cabbage in a large bowl and toss to coat. Leave for 2 hours, turning the cabbage from bottom to top every 30 minutes, until a thick white rib bends without snapping.
  3. Meanwhile, whisk the sweet rice flour into 1 cup of cold water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until it bubbles and thickens. Lower the heat, add the sugar and stir 1 minute more. Turn off the heat and cool completely.
  4. Blend the fish sauce, salted shrimp (if using), garlic, ginger, onion and pear until smooth.
  5. In a large bowl, mix the cooled rice paste, gochugaru and blended seasoning. Add the radish, carrot, green onions and oysters (if using) and mix well.
  6. Rinse the salted cabbage in cold water three times, then drain for at least 10 minutes and gently press out excess water. Taste: it should be pleasantly salty. If too salty, soak 15 to 30 minutes in fresh water and drain again.
  7. Wearing food-safe gloves, fold the cabbage into the paste until every piece is evenly coated.
  8. Pack into a jar, pressing down to remove air pockets, leaving about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of headspace. Ferment at cool room temperature for 1 to 2 days, opening once a day to release gas and pressing the kimchi back down, then refrigerate.

Notes

Storage: refrigerated, kimchi keeps for months and grows more sour over time. Use a clean utensil, press the rest back under its liquid and keep the lid closed. Discard kimchi that turns slimy, mushy or smells off.
Salt: the 6 tablespoons are for coarse sea salt. Fine salt is denser, so start with about 4 tablespoons and rely on the taste test after rinsing.
Milder: use 1/2 cup gochugaru.
Oysters: they are eaten raw. If you add them, use very fresh oysters and eat that batch within a few days. Leave them out for pregnant women, young children, older adults and anyone with a weakened immune system.
Without a food processor: grate the onion and pear and mince the garlic and ginger very finely.
Nutrition is an estimate per 1/2-cup serving, calculated from standard ingredient values without oysters, not a laboratory analysis.