Kimchi

Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by grace in Korean

By Hisoo Shin Hepinstall, Growing up in a Korean Kitchen: A Cookbook

Kimchi is a tasty small side dish, but it is still an integral part of everyday Korean meal. Typically, three or four different kinds of kimchi are offered at every Korean meal. The Korean kitchen used to make more than one hundred kinds of kimchi, using everything from cabbage to watermelon skin and even pumpkin blossoms in summer. Each family’s kimchi had its own unique flavor, but the basic process is to salt the vegetable, firming it up by extracting its liquid, locking in the original flavor. A mixture of spices is then introduced and the vegetable is fermented, creating its distinctive character. The most important spices are fresh and powdered hot red peppers, which give kimchi its biting zest and help seal in its freshness, and crushed garlic and green onions, which enhance its flavor and help sterilize it. Additional flavor-builders may include ginger, fruits, nuts, and seafood such as salted shrimp and anchovies, fresh oysters, pollack, yellow corvine, skate, live baby shrimp, or octopus and squid.

Kimchi has a remarkable nutritional value — it’s a great source of protein, vitamins A and B, and is low in calories. According to a 2005 report in Health magazine, Kimchi is considered one of the four healthiest foods, along with soy, yogurt and olive oil. Many believe it can cure any kind of ailment. They love kimchi and even have a kimchi museum in Seuol that displays various plastic kimchi!

Tags: Hisoo Shin Hepinstall