Kimchi?

Mrs. Irish and I are going to make a batch of this stuff, but we're going to skip the fish sauce and dried shrimp in it and use red pepper flakes instead of the pepper paste. We've making sort of an Alabama version of it.

When I went to the store yesterday to buy the Napa cabbage you are supposed to use I grabbed a jar of the commercial version and we had it yesterday with a patty melt I made and it was damn good.

http://www.kingsasian.com/

I'm going to start with this gals recipe and tweak it to make it our own as we experiment with it.

https://www.southernplate.com/how-to-make-kimchi-at-home/

The stuff is supposed to be really good for your gut health. Sauerkraut is supposed to be good for you too, but all the commercial brands are processed so much that they kill all the good bacteria that supposed to live in it... lactobacilli

Has anyone ever made any kimchi?

Nah cause I can't stand that chit lol.

no but i had some homemade from a Korean dude back in college & it was pretty good albeit it smelled like holy hell!!! LOL

Nope. I'll eat most anything but yuck I'll pass on that.

If y'all tried some that was made without the fish sauce and dried powdered shrimp is doesn't have that smell and taste damn good.

Have not had it but we have a Korean restaurant here I've heard good reviews about, and I'm going to give it a try.

Kimchi is like Southern coleslaw ONLY in that it can be made different ways. And thus the similarities end.

Montgomery (due to hyundai) has a ton of Korean restaurants, and banks and stores, etc

I’ve been told by a Korean buddy that none of the restaurants are good

You do know Koreans bury that chit till it ferments and stinks like chit? No way in hell, don't talk about Coonazzes if you eat that crap!

I was in the Marines with a bunch of guys who served in Korea and told anecdotal stories just like that, but I have personally tried it and it certainly smells no worse than sauerkraut or vinegar cole slaw and in my opinion taste better. The King's brand Kimchi that we had did not have a bad smell at all.

The other good thing about me making it myself, is that I get to tweak it like I like it. I plan on mine being hot and spicey, but not fishy. So no fish sauce or dried shrimp powder in mine.

Regarding coonasses I have quite a few family members that live in Baton Rouge, and I make quite a few Cajun dishes, so I don't despair any cultural foods. We've been cooking some Vietnamese foods lately and are now branching out in to Korean.

I've had it in Korea. It was dang good. Guy that ran the bar had a picture of himself and George Wallace. He found out we were from Alabama and took good care of us. He had a wooden donkey that dispensed cigarettes from his butt too.

No way I am eating something that is made by burying something in the ground until it rots and then eating it.

That's not the way it works.

I can't believe I'm voluntarily taking on the role of the Johnny Appleseed of Kimchi, but here goes:

All it is is vegetables that are fermented with lactic acid bacteria. The same kind of bacteria that lives in your gut and helps you digest things such as milk. It's the same stuff that's in:

Sauerkraut
Buttermilk
Yogurt
Sourdough bread
Soy sauce
etc...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234703/

I think I'll stick with a good country fried steak with gravy and biscuits.

I hear it goes great with balut.

So I've been thinking about making this stuff for about a week and we were going to do it this weekend. I had in my mind exactly the way I was going to make it without all the stinky (fish) stuff in it and how hot I was going to make it, etc...

So Sunday morning I'm out back splitting firewood and after about an hour Mrs. Irish comes out and brings me some ice water and I was wondering what she was doing and she proudly announced that she was making the Kimchi.

So I'm thinking "Great, I had this all figured out and now she's taking it on herself to do it without sayin' anything. O well."

So after I finish stacking firewood, I go inside and she's mixing this stuff up and is complaining about her had burning...

So I'm like, "How much red pepper did you use?"

"Two tablespoons."

"Well, if it's burning your hand, what do you think it's going to do to somebody's colon?"

So anyway. It's made and it's going to be hot as hell. We're going to try it on Friday. I'll probably have to throw it all away and start over.

Bye bye colon lining!

Let us know how it turns out, I think it looks good and the process is very similar to homemade saurkraut. I have a jar of saurkraut on my counter now that should be ready in another week or so.

I can tell that y'all ain't as excited about the kimchi as I am.

I have this elderly Chinese PHD that is in the office next to my buddy at work who sits across from me. He and I are good friends. He's not only a great guy but really smart too. He over heard my best buddy at work and I talking about Mrs. Irish making the kimchi super hot and came into our adjoining offices and proceeded to tell us that kimchi was literally his favorite food and got real excited that we were making the stuff homemade. He eats it every day and said he can sit down and eat a whole jar of it. Even though it's not Chinese food he loves it anyway.

He said that if something happened to the supply of cabbage that the Koreans make that stuff out of that the whole dam peninsula would have a come apart. Running out of Kimchi for the Koreans would be like us running out of bacon or hamburgers or something.

I've never had it, but I'd have no problem trying it. My wife and I have actually discussed making it before. Maybe we will try it soon and we can compare notes

Ya'll can read my review of this stuff in my "Stuffed Burgers..." thread. It turned out damn good. So good that I'll be making another batch today so it can be ready by next Friday.

I love this stuff. I'm sitting here wishing I had brought some to eat with my lunch today. I made another big batch this Sunday. Made 3 quarts of it and just as spicy as the last batch.

Thinking about all the people at my office who are sick and I have the U. S. Marines of bacteria swimming around in my gut kicking some major ass on all the bad bacteria trying to make me sick. "Don't worry boys, reinforcements are coming this afternoon!"

I enjoy it A LOT. Several local places sell it in Huntsville and Birmingham. I use it to make kimchi stew (great on a cold winter day) and also kimchi pancakes (traditional korean appetizer).

Never had any that I would try again.

A lot of the Hyundai Koreans here in Luverne have started making collard kimchi instead of cabbage kimchi and that is some dang good tasting stuff. Cabbage dont grow good down here but Collards do so they figured it out.

We made some out of bokchoy this year. It was pretty good. Interesting fact: deer love bok choy.

I bought one of those german fermenting crocks with the stone weights. Great for making kraut. Very easy to make. Better than any you can buy at the store. I guarantee its good for your gut health. You can feel it working.

Korean market in Homewood makes it

Just keep in mind it and drinking beer isn’t a good thing as you are puking it up the next morning. And that’s probably been 30 years ago and I still remember it like yesterday

So you're only fermenting for a few days? The sauerkraut that I made stayed in the croc for 2 months.

In Napa at a place that was on Diners, Driveins and Dives

Has a kimichi burger. I didn’t order it, but I thought about this thread

I don't understand the kimchi hate . Kings spicy kimchi is a fine dish .

I can do the cucumber kimchi but thats about it.

My wife is half Korean and can make some damn fine kimchi.. She adds fermented squid over the fish sauce. I love the stuff.

If you want true, authentic Korean food, go here for recipes.

https://www.maangchi.com

I don't know that it is actually fermenting in the classical sense. It is allowing the lactobacilli (lactose bacteria) to begin to thrive in there. If you've ever had a bacterial infection you know that those little guys reproduce pretty darn fast. So yeah... only about 5 days. Once you put it in the fridge, from my understanding, they keep on living and reproducing , but just more slowly in the cold.

We basically make ours with just the veggies and none of the fermented, dried or otherwise seafood products. I think you kind of have to work up to that. Kind of like you don't just start drinking scotch with Laphroiag or start drinking beer with a double IPA.

I may add some fish sauce to one of our upcoming batches.

Were making this next batch with just plain old green cabbage. I know there are Koreans rolling over in their graves just to hear that, but I read a Korean girl's blog the other day and she was in some country where she couldn't get the right cabbage so she started making it with green cabbage. She said that she likes it better than the original. So that's what we will be making today. I'll be using regular radishes too.

I read that famous chef's blog the other day and he was making Kimchi with collards. Mrs. Irish and I are going to do it. It sounds good.

They are proud of it too. If you ate as much Kimchi as we have started eating, buying Kings would cost us a small fortune. That stuff is like $6 a pint. We make about 4 quarts of our homemade stuff with every batch.

There's a place in Atlanta, if you're ever in the area you should visit, called Heirloom Market BBQ. Husband and wife team, where the husband is american and wife korean and they fused the two into the BBQ restaurant. They have some green tomato kimchi that is out of this world. The BBQ is phenomenal with their gochujang (spelling?) sauce.

Damn you for making me start thinking about green tomato Kimchi. I'm going to have to make some now.

My buddy a couple of years ago had all of these cherry tomatoes in his garden. He called me one night, knowing that we loved to cook, and ask "Hey, do you know how to make something out of a bunch of green cherry tomatoes, because they are going to freeze tonight if I don't pick them?" I said, "sure!"

Well the next day he brought several Walmart bags full of them and that weekend Mrs. Irish made and canned a mess of green tomato relish. We ate a bunch of it and gave a bunch to friends and family. People still talk about that green tomato relish. That stuff was really good.