Korean Job Discussion Forums

[periwinkle]

Well, I helped my MIL make kimchi. It's not as difficult as I expected. She had everything all set to go when we arrived at her house (veggies, etc. were washed and chopped). The night before, she salted the cabbage, and she had rinsed off all the salt before we arrived. She had a ginormous tub, and into it she poured:

1. fermented krill
2. fresh krill
3. sliced squid (not the tentacles)
4. minced garlic
5. minced ginger
6. red pepper powder (homemade)
7. fish sauce (stuff you buy at the supermarket specifically for making kimchi)
8. fish sauce (which she made)
9. scallions
10. leeks
11. radish
12. radish leaves
13. another kind of leaf- don't know the English or Korean name for it
14. jjuk (rice porridge, but really, really, really thick and sticky)

We mixed it together, and then we spread the mixture onto each leaf of cabbage. I used plastic food service gloves for about 5 minutes, but they kept coming off, so I got rid of them. My MIL was horrified that I was using my bare hands (she was using her bare hands, as well) because she said my hands were going to burn so badly that I would probably cry . They didn't start burning until after I washed my hands, and yes, they felt like they were on fire. I usually put baking soda paste on my hands whenever they are irritated by hot peppers, but she didn't have any in her house.

A delivery man stopped by the apt. to pick up an order (hubby's merchandise). Boy, did he get a shocker to see a whitie sitting on the floor making kimchi. Har, har.

[peony]

sounds like you had a lot of fun! how'd you take care of your hands? i spent a whole day with hands on fire after making some kimchi mandoo once, never did it with bare hands again!

[Swiss James]

they really do put some mad stuff into Kimchi eh?

How long does it have to stand before it's ready to eat Periwinkle?

[periwinkle]

You can eat it right after it's made, actually! My favorite kimchi is fresh kimchi. There's a shabu shabu chain in Inchon (haven't seen it in Seoul, sadly. I can't remember the name- can anyone remind me?), and they have my favorite kimchi. It's crisper, and not as deep red (even though it has tons of red pepper!) as a more fermented kimchi.

The first time I worked with a hot pepper (jalapeno) I was miserable. I wanted to peel my skin off. It burned like mother fucker. My dad (a doctor) was on-call that day at work, so I asked him to ask the on-call dermatologist what to do. He told me the pepper is acidic, so I need to use something alkaline to neutralize the burning. He suggested baking soda, and it worked like a charm. Just mix it up with some water and coat your hands in it. It took a couple of minutes to work, but thank God for it. i was close to tears, and I'm not a big baby. The jalapeno was worse than poison ivy.

Gwen?? =)

[Newbie]

Congrats!!

Now you'll never be sick again.

[Zenpickle]

Seollang Tang places tend to have fresher kimchi too. I love it this time of year when we start seeing raw oysters in the kimchi. Pure evil goodness!

Periwinkle, do you have any pics of making kimchi?

[Swiss James]

yeah my favourite kinds of kimchi are the one that tastes of oysters, the veggie stuff monks serve up in temples and the one you get with Boiled pork at those Chukbal restaurants.

I think this officially makes me a mid-termer.

[Ekuboko]

A few weekends ago my co-teacher called me up to get round to her in-laws and watch the kimchi-making and help out. They made cabbage kimchi and Cheonggak kimchi (the little turnip one, translates into "Bachelor", or something else that my former principal hinted at a while ago at school lunch )

The pungency of the ingredients as they were all mixed together was really overwhelming, and I was sitting 2 metres away from FIL, who I really felt sorry for. I was surprised he wasn't crying his eyes out! (He usually doesn't help out, but his son (co-t's husband) wasn't there to do it at the time).

I joined in making the cabbage kimchi, which was fun. They gave me some to take home, which I put on the balcony for a few days, after which I cut it up and it's now sitting in the fridge, ready to be eaten.

I've never been interested in those festivals that have the foreigners on show making kimchi - but I really enjoyed this experience.

P.S. Periwinkle, if you don't have pics to post, let me know and I'll post some of mine.

[Swiss James]

don't wait for Periwinkles- we need two sets of photos, minimum!

[swupak]

[periwinkle]

No pictures- sorry!! I didn't even think about it! =)

[Prince Frog]

I'm not nitpicking, but I think peppers are a base alkaline and thus you would need an acid to restore the ph balance.

In the same way when you're eating hot sauce at your local tex mex place and a nice Mexican beer with a bit of lime (acid) can stabalize the enzymes in your mouth to counteract the effects of the hot sauce.

Having said that, recently some of my friends were eating fire-chicken and upon my suggestion tried some lemons to take away some of the potency of the spices. This according to them did next to nothing, so I could be wrong.

[Chillin' Villain]

I'm teh suck at MS Paint... �̤�