Summer cabbage kimchi seasoning ingredients

Cut the bottom root end of the cabbage so all the leaves become loose. Rinse the leaves in water lightly and gently. Try not to break the leaves as you rinse. Read in my TIPs section why you shouldn’t. 😉 Drain.

Cut green onions into 1.5 inch lengths and peel garlic cloves. Set aside.

Make brine in a large bowl – mix 10 cups water + 1 cup Cheonilyeom Korean salt until salt is all dissolved.

Add cabbage leaves in brine for 1 hr for regular small putbaechu. Leave in brine up to 2 hr if your cabbage leaves are bigger or thicker than usual. The best way to tell if it’s ready is to check the large cabbage leaves at 1 hr mark with a bend test – bend the white fleshy part and if fully pickled, they should bend easily without breaking or much resistance.

While the cabbage is in the brine, make the seasoning.

Make Kelp Broth (dasima gukmul 다시마국물) – in a small pot, add 3/4 cup water and 1 large piece of kelp (Dasima) and bring to boil but turn off heat immediately once it starts to boil. Let it cool. Alternately, you can also simmer on very low heat for 10-15 min. If you boil too long, you will see a slime come out from the kelp so don’t boil it. Let it COOL.

Make Sweet Flour paste (chapssalpul 찹쌀풀) – in a small pot, add 1/2 cup of the Kelp broth from above and 1.5 Tbsp sweet rice flour. Kelp broth is optional – it adds great umami flavor but if you don’t want to, you can just use water here instead. Mix well with a whisk until there are no lumps. Put it on the stove and turn heat to medium and bring to boil. Keep stirring to make sure there are no lumps. Lower heat and simmer for 2-3 min while stirring. Let it COOL.

Rinse and cut fresh red chili into big chunky pieces for the chopper. When cutting the chili, remove and save some of the seeds which will be added later. In a chopper, add the red chili (not the seeds) and garlic cloves and chop until fine but not too fine. I like it when you can see the little seeds. It’s ok if a few seeds get in the chopper, I just like having the seeds whole in the kimchi. BE CAREFUL when handling peppers 🌶🌶. I forgot and touched my eyes after and wow.. my eyes 👀 were on fire!! 🔥 🙀

Measure Saewoojeot (fermented shrimps) and the fermented juice separately.

In the cooled flour paste, add the blended chili and garlic from 3, saewoojeot shrimps, saewoojeot juice, anchovy sauce, kelp broth and chili seeds.

When your cabbages are ready, drain them and rinse in water just ONCE quickly and gently. Drain again. *To reduce sodium level, you can rinse up to 2 more times but you risk bruising the leaves so I usually don’t do it more than once.

In a large bowl, add the drained cabbages and the seasoning mix from above. Wear a plastic glove and gently mix until cabbages are all nicely coated with the yangnyeom (seasoning) like below.

Once you mix cabbages with seasoning, taste to see the spice level. The fresno chilies were quite spicy so I just add 1 Tbs of red chili powder (gochukaru) but if you like spicy, add another 1 Tbs.

Add cut green onions and gently mix again. Find a glass jar or plastic container and transfer the kimchi. You should have some leftover seasoning in your bowl, add 1/4 cup water or leftover kelp broth to the bowl, rinse it and add the rinse liquid to the container. This way, you don’t waste any seasoning and also increase the yummy liquid!! Tip from our moms!!

Normally, it’s best to use a container that’s just the right size for your kimchi – read my notes at the end of post for more info.

Leave it out at room temperature for 1-2 days. Unlike regular cabbage kimchi, this kimchi taste best when it’s just slightly sour. But it’s up to you. Taste it every 6-8 hrs and put in the fridge when it tastes a little ripe. Well, that’s it!!