Kimchi

Kimchi is my favorite and also my children favorite too. Kimchi that sell in supermarket are very expensive. So I decided to make my own homemade Singapore style kimchi using local fresh chillies and SanDong chilli flake that I can easily buy from Sheng Siong supermarket and local knife brand fish sauce. You can use any kind of chilli flake. I find korean chilli flake is too expensive. Good grade korean brand chilli flake is about $13.90 per 200g and korean fish sauce is about $5.90 per bottle (forgotten the quantity but it is smaller bottle than the knife brand but easily 3 times the price of local fish sauce).. One big chinese cabbage can be easily found in NTUC supermarket and cost about $2.00 depend on the weight. So you know why I learn to make my own homemade kimchi?

One of my Korean friend complimented that my kimchi taste quite like her mum's homemade...though I am not sure and have not tasted her mum's kimchi but I was flattered.. hehehe.. ^^ and of course it encourages me to make more too.... and again and again.. I hope you will like this kimchi too.

Ingredients :

1 whole Wong Bak ( chinese cabbage)

1/2 cup of salt

Kimchi sauce ingredients :

2 tbsp glutinous rice flour

250mil water

1/2 cup fish sauce

1/2 cup chilli flakes

10 stalks spring onion

thumb size old ginger

8 cloves of garlic

1 green apple

5 fresh red chillies

1 tsp sugar

Method 1

Plug out every leaves cabbage  and wash it clean.

Apply salt on every leave and set it asidein a big basin to let the water in cabbage to drain off. Take about 2 hours.

After 2 hours you will see alot of water in the basin and the cabbages is soft and not easily break. Drain the water and rinse cabbages with water. Squeeze out any excess water. Cut into 2cm length. 

Method 2 (sauce)

1.Mix glutinous rice flour with water in a pot and boil when it is thicken and until you see the colour turn slight translucent and slighty boiled. Stir in between to prevent burnt. Off fire once see it is slight boiled that is when there is slight bubble. Set aside to let the mixture (I called it porridge) cool down.

2. Wash spring onion and cut into length of 1 inch., set aside

3. Put ginger, garlic, fresh chillies, green apple and fish sauce into a blender and blend it fine. I add fish sauce here because the mixture can be very thick and difficult to blend.

4. Prepare a big pot and pour "3"  and "porridge" into it

5. Add in the chilli flakes, sugar, cut spring onion. Mix it well.

Method 3

1.Combine sauce (in method 2) and cut cabbages ( in method 3) together. Mix it well.

2.Store it in a small container with lid and leave it in room temperature overnight uncover if you want your kimchi to be sour. It can be eaten immediately after mixed.

3. Next morning, cover with the lid and keep in fridge. Serve anytime you like.

Enjoy making kimchi....  (^ ^)

Updated 4/Dec/2015:

I used the olden way to make the kimchi. I used the traditional pounder to pound the garlic and ginger and apples. It was more difficult to do it...but find it tastes nicer. Just my new updates.. :)

Haveva blessed day.

You may be also interested in these recipe :

1. topokki/tteokbokki/korean-rice-cake

2. tang-hoon-prawn-glass-vermicelli

You can also find me in facebook page Catherine's Cooking Journal .

28Oct2016 Updates:

Added additional ingredients to kimchi

Additional ingredients:

1 Raddish cut into thin strips

1 Carrots cut into thin strips

2-3 stalks of chinese celery cut into inch length

10 stalks of green chives cut  into inch length

To blend with garlic and ginger:

(Under the above sauce 'Method2' step3)

1 big yellow onion

2 tbsp chinchalok(fermented small shrimps)

Updates on 14Jun2018:

We just returned from Seoul trip. During the trip, we eat the real Korean kimchi almost everyday. In our 1st day there, we went to eat Samgyetang in Jongno-gu near Bukchon village. When my children put the restuarant's kimchi into their mouth, the 1st comment daughter made was "Mmmmmm... tastes like mummy's kimchi!" Haha.. I was flattered..  Then the rest of the family also started to try their kimchi and all said the same. I was really flattered by their comments. Haha..lol.. "the authentic Korean kimchi tastes like mummy's kimchi" is a tall hat for mummy. Still I am happy to hear from my family.😊

Since the comments from my family were so good, we did not buy any kimchi from Korea but I bought Korean chilli instead. 

Yesterday, I made kimchi using the chilli I bought from Korea. This is the combination using international ingredients making Korean Kimchi with same method as above:

Singapore local brand fish sauce + Korean chilli + Auatralia chinese cabbages + Malaysia spring onion + China garlic & ginger + Thailand glutinous rice flour😄

This is an economical way of making kimchi with international ingredients!

Do leave your comments if you like this recipe. Thanks

Char Siew (BBQ Pork)



Hi! I am back. Sorry I have stop for a while after my last posting. Today I like to share with you my mother-in-law's yummy char siew.

What is Char Siew?

Char Siew is actually BBQ pork.  It is actually pork marinated with soya sauce , oyster sauce, sugar , pepper, sesame oil,etc.... and roast or grill in oven or pan roast. Those char siew that are selling in the local roasted duck stall are usually added with red colouring. As for my family recipe, we refrain from adding any colouring as colouring is unhealthy to body.

I usually cook this dish whenever I want a simple dinner and can rush off quickly after dinner where washing and cleaning is minimum. This dish can also be done in advance. You can choose to marinate the pork one day in advance and store it in the fridge and cook it early in the next morning or just before meal time. I usually marinate the pork in the morning and cook it in the evening before meal time. In the past, I used my mini oven toaster to make this dish. In oven toaster, it take about 30min to 45min to completely done. But I noticed that there are usually more water produced from the meat during the roasting process and meat is tougher. You can choose to roast it in the oven at temperature 220 degree celius for 30minutes. Meat will be tender and juicy. 

For leftover Char Siew, you can store it in the freezer or chiller for next day use or longer, depend on how long you need to keep. Leftover Char Siew can be added into fried rice.

For the one in this picture, I used the Happy Call Pan to make the char siew. It is very fast and meat very tender and juicy too. Total cooking time is about 20minutes and we can have yummy char siew to go with white rice and vegetables or cucumbers.

This is how I do my Char Siew ....

Ingredients :

800 gram marble meat/shoulder meat/tender loin ( chinese called it 五花肉)

3 tbsp oyster sauce (you can replace with mushroom sauce but oyster sauce taste better)

2 tbsp black soya sauce

2 tbsp raw sugar ( you can use white sugar)

1 tbsp honey

1/4 tsp ginger powder

1/2 tsp pepper

2 tbsp sesame oil ( to be added last)

Method

1. Wash and cut the meat into strip of approx. 2cmx2cmx 15cm, you may choose to have it longer but not fatter.

2. Add all the rest of the ingredient except sesame oil. Mix it well. Last add in the sesame oil. Mix it well. Let the meat marinate for at least 2 hours in the fridge, that is in the chiller area.

3. Heat up Happy Call Pan (HCP) if you have one, and place the meat in the pan. Cover and cook in medium fire for 10min. Turn the meat or the HCP. I suggest you turn the meat instead as there are juice and it can be messy. Let it cook another 10minutes. Let all sides of the meat be a little brown. Off fire and cut into slices like the one in picture. Serve.

3. Alternatively, you can choose to roast in the oven. Preheat oven 220deg celius. Lay baking paper on a baking tray. Place meat in a baking tray. Roast in the oven for 30minutes or until it is slight brown.

Enjoy your cooking. Have a blessed day! (^ ^)