So one of the many food joys I've come to love over the years is Kimchi. I had never had it prior to my wife (then girlfriend) introducing it to me back around 2001 (just a simple Idaho boy ya know?)..since then I must admit it is one of my favorite side dishes as well as ingredients in Korean stews. This, much like other preserved foods, I appreciate a great deal. My foodie fascinations most often revolve around those items that have their roots nestled firmly in the past as a way to preserve food items to survive transport and/or the harsh seasons of their origins. In fact I can securely say that Kimchi started that fascination of mine, and to this day continues to motivate and inspire what I do in the kitchen. I attribute this inspiration to two people: my mom, and my wife.
Back to the task at hand! While I've made Kimchi around 20x over the past few years this is the first time I've actually posted about it..don't know why..just haven't gotten to it I suppose. From those numerous batches I have (in my opinion anyhow) come very close to perfecting my Kimchi Jjigae recipe (Korean stew including kimchi, other veggies, and a meat and/or tofu selection)...but I obviously have a ton to learn about making kimchi..probably could not even fit it into one lifetime..but I'll try anyhow.
I think I'll be able to get damn close to my ideal Jjigae if I could just make some damn good kimchi! So that takes us to our topic at hand. This version of Kimchi (there are literally thousands of versions in Korea) is somewhat a hybrid of the radish "summer" or "water kimchi" (meaning no salt, sugar, and water with some garlic and some sweet pepper added) and a radish "winter" kimchi (meaning we're using some pepper flakes and salt as well as various other veggies). I've used all of the above essentially, but leaning towards the summer version with the addition of water and sugar and giving just a nob to the winter version by using small amounts of salt and red pepper flakes (a staple in my household). My reasoning is very simple:
My wife wanted summer and I wanted winter versions (for my jjigaes).
So lets get down to business, here is what I did.
-cubed a 2lb radish (found at any good asian market) into 1 inch cubes
-added radish and a small handful of leaks to a large glass jar
-threw in 2 tsp hot pepper flake, 4 tsp kosher salt, 6 tsp sugar, a handful of garlic, and mixed
-let sit for 30 minutes or so, and add 3 cups of water.
-let sit out for 48 hours to ferment
-Enjoy immediately, or let sit for a while and enjoy
*A quick note about Kimchi here, the longer it sits in your fridge..the more sour it gets. So if you are like me..that's a good thing and the best Kimchi to use for your stews IS the sour kind..it's traditional as that's why the Koreans use it in their stews..the shits just too sour (for most) to eat as a "Banchan". 
You can see a shot of the only Korean cookbook I have at home. It's pretty bare bones, no pictures, limited history, but if your familiar with Korean food you can get by with this guy..
...Intense right?? Yeah it can be that simple. Now if you read above you'll see I'm no master of home made Kimchi so we'll see how this batch turns out. One things for certain..we'll eat it.
Cheers!
Brian
So after a hell of a month that included closing on a condo, moving, Halloween, a freaked out 1.5 year old pup (the best dog in the world by the way), unpacking, and arranging our new kitchen to our liking, prepping for a overseas vacation to London, and having an awesome wife who supports the various cooking and brewing adventures of her husband (who is in media sales..not much charcuterie there!) and letting him drag all his cast iron along for the way...well I'm back on it!
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