Kimchi — salted, spiced cabbage from Korea

You probably wouldn't think of somebody in France making Korean food. Much less making the "pickled" or fermented, spiced raw cabbage dish called Kimchi or Kim Chee. But that's exactly what I've been doing.

It started when our friends Susan and Simon at Days on the Claise recently went back to Australia for Christmas. Their flight involved a long layover in Seoul, where Simon worked as a teacher years back. Then Jean of A Very Grand Pressigny mentioned that she had talked to them about the possibility of having a Kimchi dinner.

Kimchi in a tin that we bought at a grocery store in Paris

Earlier than that, through another blogger — Justin, an American who lives now in Paris — we heard about a restaurant serving both Japanese and Korean specialties in the Paris neighborhood where another friend has his apartment. We've been wanting to go have a meal there for a while now, but haven't had the opportunity. We had bought some little tins of Kimchi in Paris.

Ingredients in Korean, English, and — on a pasted-on label — French

So Kimchi, a food that we like and know from the days nearly 30 years ago when we lived in Washington DC, became an idea that I couldn't avoid — incontournable, comme on dit. I had to do something about it. Kimchi is cabbage, after all, and Walt and I both love cabbage, cooked or raw. And cabbage is plentiful and cheap right now in France. It's the season. Besides, cabbage is good for you.

Here's what my Kimchi ended up looking like. One cabbage
produced a good quantity. It keeps for weeks or months
in the refrigerator, and improves over time.

I went to SuperU the other day to buy some other things, and I happened to notice big heads of Savoy cabbage — un chou pommé — on sale in the produce section for 90 eurocents apiece. That did it. We had all the other ingredients in the house. I had looked at recipes on the Internet and seen that I would need salt, sugar, garlic, ginger, onion, fish sauce, and red pepper flakes or paste. Check.

Savoy cabbage salted down and draining for 24 to 48 hours

I found a French recipe posted on a blog with the title « Kimchi maison » — home-made kimchi — as well as several recipes in English. The French one looked like the best candidate. Savoy cabbage wasn't really the kind of cabbage most of the recipes called for when it came to making kimchi, but it was what I found. Most recommend what is called chou chinois or Napa cabbbage.

Anyway, I had a project that was perfect for these cold, gray winter days. Needless to say, there aren't any Korean restaurants in Saint-Aignan, and I've never seen Kimchi in the supermarkets either. The French version of salted, fermented cabbage, of course, is choucroute — sauerkraut. I've never made that from scratch, but it would be another good project.

Here's a link to my second topic about making kimchi.