A few weeks after Ian Thompson led a kimchi demo at CityFoods, I’m checking in with the local fermentation aficionado to see how well the Korean side dish turned out.
The result? A sweeter, less bitter vegetable taste, with complex notes of sour, spicy and, to use a technical term, “fermenty” flavor. In part because we used fish sauce, the kimchi now has the same tinge of deep taste — bursting with umami — as blue cheese or fermented Taiwanese stinky tofu.
How does Thompson like the explosion of flavor?
“You can feel in your mouth the bubbles, the tingly sensation,” Thompson said. “That means it’s still really active.”
Kimchi, similar to sauerkraut, involves immersing vegetables in a salty and acidic environment, which helps lactobacilli flourish. Lactobacilli, in essence, is the same strand of good bacteria that helps turn milk into yogurt.
One of the most ubiquitous, versatile and tasty side dishes in Korean cuisine, kimchi’s made with a process called lacto-fermentation.
You might be more familiar with the other two kinds of fermentation: bread-based fermentation and alcohol-based fermentation.
Unlike bread- and alcohol-based fermentation, fermenting vegetables with salt at room temperature provides a variety of potential health benefits. The presence of probiotics, a study published in January by Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital suggested, gives our gut a wider variety of beneficial bacteria that helps improve physical and mental health.
Last month, we chopped up daikon radish, napa cabbage, garlic and ginger and mixed it with fish sauce and a sweet hot pepper blend, sealing it in quart-size glass jars. Even the raw kimchi tasted excellent — with high quality ingredients from Thompson’s garden, the raw kimchi was like a Korean-garnished vegetable salad.
If you want that kimchi’s signature bite, however, fermentation needs to take place. What I mean by bite, to be clear, is a combination of texture and flavor. As a salty jar of vegetables turns acidic in a room-temperature environment, bubbles start to form and everything begins to sour.
If you don’t over-ferment the kimchi — a possibility with cabbage, whose leaves can start to disintegrate in the acid if you leave the kimchi out too long — you’ll end up with spicy, salty, sour, complex range of tastes in a single bite, as well as that refreshing crunch.
Thompson left the batch we made on his counter (65 to 68 degrees) for three to four days, then moved it to the fridge for the next three weeks. Generally speaking, this means the kimchi is still in the early stages of fermentation, so it won’t be as flavorful as a two- or three-month kimchi.
Fermentation is “really variable, because it depends on so much,” Thompson said. “There’s the temperature and where you do the incubation. And it never really stops maturing.”
The result? Early kimchi is bubbly, beginning to sour, and every bit as spicy and salty as the side dish needs to be.
Don’t incorporate it into dishes like bibimbap or kimchi soup yet — now is the time to let new kimchi eaters try it with rice or other side dishes, such as seaweed, braised beef short ribs, and, if you want to put in some Chinese flavor like I do, Chinese steamed eggs and pork sung.
Overall, the kimchi was a success, but keep in mind that we used fresh daikon radishes (avoid small red radishes since they tend to be too bitter), red peppers and napa cabbage.
If you’re having trouble finding where to buy ingredients, Hana Market in West Lafayette is a good start. You’ll find fish sauce and the right kind of Asian vegetables there. Asia Market and C & T Market in West Lafayette are good alternatives as well.
