Korean cucumber kimchi
This Authentic Cucumber Kimchi is your ticket. It’s not just a side dish; it’s a symphony of textures and flavors—cool, crisp cucumbers are stuffed with a deeply savory, spicy, and garlicky paste
Ingredients
- 2 cucumbers
- 10 Chinese chives
- ⅙ white pear
- 45 g chili powder
- 15 ml red fish sauce
- 8 ml blue fish sauce
- 10 g cold cooked rice
- 40 g coarse salt
- 250 ml water
- 3 cloves garlic
- 5 g sugar
Instructions
- After washing the cucumber, rub it with a little coarse salt for about 1 minute.
- Cut the cucumber into 3cm long pieces, and use a small spoon to scoop out the cucumber pulp, being careful not to scoop to the bottom to avoid breaking it.
- Marinate the scooped cucumbers with coarse salt (40g) and water (250ml) for about 20 minutes, then remove.
- Wash the chives and chop them finely. Peel and mince the garlic. Peel and dice the pear.
- Put chili powder, seafood sauce, fish soy sauce, minced garlic, pear chunks, sugar, and rice into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Then mix the chives with the paste-like sauce, take a small spoonful, and fill it into the hollowed-out cucumbers. Finally, place a pine nut on each cucumber
- It can be eaten immediately, or it can be fermented at room temperature for two days before eating; the taste will be even better.
Notes
Scrubbing cucumbers with coarse salt can thoroughly clean them, disinfect them, and remove small prickles from their surface.
If the cucumbers pickled in salt water are too salty, rinse them several times with clean water.
The rice acts as a binder, resulting in a very thick sauce.
Blue fish sauce is a condiment made by marinating various small fish and shrimp with salt. It has a delicious flavor and is often used to make kimchi. It's available in large farmers' markets, supermarkets' Korean condiment sections, or online stores; a bottle costs approximately 10 yuan. Store in the refrigerator.
Red fish sauce is a type of fish sauce made from marinated deep-sea eels. It has a slightly sweet taste and is perfect for braising seafood and making kimchi. It's available at large wet markets, supermarkets' Korean seasoning sections, Store in the refrigerator.
If the room temperature is high, or if you are making it in the summer, you should put it in the refrigerator for cold fermentation.
You can leave the seeds in the cucumber, but you should cut a cross on the cucumber to make it easier for the marinade to penetrate.
Kimchi with pear juice has a fruity flavor; give it a try!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!