Dongchimi

Whole small radishes left in a clear brine that is itself the thing being made, and is drunk cold.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg small Korean radishes, with their tops
• 4 tablespoons coarse sea salt, for rubbing
• 2 litres water
• 3 tablespoons coarse sea salt, for the brine
• half an Asian pear, sliced
• half an onion
• 8 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 piece ginger, 3 cm, sliced
• 4 spring onions, whole
• 2 green chillies, whole and pricked, optional
• 1 tablespoon glutinous rice flour, optional

Method

1. THE RADISHES GO IN WHOLE AND IT IS THE BRINE YOU ARE MAKING. That is the difference from every other kimchi here, including the white kimchi on this site: there the cabbage is the dish and the liquid is incidental, and here the liquid IS the dish. It is ladled into bowls and drunk cold, and the radish is sliced into it. So the brine is tasted and adjusted as though it were a soup, because it is one.
2. WHICH MEANS NOTHING IS GROUND OR CRUSHED INTO IT. Garlic and ginger go in SLICED, in a muslin bag or loose enough to lift out, because a cloudy dongchimi is a failed one. Crushed aromatics turn the brine murky and gritty, and there is no straining it afterwards without losing the ferment.
3. SMALL RADISHES, WHOLE, AND NOT PEELED. Rubbed with coarse salt and left two hours, which draws water out and firms them so they stay crisp for weeks. Peeled or cut up they go soft and the brine goes starchy.
4. AND THE BRINE IS MADE WEAKER THAN IT TASTES RIGHT. It concentrates as water comes out of the radishes, and it wants to end up as something you could drink a bowl of rather than a pickling liquor. Err on the side of too little salt; it will not stay there.
5. IT IS FERMENTED COLD AND SLOWLY. Two days at room temperature at most, then the fridge for a week before it is any good. Rushed warm, it goes sour and flat instead of clean and fizzy.
6. Radishes scrubbed, tops trimmed to a short stub, and NOT peeled.
7. Rubbed all over with the 4 tablespoons of salt and left in a bowl 2 HOURS, turned once. The water they give up is kept.
8. The 2 litres of water and 3 tablespoons of salt stirred until dissolved, and the radish water added to it.
9. TASTED: it should be noticeably less salty than seems right.
10. If using, the rice flour whisked into 100 ml of the water and cooked 2 minutes to a thin porridge, cooled, and stirred in -- it feeds the ferment and makes the brine very slightly cloudy-white rather than grey.
11. The radishes packed into a large jar with the pear, onion, spring onions and chillies.
12. The garlic and ginger SLICES tied in a square of muslin and tucked in, or scattered loose if you will strain the bowl.
13. The brine poured over to cover everything, and a small plate or a bag of brine used to hold the radishes under.
14. Left 1 to 2 DAYS at room temperature until the brine turns faintly fizzy, then refrigerated at least a WEEK before eating. Served very cold, the radish sliced and the brine ladled over it. Keeps two months and sharpens as it goes.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes