Goomba wrote:

> Does anyone have a good recipe/method for making cucumber kimchi?
> I've only attempted it once and felt it was lacking something, but can't
> say what? Also I want to make sure it doesn't get watery as it never is
> when I have eaten it at restaurants. So I think the method is important.
> The stuff I like is hot yet a touch of sweet also.

Adapted from _The Korean Table_:

First, make the kimchi paste. The book gives two recipes which differ only
in quantity: You can make a little (6 tablespoons) or a lot (3 cups). Here's
the recipe for the 6 tablespoons:

1/4 cup (25 grams) Korean coarse red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon garlic paste [1]
1/2 teaspoon peeled and minced ginger root
1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt or kosher salt [2]
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce [3]

Mix all ingredients together using a rubber spatula, and store in an
airtight container in the refrigerator. (Imagine if the container were *not*
airtight!) Keeps for 2 months.

[1] To make garlic paste, mince garlic very finely and then smear it around
on a smooth surface. Since this recipe has sugar and salt, you can mince a
tablespoon of garlic, add the sugar and salt, and then smear it around to
make a paste: The grains will help to grind the garlic down to a paste.

[2] The quantities are a bit questionable here, since kosher salt is so much
coarser than fine-grained sea salt. Usually you need to double the amount of
kosher salt to get the same degree of saltiness that you get from fine salt.
I'd go with 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, and then maybe add more if what I
got didn't seem right.

[3] In Korea, there's an anchovy sauce which is used to make kimchi, but
it's not generally available here. Fish sauce is a passable substitute.


Next, make the kimchi:

8 mini (pickling) cucumbers
1 tablespoon sea salt

7 oz daikon, cut into 2-inch-long matchsticks [4]
a quarter of a medium yellow onion, cut into 1-inch-long matchsticks
2 green onions, cut into 1-inch-long matchsticks
2 tablespoons kimchi paste

Lay a cucumber on its side and cut it lengthwise to within one inch of the
end, i.e., leave 1 inch at the end uncut. Then rotate it ninety degrees and
cut it lengthwise again, leaving that same 1 inch at the end uncut. (You'll
end up with a "head" end and four "legs.") Cut the remaining cucumbers the
same way.

Lay the cucumbers in the bottom of a bowl, and sprinkle the salt on top and
inside the flesh of the cucumbers. Put into the refrigerator and let the
cucumbers exude their liquid for 2 hours, then remove the cucumbers from the
bowl and discard the liquid.

Combine the remaining ingredients and mix well. (This will be the filling.)

Gently separate the "legs" of a cucumber and stuff one-eighth of the filling
into it. Close the cucumber back around the filling.

Pack the cucumbers into a plastic container, cover, and store for at least a
day. Keeps for up to three days.[5]

[4] I don't care much for daikon; I'd use carrots instead.
[5] I've had a kind of "instant" cucumber kimchi in Korea; it was made by
just slicing unwaxed cucumbers and smearing them with the kimchi paste given
above.

Bob