Whole Cabbage Kimchi (paech'ut'onggimch'i)
Ingredients
- 2 heads chinese cabbage
- 2 cups coarse salt
- 1 korean white radish
- 1 cup red pepper powder
- 1/3 cup tiny salted shrimp
- 2 knobs ginger
- 1 head garlic
- 1 large green onion
- 1/4 bundle very thin green onion
- 1/3 lb. fresh oyster
- 1/3 bundle watercress
- 4 tbsp. salt
- 1/4 bundle indian mustard leaf
- red pepper threads
Instructions
Trim the roots from the cabbages. Cut each cabbage lengthwise into two sections. Make a brine with 10 cups water and 1 cup salt and soak the cabbage sections in the brine. Drain, sprinkle with the salt and let stand. When the cabbages are wellsalted and a bit limp. rinse throughly in cold water and drain. Cut one-third of the radish into thin strips, Cut both kinds of green onions, the watercress stems and Indian musrard leaf into 3/4" lengths. Remove the shells from the fresh oysters and clean with salt water. Chop the salted shrimp, garlic and ginger. Mix the red pepper powder well with the salted shrimp juice. Add the mixture to the radish strips and mix well until the redidish color is set. Then add the chopped shrimp, garlic, green onion, ginger, oysters, small green onion, INdian mustard leaf and watercress and mix well. Season with salt. Pack the seasoned mixture between each leaf of the wilted cabbage. Cut the remainding radish into large pieces and mix it with the seasoned mixture. Place the stuffed cabbages and radish pieces in a large crock and cover the top with cabbage leaves. Weigh it with a clean, heavy stone. Allow kimchi to sit a few days or more to ripen.