My missus went out that morning and I guess she took the opportunity to do a bit of marketing/shopping to stock up on the food in the house. She does that once in a long while so one can expect her to come home loaded with a whole lot of stuff.
Well, when I ventured into the kitchen later that morning, I saw a basin full of Chinese cabbage or wombok, one big daikon or pek chai thow/white carrot/radish and a bundle of kuchai (chives). It was quite obvious that she intended to make her own homemade kimchi, the traditional Korean preserved/fermented vegetables.
She makes her own quite regularly and stuffs the bottles filled with the fruit of her labour in the fridge to enjoy slowly and makes some more when it runs out. It had been a while since I last saw that – I guess at a time like this, she does not go out all that often so she did not have all the ingredients required.
I don’t know, other than the aforementioned, what else went into the making but I think I did see some julienned carrot in the finished product…
…and I remember at one time, she did tell me that she would add cincaluk (fermented shrimps) or what they call saeujeot (새우젓) in Korean. They do include that in their kimchi paste when making kimchi.
She also has these two plastic tubs of Korean stuff…
…in the fridge. I guess she also adds those to her kimchi. The red one is the gochujang or the fermented red chili paste but there is nothing I can decipher in the other one – it seemed like fermented black bean paste, what one would find in their jjajangmen (noodles).
Once it was done, she would let the bottles stand on the kitchen table for a few days to let the kimchi ferment – she does not put them in the fridge right away.
She did put aside a bit…
…to sample and I heard them praising it to the skies.
My girl did mention before that the mum’s kim chi is simply the best, second to none. I wouldn’t know of course – I’m not into the stuff. LOL!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
This makes me yearn for kimchi. 😀
You like too? Many people do.
Kim chi? Defintely not for me. I am not into these Korean cuisine too but both my kids love them heaps.
Aha!!! At last here’s someone on the same wavelength as me. I do like a few Korean delights but generally, I prefer Japanese though I wouldn’t say I’m all that crazy about it either.
I have the red tub in my fridge too but I do not know what to do with it… hahaha… I think I will fry rice with it one day!
That’s fermented chili. I only know that my missus makes kim chi with it. Perhaps if you go and google, you may find some recipes where they use that.
Ah! Too bad you don’t like kimchi or else you would be enjoying your missus’ homemade ones. Those two tubs, I also have in my fridge. The brown one is fermented beans, something like taucheow, pungent and salty. As far as I know, the red one is not used for kimchi making. For kimchi, red chili flakes are used. I once bought a bottle of cincaluk to put into my kimchi paste. When I opened the bottle cap, the contents gushed out due to gas build up and it stank to high heaven! I reckon that cincaluk had gone bad. So I will never buy any again. LOL!
No, that was due to excessive fermentation, all the gas locked inside. You were lucky it did not explode. I heard about people where that happened and the whole kitchen was covered with cincaluk, the whole ceiling, in fact. I think my missus experienced it once but it was not so serious. We get very good cincaluk from Bintulu, nicer than the factory made ones from Melaka = those are extremely salty, not as fragrant.
Oh? I only know the contents of the two tubs but I do not know whether they are used in the making of kim chi or not. Yes, we do have chili flakes in the pantry too.
Fermented everything seems to a trend currently.
Seems like it. Missus was into making enzymes at one time and made me drink. Eyewwwww!!! Tasted like puke!!! Thank goodness she is not into that anymore.