Seokbakji (섞박지, Mixed Radish and Cabbage Kimchi)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large stainless or food-safe mixing basin, at least 6 liters
• •Digital scale
• •Small pot for rice paste
• •Large colander
• •3-liter glass jar or onggi crock
• •Food-safe gloves

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the paste

   Whisk the sweet rice flour with 3/4 cup water or mild kelp broth in a small pot. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until it turns glossy and lightly thick, 3 to 5 minutes. Cool it completely. The rice paste is not there to make the kimchi heavy; it helps the gochugaru cling to rough radish and cabbage, and it gives fermentation a little food.

   Hot rice paste wilts the vegetables and dulls the garlic. Cool means cool to the touch, not just off the stove.
2. 2

   Cut the vegetables

   Scrub the radish well and peel only tough or bruised spots. Cut it into irregular 4cm chunks, about 1.5cm thick, so every piece has a flat face for the seasoning and enough body to stay crisp. Cut the napa cabbage into 5cm pieces, keeping both leaf and rib. Small pieces ferment fast and lose their bite; this kimchi wants a rough hand, not a careless one.

3. 3

   Salt separately

   Put the radish in one large bowl with 50g of the salt and 1 cup water. Put the cabbage in another bowl with the remaining 30g salt and 1 cup water. Toss both well, then turn them every 20 minutes. Salt the radish for about 1 hour 30 minutes and the cabbage for about 1 hour. The cabbage stem should bend without snapping, and a radish piece should taste lightly salty toward the center.

   Radish and cabbage do not take salt at the same speed. Salt them together and one gives up before the other is ready.
4. 4

   Rinse and drain

   Rinse the radish and cabbage once under cold running water, just enough to remove harsh surface salt. Do not soak them. Drain in a colander for 30 minutes, tossing once halfway through. Taste a cabbage rib after draining. It should be pleasantly seasoned, not bland and not sharp. Water left clinging here will loosen the paste later, so give the draining its full time.

5. 5

   Mix the seasoning

   In a very large bowl, stir together the cooled rice paste, gochugaru, fish sauce, minced saeujeot, garlic, ginger, grated pear, grated onion, and sugar. Let it sit 10 minutes so the chili flakes swell and deepen in color. The paste should taste a little saltier than you would eat by itself, because the vegetables will soften it. It should be thick enough to smear, not pour.

6. 6

   Coat the radish

   Add the drained radish to the seasoning first and rub the paste over every cut face with a gloved hand. Radish is dense and needs this direct attention. When the white surfaces are stained red, add the cabbage, scallions, and mustard greens if using. Fold gently until everything is coated. Do not crush the cabbage. It has already done its work in the salt.

7. 7

   Pack the jar

   Pack the kimchi into a clean 3-liter glass jar or onggi, pressing down firmly to remove air pockets but leaving at least 5cm headspace. After 30 minutes, liquid should begin to collect around the pieces. If the top looks dry, add the optional packing brine 2 tablespoons at a time, only until the surface is moist. Too much added brine makes seokbakji weak; enough keeps the fermentation even.

8. 8

   Ferment and chill

   Set the jar on a tray and close it loosely, or close it fully and open it once a day to release gas. Leave it at cool room temperature, about 18 to 21C, for 18 to 24 hours. In a cold winter kitchen it may need 36 hours; in a warm room, check at 12 hours. When you see small bubbles in the brine and the smell moves from raw garlic to sour and savory, press the kimchi down and refrigerate it.

9. 9

   Serve it cold

   Start eating after 3 days in the refrigerator, when the radish is still loud under the teeth and the cabbage has softened just enough. It is best from day 5 to day 14, served cold beside bossam, suyuk, seolleongtang, or a plain bowl of rice. Use clean chopsticks every time. Kimchi is generous, but it is still alive food and should be treated cleanly.

Chef Tips

• •Late autumn and winter Korean radish is heaviest, sweetest, and best for this. If your market has only daikon, use it, but salt it 15 minutes less and drain it well; daikon is wetter and less dense than Korean mu.
• •Do not cut the radish too small. Seokbakji should be chunky enough to bite into. Tiny cubes become kkakdugi's nervous cousin, and that is not what we are making tonight.
• •Weigh the salt if you can. Coarse sea salt, kosher salt, and fine salt do not measure the same by spoon. The 80g here is seasoning and safety, not decoration.
• •A glass jar is a perfectly honest vessel. 시대가 바뀌면 음식도 바뀌어야 해요. When times change, food must change too. What you cannot shorten is the salting, draining, and clean packing.
• •If the kimchi smells sharply rotten, grows fuzzy mold, or turns slimy in a way that does not rinse cleanly from the brine, throw it away. Good fermentation smells sour, garlicky, and alive, not spoiled.

Advance Preparation

• •The rice paste can be cooked 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Bring it back to cool room temperature before mixing so it loosens into the seasoning.
• •The vegetables can be washed and cut a few hours ahead, but salt them the day you pack the kimchi. Salted vegetables left overnight soften too much.
• •Seokbakji is made ahead by nature. Give it 18 to 24 hours at cool room temperature, then refrigerate. It keeps well for about 6 weeks, growing sharper each week.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 215g)