The Princess was relishing her time on the coast, where the air was fresh and balmy. Each seaside village the ragged group of rebels visited invited them into their huts for meals and recountings of adventures on the sea. Here there was no sign of the war and hunger which ravaged the north.
“Don’t get too excited,” the rebel leader told her. “Your father and his band of officials are trying to bring the south strictly under their control. There’s an army headed down here as we speak.”
She sighed. “Must you ruin everything?”
He laughed. “Fine. Just enjoy all the great culture and cuisine of the southerners and take that back with you.”
“Can I take back some of this kimchi?” asked the Princess, munching on a piece of fermented cabbage. “This is much better than anything we have in the palace.” They had come upon a ceremonial uncovering of winter kimchi pots in the last town they had stopped through. The young man had told her of the fall kimchi-making, or gimjang, festivals, where village folk all over the country would gather for three days of preparing cabbage and other vegetables to store in deep earthenware pots below the ground for winter. Now, in spring, all along the countryside villagers were digging up pots of perfectly cured cabbage. The last village they had visited had sent them off with a couple gallons of kimchi, and every meal now featured the crunchy, tingly banchan, punchy with fresh oysters and baby shrimp from the sea.
“Pace yourself,” said the rebel, as she took another bite. “You’re going to turn into a giant cabbage at this rate.”
The princess grinned at him. “I’ve heard in some places they even make pajeon out of this.”
“That’s right,” said the rebel. “In fact the next town we’re visiting specializes in kimchi pancakes.”
The Princess’s eyes lit up.
“At the rate we’re going we’re going to turn you into a chef before we turn you into a rebel,” said the young man.
The Princess laughed. “Would that be such a bad thing? I don’t think you could give me a deeper appreciation of my own country and people than by exposing me to our full range of cuisine. You know what they say, the way to a Princess’s heart is through her stomach.” As she realized what she’d said, the Princess blushed, and so did the rebel leader. He mumbled something and excused himself to ready the band for their next trip.
Read more of the Princess & Rebel Saga:
- Part 1: Pajeon (pancake) in the Cave
- Part 2: Mandoo (dumplings) at the Village
- Part 3: Mandooguk (dumpling soup) in the Woods
- Part 4: Kalbi Tang (beef short rib soup) in the Mountains
- Part 5: Deep Fried Beef Tendon in the South
- Part 7: Kimchijeon by the Seaside
- Part 8: Escape from the South with Haemul Pajeon
- 2 napa cabbages
- 2 cups sea salt
- 1 onion
- 1 Asian or 2 Bartlett pears
- 1 apple
- 2 whole heads of garlic
- 2 tb fresh ginger
- 5 red bell peppers (optional, omit for AIP)
- 1 white daikon radish
- 3 whole packs of scallions
- ⅓ cup salted/fermented krill/shrimp or this
- For shellfish alternatives, try 2 tb fish sauce or small dried anchovies
- Quarter the cabbages, rinse well.
- Sprinkle salt over each leaf of cabbage. Leave cabbage to sit with salt for 3-4 hours until wilted.
- While cabbages are wilting, add the other ingredients (except radish, krill, and scallion) to a food processor/blender and process to make the marinade.
- Grate the radish using a mandolin and chop scallions. Add to marinade, along with shrimp and 1 tb sea salt.
- After cabbages have wilted, rinse them with water and drain. Cover each cabbage leaf with the marinade, then rough chop them into 1-2-inch pieces.
- Store in a glass jar or kimchee container at room temperature for 2-3 days, then move to fridge.
Cabbages after wilting
Marinade – remember for AIP no bell peppers. Try carrots or maybe beets for color.
Radish, scallions, shrimp (and optional oysters) to add separately to marinade (if using oysters only leave out for 1-2 days)
Mixed kimchi! Ready to eat after a few days 😉
This recipe features in Phoenix Helix’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable.
Wow, thus looks great. Can’t wait to try it. And tips on the type of container? Not a big Korean community here in the Netherlands.
As to the ingredients: for the shrimp could I also add shrimp paste like Malaysian belacan?
And are the oysters very important flavour wise?
Thanks!
Hi Caroline! Oysters are totally optional, if you have shrimp paste or fish sauce that’s probably all you need for a little extra zing/umami flavor 😉 I think any type of glass jar will work, my mom uses a metal container with a snap-on lid – I would just say avoid plastic for health & odor reasons. In my experience, you don’t have to worry as much about pressing down on the kimchi as you do for pickles for the fermentation process so don’t really need any special fermentation container. Good luck!
Thanks, this really helps! I have glass jars with snap on lids.
How long will it keep in the fridge after fermenting?
Ooh a long time…at least a few months if kept in the fridge – it will continue to ferment and will get more sour over time so it also comes down to personal preference of how fermented you like it. 🙂
I can’t eat shell fish. What can I substitute? I’ve always wanted to try a mild kimchi. This sounds tasty! Thanks for your recipes!
Hi Denise! You can sub fish sauce or I’d recommend small dried anchovies for a bit of extra flavor…But you could also omit seafood altogether, it should still be pretty flavorful!
Do you/have you ever added shredded carrots? Beets? Seems like they might add some of the color for an AIP, color that would make it “feel” more like its original version…though beets may be too sweet. Also, I’d like to try nasturtium. I’m growing them under the assumption that they’ll add peppery flavor. Perhaps this could be a welcome addition; have you tried them?
Carrots yes! I haven’t tried beets but that’s a great idea, although I guess you might end up with a more pinkish than red kimchi, but nothing wrong with that! 😉 Also some kimchi recipes call for added sweetener, so sweetness from beets is fine (or you could use it to replace some of the pear/apple). Nasturtium sounds like a beautiful addition as well. If you try any of these I would love to see/hear about the results!
Making this ASAP! I love kimchi! You have breathed new life into my AIP diet. 🙂
Wonderful! I’ve got another (veggie) kimchi recipe I’ll be posting soon…been eating this batch for a couple months now! 😉
I made this today and it is so yummy even before it has fermented. I’m looking forward to tasting in a few days when it’s had time to ferment.
I’m looking forward to your next kimchi recipe. Any chance it involves radish or cucumber?
It’s just a pure veggie one again using napa cabbage, but I’ll have to line up some radish/cucumber kimchi recipes next! My mom makes those, so I’ll be relying on her expertise 😉
Hey, about how many oz/grams of cabbage would you say you used? I only have one enormous napa cabbage so I’m curious if it equals the same as the two your recipe calls for. Oh…and thanks for this recipe! It looks amazing. Also the vegetable pancakes were superb. ?
Btw….the cabbage head I have is 9 lbs 15 oz. 😀
That is enormous haha 😉
Good to hear Amber! And I would say I used about half what you have, around 4-5 lbs of cabbage, so feel free to double the other ingredients in the recipe or sort of eyeball it (kimchi is fairly forgiving so you can customize a lot to taste 🙂