After watching many Korean family drama I came to be curious about the various cold dishes all Korean family seems to have on hand in their fridge. This seems to be a good time saving practices, since you could in a pinch just get a bowl of rice and some cold side dishes.
The other day cucumbers were on sale at my local grocery store, so I bought 5 of them and decided to make cucumber kimichi out of them. It was a nice feeling to have a container of kimichi in my fridge, waiting to accompany at any meal but that feeling only last about three days. On the third night I was watching Boss & Me (C-drama) with my mom and had a late night craving so my cucumber kimichi got devoured.
Recipe:
The Japanese cucumber, the longer and skinnier than your usual grocery store variety is probably the appropriate cucumber to use for this recipe, but this kind was cheaper and I don’t mind the taste difference.
Cut the cucumber in half, length wise.
Use a small spoon to scoop out all the seeds in the middle. Cut the cucumber in sticks. I cut mine in three sections the long way, then cut it again in three section so you will have long sticks. Put the cucumber in a colander and sprinkle about 4 tbs of salt on it, stir-around to make sure the salt is well distributed. Put a bowl underneath the colander to catch all the liquid. Let the cucumber sit for about 2 hours.
Toss the liquid in the bowl and toss the cucumber with the following ingredients in the bowl: Rice Vinegar (3tbs), Korean hot pepper flakes (2tbs), Sesame Oil 2 tbs, Minced Garlic (2tbs), (optional)hot spicy oil (1tsp). These amounts are just for reference since it really well very depending on your personal taste and how large your cucumber is Just remember all the scenes in K-drama where the people are trying out kimichi while making them. The idea is to add the ingredients and try as you go until it taste good to you.
Put the finished cucumber in a container and leave it alone in the fridge for a day. It will produce a lot of liquid and that’s normal.
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