Gul-kimchi (Oyster Kimchi)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large stainless mixing bowl or yangpun
• •Large colander
• •Small saucepan
• •Food-safe gloves
• •Clean 2-liter glass container or small onggi

Instructions

1. 1

   Salt the cabbage

   Dissolve the coarse sea salt in 8 cups cold water in a large bowl. Add the cut napa cabbage, press it under the brine, and turn it every 30 minutes for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. The thick white stem should bend without snapping, and a tasted piece should be salty but still cabbage-sweet. Salting draws out the water now, so the kimchi does not flood its own seasoning later.

2. 2

   Cook the paste

   Whisk the sweet rice flour with 1/2 cup water in a small pan. Cook over medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until it turns glossy and lightly thick. Scrape it into a bowl and cool completely. This paste is not there to make the kimchi heavy; it helps the seasoning cling to cabbage and oyster instead of sliding to the bottom.

3. 3

   Salt the radish

   Toss the radish matchsticks with 1 teaspoon fine sea salt and let them sit 10 minutes. Squeeze them once, gently, and do not rinse. Radish gives gul-kimchi its clean crunch, but unsalted radish throws off water and weakens the whole bowl.

4. 4

   Rinse and drain

   Rinse the salted cabbage twice in cold water, then taste one thick stem. If it bites too salty, soak it in fresh cold water for 10 minutes and drain again. Let the cabbage sit in a colander for 20 to 30 minutes. Wet cabbage makes thin kimchi. Drained cabbage takes seasoning properly.

5. 5

   Mix the yangnyeom

   In a large mixing bowl, stir together the cooled rice paste, gochugaru, fish sauce, minced salted shrimp, garlic, ginger, grated pear, and the sugar if your pear is flat. Let it stand 10 minutes so the gochugaru softens and blooms. Taste the seasoning before the cabbage goes in. It should be a little saltier and sharper than you want the finished kimchi, because the cabbage and oysters will calm it down.

   Do not add gochujang here. Gul-kimchi should taste of oyster, cabbage, radish, and clean chili, not sweet paste.
6. 6

   Rinse the oysters

   Just before mixing, stir the remaining 1 teaspoon fine sea salt into 2 cups ice-cold water. Add the oysters, lift them gently with your fingers to loosen grit or shell bits, then drain them well in a sieve. Do not rub them and do not soak them. Keep them cold. Oysters are the reason this kimchi is special, and also the reason it must be handled like fresh seafood.

   Use only oysters sold for raw eating from a reliable fishmonger, and keep them below 4 C or 40 F. Anyone pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised, or medically advised to avoid raw shellfish should not eat this version.
7. 7

   Coat the vegetables

   Add the drained cabbage and salted radish to the yangnyeom. With a gloved hand, lift and fold until every cabbage piece is stained red, working the seasoning between the thicker stems. Add the scallions and minari and fold again. Notebook 18 says oysters last, always last, because crushed oysters make the kimchi muddy.

8. 8

   Fold in oysters

   Add the drained oysters and fold only 6 to 8 times, just enough to distribute them. Be gentle. You want plump oysters tucked among cabbage leaves, not broken into the seasoning. 손맛 is real, the hand-taste of knowing when to stop, and I still measure it so it can be handed on.

9. 9

   Chill and serve

   Pack the gul-kimchi into a clean 2-liter container or shallow onggi, pressing lightly but not crushing the oysters. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving, then eat it cold within 48 hours. Do not ferment oyster kimchi at room temperature. For a storage kimchi, keep the oysters out, ferment the cabbage kimchi separately, and fold fresh oysters into only the portion you will eat that day.

Chef Tips

• •Buy oysters in season, from cold water, and only from a shop that can tell you they are safe for raw eating. They should smell clean and briny, never sour or metallic. My teacher would have sent questionable oysters back without a word.
• •This is small-batch kimchi. The safe corner to cut is the vessel: a glass container is fine if you do not have onggi. The corner you cannot cut is storage. Once oysters go in, the clock is short.
• •Use medium-coarse gochugaru with good color and a clean smell. Too much chili makes the oysters disappear, and then you have missed the whole reason for making gul-kimchi.
• •For kimjang day, make your regular baechu-kimchi without oysters for the jars. Set aside one bowl of freshly seasoned cabbage and fold oysters into that. The family eats it with boiled pork, bossam, before the long winter kimchi is even packed away.
• •Serve it beside hot rice, bossam, or a plain beef-radish soup. The kimchi is rich with the sea, so the rest of the table should be steady and simple.

Advance Preparation

• •The sweet rice paste can be cooked up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated. Cool it fully before mixing the seasoning.
• •The yangnyeom without oysters can be mixed 1 day ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Add cabbage, greens, and oysters only when you are ready to finish the kimchi.
• •Do not rinse oysters ahead. Clean them just before they enter the kimchi, keep them cold, and eat the finished gul-kimchi within 48 hours.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 225g)