North Korean National Dish: Kimchi for #shayansglobalcooking

N is for North. North Korea to be precise. The vote went out to the public and they took the surprise decision and went for North Korea. This is probably up there with shocks of the year, along with Brexit and Trump being the future President of the USA.

So from the US to their good friends North Korea.
This was a tricky one as my research didn't bring up many results in terms of the National Dish of North Korea. There were many strange stories about North Korea as a country as well as the lack of food there too. I was not too hopeful of either a good dish or one that I would want to cook.

Start with Cabbage

My knowledge of food from the region was strictly restricted to South Korea, barbecued food and Kimchi.

Thankfully, the latter was all I needed.

Kimchi is also the staple of North Korea, along with cold noodles. So I dismissed the second and concentrated on Kimchi. 
GOOD Luck to me.

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The main spice of the dish- Korean Red Pepper

My main source of info for this dish and the recipe I followed was by Maangchi - A Korean blog with a few recipes. I went for the Napa Cabbage option. Please see her blog for what the real deal and below for what I did.

Another great recipe and blog piece on the use of Kimchi is by Jen Reviews. Basically, once you have mastered Maangchi, then let Jen take you further. Live and Learn my friends.

Purple Carrots, Radish and Spring Onions

The Kimchi paste/sauce

Mix and make the Magic

Getting the ingredients initially was not too easy. Some substitutes were required as well as just missing off a few ingredients completely too. 

I replaced napa cabbage with normal cabbage, Shrimp paste with soy sauce, orange carrots with purple ones (OMG) and plain rice flour instead of the sweet variety.

I was lucky that there was Korean store near my work place and here I was able to get my last two ingredients of rice flour and the korean red pepper (most important part!).

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For more in depth recipe and instructions please follow Maangchi's blog.

My version is here:

1. Clean the cabbage and put salt all over it. Inside and Out and then leave this in salty water for two hours (turning every 30 minutes) 
2. In a sauce pan heat the rice flour with water for five to ten minutes When it starts to thicken up, near the end add sugar, stir for a minute then take of the heat to cool completely.
3. In a Seperate bowl add minced garlic (lots), ginger, onion, fish sauce, red Korean Pepper and soy sauce. Mix well to form a paste
4. When the rice fiour has cooled, mix this with the above paste. This gives the colour for the Kimchi.
5. Cut the carrots, raddish and Spring Onion into strips and mix with the above mixture = Kimchi paste
6. Lastly, with the dried cabbage, cover it all with the Kimchi paste and then you are good to go.

​EAT 

Sexy Kimchi from North Korea

This is a strange dish to eat. Not one of my faves and not a dish to have on its own.
It is becoming more and more popular, especially with other dishes like in Burgers or sandwiches.

I am glad I tried it and this is the whole aim of #shayansglobalcooking to do things I would not normally do.

Thank you Jen, Kim and Kim Chi.

​Onto P next...