Recipe All / Kimchi

Stuffed Cucumber Kimchi (Oisobagi)

05.26.17

UPDATED: I updated this recipe to explain the unique ingredients little bit better.

Here is one of my favorite kimchi, especially for warm spring/summer season! We learned how to make this with my mom during our latest Banchan Workshop and it was everyone’s favorite. It’s fun and easy to make and such a refreshing dish to add to your dinner table. Anyone up for some kimchi-making this weekend?

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OISOBAGI 오이소박이 (Stuffed Cucumber Kimchi)  – will makes 16 pieces

INGREDIENTS
1 pk of Persian cucumbers (usually contains 8)
1/2 med size Korean radish or daikon
4 sm bunches of loose chives
1 Mexican green onion

SEASONING
sea salt
2 tbsp gochugaru (Korean chili pepper powder)
1 tbsp gonjangyijeot (salted baby shrimp)
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tbsp fish sauce

INSTRUCTIONS
Cut two ends of each cucumber and cut them into two small trunks (2-3″ long) using smaller knife, cut criss-cross down leaving 1/8″ closing on the bottom (use wider side as bottom). Sprinkle with sea salt to coat evenly. Use your fingers to cover the inside cut area. Sit in room temperature for 45 min to 1 hr.

Make stuffing by finely chopping radish, chives and green onion. No longer than 1″ width for easier stuffing and fermentation (it will stay intact and neat looking!). Season stuffing ingredients with gochugaru, gonjangyijeot, sugar, minced garlic, ginger. Add fish sauce (for extra umami flavor!). If you can’t find salted baby shrimp, use more fish sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning by adding more gochugaru, sugar, garlic and fish sauce.

Squeeze out all the liquid from the salt-brined cucumbers (this will make it extra crunchy!). Insert stuffing in the cucumbers and stack it in glass jar or a fermentation jar. Rectangular jars will work best for cucumber kimchi to ferment well and stay intact.

FERMENTATION
Cucumber fermentation will usually take about 3-5 days depending on temperature. Place it in shaded area in your kitchen or shaded area in your backyard. Taste the kimchi after 3 days to see if you want to keep it outside longer or keep them in the fridge.

Others

1500mg of Sodium per Day

04.28.17

“Wait, How much or how little is 1500mg of sodium?” is the question that I asked my doctor during my last annual check-up. To give you a better idea, that’s less than 1 tsp of salt. If you have one cup-a-noodle, you are pretty much done for the day. To be perfectly honest, I dreaded writing this post. I waited until I was actually in the “mood” to write it. I don’t feel totally comfortable talking about something personal (like my health) here but I feel the need to bring it up since I cook and share recipes here on my blog, the way I eat, the way I choose to cook has everything to do with it.

After going through the round of blood tests, my doc tells me the bad news. That I have hypertension, a high blood pressure. I don’t need to go into medical details to explain but basically, if I don’t take good care of it now, it can lead to something more serious. She said I need to be on a pill everyday to keep the blood pressure down and focus on 3 things that can help me (other than pills) to get back on track. Reduce stress, walk at least 30 min everyday and reduce sodium intake drastically. Now that I quit my full time job, I think I can take care of first two without any excuse but how about the last one? 1500mg of sodium per day? Is that even possible? That’s like saying don’t use any salt in your cooking, don’t go near any processed food. This is going to be a challenge as someone who cooks Korean food on a daily basis, someone who develops recipes and shares them online, someone who cooks and serves at events. “Ugh, my food will taste terrible, everything will taste blaaaand and nobody would want to try my recipes again.”…is the initial thoughts that went through my mind. But I’m beginning to accept this change and hoping to make a positive impact in my life. Yes, it’s going to be extremely hard. It is about taking baby steps, long-term goals and a life style change. It just took a doctor’s ultimatum to make a change but I feel good about it. I already started making small changes at home and instead of using salt and sugar, I use Shim’s homemade savory and sweet sauces to season. Check it out!

So if you notice that I write ‘adjust to taste’ repeatedly in my recipes, this is the reason. I think of recipe as just a guide, never really to follow down to every teaspoon. Having more flexibility to cook is the fun, creative part and it’s what got me into cooking in the first place. So if you have any ideas about low sodium cooking (cookbooks, blogs, articles…etc.), please please send it my way. Appreciate any help I can get here!