Here’s all you ever wanted to know about this spicy Korean cabbage pickle, made by Mrs Kim of the Pal Do Kimchi factory in Sydney’s Little Seoul, Campsie NSW.

Kim chi can be made in many different ways (in fact the Koreans even have a museum of kim chi where all the different regional and seasonal varieties are displayed). Best known is baechu kim chi - Chinese cabbage which has been salted overnight to soften before being seasoned with a mixture of grated radish, green onion, mustard greens, onion, chilli, fish sauce, salt fish, sugar and ginger. Mrs Kim’s special touch is to add just a little boiled glutinous rice porridge for texture.

Other varieties include haruna made with choy sum, paek or white cabbage kim chi, kkakdugi with radish and yulmu with spinach greens. It’s nutritious and good for the digestion and as Mrs Kim says, ‘For Korean people, kimchi has to be on the table. Even if there are a lot of side dishes, if you haven’t got kimchi on the table, the meal isn’t complete.’

Mrs. Kim of Pal Do Kim Chi in Sydney is 65 years old and has been making kimchi since she was 15 years old. She used to be famous for her kimchi in her home town. When she came to Australia, she didn’t think about making kimchi but people told her how delicious her kimchi was so she opened a kimchi factory and here she is.

Pal do kimchi goes to Tokyo market, Chinatown, New Zealand, Canberra and sometimes to Japan, PNG and Melbourne.

You should cut and present kimchi nicely to make it look delicious, specially if there are visitors in your house. If you cover the kimchi with a leaf, it keeps in the moisture and you simply take the leaf off when you eat it.

There are so many different kinds of kimchi in Korea. Haruna kimchi is made from Chinese choi sum. I’ve made baechu (cabbage) kimchi for you. But there is kakdugi made from radish and baek kimchi made without chilli, which is good for people who doesn’t like spicy/hot food. When kimchi is over matured, you don’t just throw it away, you can stir fry kimchi with pork and make chigae (hotpot), it is very very delicious.

Kimchi is also good when eating meat because meat dish can be very rich and greasy but kimchi takes away that greasiness, it’s nutritious as well. It’s so nutritious, even better than yoghurt.

Recipes:

Korean pickled vegetables (kim chi)