Radish Kimchi with Daikon and Ginger

This radish kimchi, made with gorgeous purple daikon radishes and vivid red Korean chile powder, sits in quart-sized jars on my countertop, bubbling and fermenting.  It’s a vibrant food, wild and raw and vibrant with flavor.

Making Radish Kimchi

Traditionally, cooks prepare radish kimchi (kkadugi) by cubing daikon radish before salting, seasoning and fermenting the radish until pleasantly sour.  While I like the pleasant, crisp crunch of traditionally prepared radish kimchi, I prefer the visual appeal of thinly sliced disks of daikon radish packed in a jar and covered in the vivid red paste of chile, salt, ginger, garlic and green onion.

In Korea, the autumn harvest marks the days of the radish harvest and farmers and home cooks traditionally prepare radish kimchi at that time from the fresh, juicy roots pairing them with gochugaru, traditional Korean chile pepper, and other seasonings.  As with other fermented foods, you’d traditionally prepare radish kimchi in huge volumes, packed away in stoneware crocks where you’d allow them to ferment for months in an evenly cool environment, like a fermentation nook tucked away in the ground.

Of course, you don’t need to wait until autumn (spring daikon work just fine).  You don’t need to make large volumes (unless you like!), and neither do you need to bury your kimchi in a crock underground.

Instead you can make just a quart, and seal it with an airlock, and allow your kimchi to ferment out of direct sunlight for a few weeks until marvelously complex with just the right punch of heat and acidity.

Serving Radish Kimchi

Radish kimchi is traditionally served as a side dish, among many side dishes, on the Korean dinner table.  You might serve it with Seollongtang, a Korean Ox Bone Soup, or with Galbitang, a Korean Beef Short Rib Stew.  In both these dishes the acidity and heat of Radish Kimchi helps to cut the richness of beef.

If you’re not a traditionalist, you might serve it alongside eggs in the morning where its acidity, heat and ever-so-slight sweetness add a bit of complex brightness.  It’s also nice served with rice over steamed vegetables and stir-fried meat.  Or even over sausages, just as sauekraut is served, where it helps to cut the richness of meat.

Serve a little at time, just a condiment size of a few tablespoons or a few slices of radish.  Too much will overpower your meal, and too little will leave you wanting.

The Goodness of Kimchi

Like all fermented and cultured foods, kimchi is an excellent source of beneficial bacteria – those little tiny microbes that help to support your immune system and build up your digestive system health.  Kimchi has some pretty amazing properties owing to those microorganisms.  Researchers have found that it’s these organisms that are likely responsible for kimchi’s anticancer, antiobesity, and antioxidative effects (read more about it here).