Sunday, January 30, 2011

Daikon Kim Chi - Gung Hey Fat Choy!



Dr. Ben Kim's Kim Chi recipe was so ono! The New Year's Kim Chi is gone and there won't be another savoy cabbage for a few weeks.

Last week, I harvested the first Miyashige White Daikon radishes from my winter garden. Many years ago, when I could eat sugar, I used to make a tasty daikon kim chi using a package of dried, grated daikon from the Asian market and a very hot and sweet Asian chili paste. I thought I'd try making something similar using Dr. Kim's recipe.



Using a spriral grater, it's in the photo above, I cut one of the daikon radishes into something that looked like angel hair pasta. I made the chili paste with dried cayanne peppers from last summer's harvest, grated a piece of fresh ginger root from my garden, added some chopped garden chives and finely diced frozen green garlic from last summer. I used chives this time as I didn't have any white bunching onions that were large enough.

The only recipe ingredients I don't grow are the apples and pears. Surprisingly, these types of fruit trees are grown on Maui but at the higher elevations.

I suggest if you don't like it too salty, rinse the grated daikon 1 or 2 additional times. Add half the chili paste and garlic and then add more to taste. It's easier to add more salt and spicy ingredients then it is to try an correct an overly salty or way too hot kim chi.

This raw, fermented kim chi is a real super-food. I like to eat it with fish and rice.