How to Brine a Whole Napa Cabbage for Kimchi
In this post, I will share with you how to successfully brine your cabbage and other vegetables. Remember, you are Just one step closer to making your delicious kimchi!
Calories:
Ingredients
- 1 whole Napa cabbage 5 lbs
- 6 cup filtered water
- ¾ cup coarse sea salt brining
- ½ cup coarse sea salt sprinkle
- ½ lb Korean radish (peeled and chopped into big chunks) optional
Instructions
- Pull away any outer layers of cabbage that have been damaged or discolored and trim off the cabbage tip as needed.
- Slice the cabbage through the stem, about half lengthwise. Carefully pull apart the cabbage in half.
- Repeat and slice the halved cabbage through the stem, and pull apart. There should be 4 equal cabbage parts at this point. Set aside.
- Pour 6 cups of water into a big bowl and add 3/4 cup of sea salt. Stir well to dissolve.
- Place each quartered cabbage into the salty water and give it a nice bath by pouring water onto each cabbage. Scoop and Pour water onto the cabbage, repeat 7-8x.
- Take the bathed cabbage into another big bowl and sprinkle with sea salt. Starting from the outer layer first. Making sure each leaf gets sprinkled with salt, with careful attention to the core area (the white part). Repeat the bathing and salt sprinkle process to all 4 quartered cabbages, using up 1/2 cup of sea salt completely.
- Pour the salty (bathed) water evenly on top of the salted cabbages. Press the cabbages down gently, making sure the cores are facing up. Wrap with Seran Wrap and set your timer.
- Let the cabbages sit in the bowl for about 6-8 hours. Rotate the cabbages every few hours. Making sure to bring the bottom cabbages to the top, and top cabbages to the bottom, and vise versa. (Optional: If brining the big radish chunks, toss them into the same bowl with the cabbages and let it sit for 1 hour, then rinse and set aside)
- Check for the physical changes in the cabbage. If they are bendable, flexible and more transparent in color, they are ready to get rinsed!! Rinse in color water at least 3x. Making sure the core (white part) gets good rubbing with your hand. Squeeze excess water gently.
- Place the cabbages, with core side facing down, on the strainer for 30min-1hour. The cabbages are ready to get seasoned!! Yay!!
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