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Spicy Pickled Cabbage (Wongbok) ala Kimchi

Updated 17 Sep 2017

13 Sep 2017
I am hesitating to call this dish "kimchi" as the ingredients for the paste has been improvised so much as to seem quite alien to Korean cuisine.

 Well, the inspiration is still the kimchi dish and from one really cutely-named "Emergency Kimchi" recipe from the Maangchi website.

 Inspired by this recipe:
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/yangbaechu-kimchi

 Kimchi is supposed to be made and fermented for some time. So, being able to make a pickle that can be eaten immediately is a good standby recipe to know.

For the small cabbage that I had, I cut it up, soaked it in water with 1.5 tbsp of salt for about 20-30 mins. Then, rinsed it a few times with cold water. I used a salad spinner to dry the cut cabbage.
This part is still close enough to the recipe steps. It is the sauce that is different. I used garlic, ginger, sugar, chilli powder, anchovy paste. I was very careful with the chilli powder as I suspect that chilli powder is more potent than hot pepper flakes. I used less than 1 tsp. Added ginger to mitigate the 'cooling' property of the cabbage. And I substituted fish sauce with anchovy paste.

 However, this mixture tasted raw and incomplete. So, I added some gochujang and light soya sauce to round out the taste. As this is meant to be a healthy version of spiced pickle cabbage, I did not soak the cabbage in a lot of sauce - the whole container was kept 'dressed' like a salad. Taste-wise, it is not kimchi - but it reminds me of it.
Cut cabbage, soaked in salt water.

Salad spinner to dry the cabbage.

The paste - garlic, ginger, sugar, chilli powder, anchovy paste.

Gochujang and light soya sauce to round out the taste.

It's only a small container full. Pressed down.

Ready to be eaten but I'm keeping it for a day or two for the taste to develop.
17 Sep 2017
The taste after 1-2 days is still not 'pickled' enough. The healthy seasoning style - 'dressed' like a salad is fine to eat but gives no pleasure. So, I added more soya sauce, gochujang and a dash of salt. Now, the pickle is more like kimchi. This is really very appetizing with just plain rice.
15 Sep 2017

17 Sep 2017:  Very appetizing with just plain rice!




Note: I think the caution about ".. too much garlic can make the kimchi bitter .." is correct from "thekitchn" blog below. I had chopped 3-4 cloves of garlic for this batch and maybe, it was too much because I can sense this edge. Still, not too bad for a first attempt.
http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-easy-kimchi-at-home-189390
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