My Version of Bossam Kimchi & Mak Kimchi

I must confess that after my last post on kimchi, I did purchase it a few times rather than make my own.  My family doesn't eat Korean food on a regular basis but on the occasional times that we do, I do like a little kimchi.  Recently while I was at the Korean mart, I picked up some cabbage and made two small jars.

I've seen pictures of Bossam Kimchi but have never actually eaten it or looked at recipes for it.  I thought the way it was wrapped was really pretty and made for a nice presentation.  So I decided to try and make it.  I took it home to my parents Easter weekend to see what they thought.  My dad said as nicely as possible so as not to hurt my feelings, "I've never eaten kimchi like this before..."   He explained that Bossam Kimchi is usually filled with pears, mushrooms, oysters, and chestnuts.  Haha.  I made mine like regular kimchi, just wrapped nicely.  Here is a recipe I found for a traditional version of Bossam Kimchi.

Anyways, this is how I did it...

I salted 2 small heads of cabbage lightly with coarse sea salt after washing the leaves.  I don't salt my cabbage very long (~2 hours) but you can see how much it reduces after the leaves wilt and the water is squeezed out.  I left one head of cabbage with the leaves whole and cut up the other head into 1" pieces to make 2 different kinds of kimchi simultaneously.

For Bossam Kimchi:

For Mak Kimchi:

Bossam Kimchi:
I prepared the filling for the Bossam Kimchi with shredded radish that I perched (salted and squeezed out the water.)  I mixed it with a sprinkling of red pepper flakes, a little shredded carrots, and a mix of garlic, ginger and brined shrimp.  (Half a head of garlic, a small 2" piece of ginger, 3 Tbsp of brined shrimp pureed together).

I wrapped each cabbage leaf like a package: 

I packed the cabbage packages into a glass jar and covered it with the remaining liquid from the filling.  I rinsed out the blender that contained the shrimp/ginger/garlic mixture with 1 cup of water and 1 Tbsp of chili pepper and poured it over the cabbage packages.

Mak Kimchi:
I sliced half a head of radish in 1"x1"x1/4" pieces and lightly salted it.  After an hour or so, squeezed out the liquid and mixed it with the sliced cabbage that I already salted and drained.  To the cabbage and radish I added ~ 2 T of the garlic/ginger/shrimp puree, 1 1/2 T chili flakes and some sliced scallions.

You can see from Day 1 to Day 2 how much more liquid is produced and how the liquid gets redder as the chili flakes dissolve further.  On Day 2 I pack down the cabbage a little so that everything is sitting in the liquid.  After 2 days I put the jars into the refrigerator.  I don't like my kimchi too ripe.  The kimchi will continue to ripen but at a much slower pace and the raw ginger and garlic flavors will mellow out a little.

In the end, I told my mom to feel free to cut up the Bosam Kimchi and use it to make kimchi soup.  The Mak Kimchi, on the other hand, has been all eaten up.  I used the last of it to make Bindae Dduk (mung bean pancakes).