What is kimchi? Very simple - sauerkraut, a Korean dish. But you need to fill it with a special sauce. Just a glance at the composition of the kimchi sauce is enough to imbued with respect for the culinary skills of Korean chefs. Judge for yourself, take products that are diametrically opposite in taste and achieve an excellent taste combination on their basis. Therefore, as a result of the efforts of oriental masters, this sauce becomes a perfect example.
Traditionally, the sauce is used to marinate Chinese cabbage. This is not just a dressing for most dishes, the sauce is also distinguished by its pungency, burning-spicy taste and aroma of fresh fruit.
A bit of history
The history of the origin of the sauce has rather sad roots. It is said that it began to be cooked in the 7th century, when vegetables became available to poor Koreans. The winters in the country were long and rather cold, so they came up with the idea of making a Peking cabbage salad, salting it with a special sauce. It is not known when the spicy kimchi sauce got to the Land of the Rising Sun, but the Japanese loved this hot seasoning so much that they even began to claim their rights to the primacy of the invention of this product. Only the name has changed somewhat - in Japan the sauce is called kimuchi. Over time, having undergone some changes, the sauce has become a separate seasoning, which is traditionally used in all countries of the East.
For the first time in Russia, kimchi was modestly tasted in a soup with seafood. And now they have gone, and they even serve dumplings and chicken. Exotic cuisine has become a part of everyday life for some people.
The more people travel, the more enthusiastic responses are received by various national dishes, which we had no idea about before. By the way, red pepper appeared in the dish not so long ago, around the 16th century, when the Portuguese began to surf the oceans and trade in spices. Before that, the pungency was given by ginger.
Kimchi sauce in cooking
Of course, one can envy the high skill of the chefs who invented this recipe, because to take practically incompatible products and from them make a culinary masterpiece with excellent taste quality, you must agree - it is worthy of respect.
The sauce is often called kimchi paste, it all depends on the composition and consistency of the product. The traditional composition includes the following ingredients: hot red peppers, bell peppers, coriander, salt and garlic. Korean chefs use the sauce as a marinade dressing for the national Chinese cabbage dish, kimchi, which is recommended to be cooked daily. The main component of the Korean dish kimchi is Chinese cabbage, which is fermented in a special marinade.
Kimchi sauce is used as a spicy condiment, adding a few spoonfuls of it to soup or stew, for example, to transform the flavor of a dish. Thanks to the special gastronomic properties of kimchi sauce, ready-made dishes acquire a rich aroma and a rather pungent taste. The sauce is used as a separate dish and as an obligatory ingredient in many varieties of sushi, sashimi and rolls. This is due to the beneficial properties of the product.
Korean culinary masters, wishing to develop and diversify the flavor range of the sauce, invented more and more new recipes, thanks to which now you can count about two hundred different flavors of kimchi.
Useful properties of the sauce
Kimchi sauce can be called a unique food product, it is known for its unusual composition and amazing incomparable taste. Surprise arises only at the mention of all the ingredients that have not only excellent, but even opposite taste data. At the same time, kimchi sauce is a low-calorie and dietary product. The composition contains a large amount of vitamins and active natural substances that help strengthen human immunity and normalize digestion. This is a unique product that is famous for the originality of its ingredients and their flavor combination.
Contraindications
In fairness, it is worth mentioning the contraindications to the use of delicious seasoning. The sauce is quite spicy, which can irritate the mucous membranes and can provoke an attack of a certain disease. At the very least, you don't need to eat the sauce on an empty stomach. This does not mean that you should completely abandon the product - when cooking, put as many peppers in it as you like, adapt the recipe for yourself and your family. But during pregnancy, breastfeeding, you should try to generally refuse to add sauce.
Cooking recommendations
Kimchi sauce does not have a single list of ingredients, it can include a wide variety of additives, spices and seasonings that can be often found in Asian cuisine. In our classic recipe, the seasoning ratio is one to one. If you do not want to get such a hot product, you can reduce the amount of hot peppers. To make the base of the sauce softer in its taste, you can supplement it with an abundance of melted butter, and remove excess pungency with honey. Fruit brings incredibly pleasant and fresh notes. Red pepper gives the sauce a wonderful red tone, with an orange tint. You can not add coriander to the kimchi sauce immediately, but add it before use, and you can also use other spices and fruits of your choice: ginger, lime juice, rice vinegar, sesame seeds, apples, tangerines.
The classic kimchi sauce recipe
If you can't buy the sauce, try making it at home, most likely after that you will become a fan of Korean appetizers based on kimchi sauce. What is the legendary sauce? It includes a whole list of seemingly completely incompatible ingredients, which result in an amazing flavor bouquet. Today we will try to make a traditional kimchi sauce at home, and get acquainted with the classic and elementary recipe, find out how it tastes, spicy or not.
Ingredients
- hot red pepper - 1 kg;
- Bulgarian red pepper - 1 kg;
- garlic - 2 heads;
- ground coriander - 1 tablespoon;
- salt - 8 tablespoons.
Preparation
1. Take the fruits of the Bulgarian or, as it is also called, sweet pepper, preferably red. Wash thoroughly with warm water. Clean from small seeds and partitions. Remove the stalk and twist it through a meat grinder.
2. For further actions, it is better to wear gloves, as we will work with hot hot pepper. Take the fruits of red hot pepper. Wash thoroughly with cold water. You do not need to cleanse the seeds, but you need to remove the stalk. Twist through a meat grinder along with the seeds.
3. Take dry, hard heads of garlic, you can find out by pressing your fingers. Peel thoroughly. Rinse the finished garlic cloves with warm, running water. Also twist through a meat grinder or even better squeeze through a garlic extractor.
4. Thoroughly mix all components in one container. Add seasoning - coriander and table salt and mix again.
5. Contents - put the kimchi sauce in clean glass jars, you can close it with screw metal lids.
Feeding and storage options
With this sauce, a dish is always prepared - kimchi. It can be served as a separate dish. And you can fill any dishes. You can store the sauce in sealed jars in the refrigerator. The shelf life of industrial production is 24 months, home cooking is much less - a week.
