Learn from my Students: Part II-- Videos on Food

My students have made these videos about Korean folklore (broadly speaking). Some of the videos are really inspired, most are good. I'm quite proud of their hard work.

I know that some of you like Korean food, so you should check out these videos, all deal with Korean food:

One student did a double whammy on kimchi. The first video just tells about kimchi, while the second one explains how to make winter kimchi for storing (gimjang).

Another student also did two videos on food-- one is about Korean sauces, or jang and the other is about the gamasot, the all-important Korean pot for traditional cooking.

Another did a video on omija tea-- some photos of my own batch that I made this fall are in the video.

Two videos highlight food eaten at holidays-- the rarely observed winter solstice was the time to eat red bean porridge, whereas the still super important lunar new year was when people ate deokguk.

Making Kimchi for the Winter (Part 1)

I made kimchi in the late fall for several years, and then I moved to China, then the US, and I stopped. I wanted to, but I was just too busy. I made a few little batches of kimchi here and there, but no big ones.

Not so this year! Today I bought almost everything I need. I started with 3 heads of cabbage (otherwise known as 3 포기 because you use a special word for counting kimchi). I will have to buy more because I promised to teach some neighbors, but...

Tonight I cut and salted my 3 heads. The heads are quartered and the salt is big and coarse. The cabbage will wilt under the effect of the salt and once it's spongy enough, I'll move on to the next step.

As you can see, the cabbage is still fairly tight. 

Here's the salt

It should be inserted between each leaf. I couldn't show this process properly with salt in one hand and the camera in the other. Just imagine holding the leaves open with one hand as I spread the salt. 

Almost immediately you can see the salt start to draw the moisture out of the leaves.

And at the end my leaves are all spread apart from each other due to the salting process.