By Jeremy Rochow
Published: Tuesday, December 13, 2022
As we enter the kitchen, we’re hit with the strong smell of fish sauce and then notice an array of colourful vegetables on the bench.
Award-winning chef and Tasting Australia Food Curator Emma McCaskill welcomes us to the kitchen.
McCaskill has been a chef for about 16 years and worked at restaurants around the world, including Tokyo fine diner Narisawa, Melbourne’s two-hatted Ezard and most recently iconic South Australian venues such as Penfolds Magill Estate and The Pot.
She brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to her role at Tasting Australia presented by RAA Travel and has a passion for promoting South Australian food and wine.
Today she’s preparing kimchi with a slight twist. This version of the popular fermented Korean side dish includes traditional ingredient, cabbage, as well as pineapple, radish and a fragrant chilli marinade. If you want to taste McCaskill’s kimchi, you can attend the Alive brunch in Town Square Kitchen at Tasting Australia – where it will be paired with pork – or you can watch the below video and prepare it yourself.
‘Alive kimchi’
Ingredients
1L water
68g sea salt
500g Chinese Cabbage, coarsely chopped into 5cm squares
8 small red radishes, sliced into 2mm rounds
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into 2mm rounds
¼ pineapple peeled and cut into 1cm slices
1 bunch spring onions, chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
4 hot red chillies, seeds removed, chopped finely
1 small bunch of coriander
18g fresh grated ginger
¼ tsp Kashmiri chilli
30g ‘Mega Chef’ fish sauce
Method
- Make a brine by mixing water and salt. Stir well to thoroughly dissolve salt.
- In a non-reactive container, cover Chinese cabbage, radishes, carrots and pineapple with the salt brine. Cover with a plate or other weight to keep the vegetables and fruit submerged. Allow the fruit and vegetable to brine at room temperature overnight.
- Using a mortar and pestle or food processor, mix spring onions, garlic, chillies, coriander, ginger, Kashmiri chilli and fish sauce into a paste.
- Drain the vegetables and fruit, reserving the brine. The fruit and vegetables should taste seasoned but not too salty. If they taste too salty, wash them a little in water.
- Mix vegetables with chilli paste well then stuff into a sterilised jar. Make sure you pack the jar tightly and then cover with a little of the remaining brine.
- Weight vegetables and fruit down with a small lid or anything else you can find to ensure the top layer of vegetables and fruit are submerged in liquid.
- Cover with jar lid and leave at room temperature for a week.
- Check vegetables are submerged every day and push down vegetables and fruit a little to re-submerge under the brine.
- Once a week has progressed, and the kimchi tastes ripe, transfer to the refrigerator.