If I were asked to choose a food to represent the Korean people, kimchi would be first on the list. Because Koreans have long followed a vegetable-centered diet, we have highly developed methods of storing vegetables. In particular, kimchi, made by pickling cabbage in salt water and flavoring it with red pepper and various spices, is a good way of taking in important vitamins during the winter season. Preparing and eating kimchi has been a smart way to pass the long, cold winter season in particular, when vegetables are not produced.
Because kimchi in Korea is closely related with temperature, various kinds with different characteristics have developed for each region. Among these, bossam kimchi arose from the skillful combination of many additional ingredients such as vegetables, seafood, spices, pickled fish and nuts. Compared to other types of kimchi, it has a particularly high content of seafood, including octopus, oysters and abalone, and could thus be called a distinctive form of the dish calling to mind a little ocean within kimchi.
'Bossam kimchi is native to the Gaeseong region, where cabbage has developed to have long stalks and broad leaves. Bossam kimchi is made by soaking whole cabbage in salt water and slicing it, placing the slices into broad cabbage leaves, inserting various kinds of trimmings, spices, seafoods such as octopus, oyster and abalone, and nuts like chestnuts, jujubes and pine nuts in between the stalks, and then mixing thoroughly with dropwort, leaf-mustard, green onions, garlic, ginger, apples, pears, chestnuts, pine nuts, jujubes, ginkgo,
pyogo mushrooms and manna lichens, before finally wrapping the mixture in cabbage leaves and allowing it to ferment. Because this kimchi is made by wrapping various ingredients, it is also called
bo kimchi (
bo comes from the Chinese word for "swaddling clothes") and
ssam kimchi (from the Korean word
ssada meaning "to wrap"). Originally, traditional bossam kimchi was considered luxurious because of high-quality ingredients such as oysters, abalone and octopus, and because it took a lot of effort to make it, it was not eaten normally but saved mainly for special days like feasts and holidays. While it takes much care to prepare bossam kimchi properly, it does have a drawback in that it cannot be stored for very long, and so it was common for people to avoid preparing large quantities all at once during the kimchi-making season and only prepare the amount needed for winter holidays such as
Seollal and
Daeboreum.
The most sumptuous kind of kimchi, where various quality ingredients are wrapped like a package and allowed to ripen, bossam kimchi could be called quite beautiful in flavor and appearance. The crisp texture of the kimchi that appears as the wrapping is peeled away is enough to make one's mouth water. For this winter, I recommend experiencing the little ocean within kimchi by eating high-quality bossam kimchi.
Ingredients and Amounts (serves four)
Three heads of cabbage (8kg), one radish (1.2kg), 2 1/2 cups salt, 50g small green onions, 50g leaf-mustard, 100g dropwort, two
pyogo mushrooms, two manna lichens, one pear, three chestnuts, five jujubes, a small amount of shredded red pepper, two big spoonfuls of pine nuts
1/3 cup salted shrimp, one cup salted croakers, 150g oysters, one
nakji octopus
2 cups red pepper powder, 40g minced ginger, 80g minced garlic, four big spoonfuls of salt, three big spoonfuls of sugar
How to Prepare
1. Choose cabbage with many broad leaves. Cut in half lengthwise. Cut radish to 3---4 cm in length and salt together with cabbage. Cut onions, leaf-mustard and dropwort to 3--4 cm in length. Soak mushrooms in water and cut into thin strips. Trim manna lichens and cut into thin strips.
2. Remove shell from chestnuts and cut into thin slices. Trim jujubes, pare around seed so that inside of jujube lies flat, then slice thinly. Cut shredded red pepper to same length as jujubes. Shell pine nuts and wipe with cotton cloth.
3. Scoop solid portion from salted shrimp and cut finely. Cut meat from salted croakers into slices and place bones and juice into two cups of water. Boil water with bones and juice and strain with sieve to use as kimchi juice.
4. Wash oysters in light salt water. Wash octopus by massaging with salt and slice to length of about 3---4cm.
5. Cut inner leaves from salted cabbage, leaving outer leaves in place. Slice inner leaves to 3cm x 3cm, and slice pear and salted radish to same size. Add red pepper powder and mix together. Add remaining spices, including minced garlic and ginger, together with salted fish and mix evenly. Finally, add seafood and pear and mix together while flavoring with salt and sugar.
6. Spread out two or three outer leaves from salted cabbage in small bowl and make small pile of kimchi mixture inside. Place previously prepared lichens, mushrooms, chestnuts, leaf-mustard and shredded pepper on top. Close cabbage leaves and seal tightly.
7. Stack neatly in earthenware pot. Mix lightly salted water to taste with boiled down salted croaker broth and pour into pot.
Article contributed by Seoul Selection
Professor Yoon is Chief of the Institute of Traditional Korea
Food & Director of the Tteok and Kitchen Utensil Museum
