Fishing boats sail into the sea with tonnes of ice on board – it enables them to keep the catch fresh for a long while. Similarly, the art of kimchi involves the expert preservation of cabbage and other vegetables. Scene at Mokpo harbour, where Hektor Maille had to wait for a while to take the boat out to Hongdo.
Fresh Chinese Cabbage Kimchi
Many dishes in the Korean kitchen are prepared over a time-span of days or weeks: above all, kimchi, which requires to be fermented. Baechu Geotjeori (배추겉절이) is not a kimchi in the classical sense – it should be considered more as a cabbage salad with kimchi spices in it. The advantage of this salad is that it can be made at short notice. Moreover, this salad releases no gases in the manner that real kimchi does, as was observed during odd scenes in the kitchen of secret agent Hektor Maille.
600 g Chinese cabbage
2 tablespoons pickled baby-shrimp, finely chopped, with teir brine
3 teaspoons chili flakes (if available Korean Gochugaru)
5 pods garlic, pressed
1 walnut-sized piece of ginger, cleaned and finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
1 - 2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoons sesame oil
poss. 2 teaspoons red pepperpaste (Korean Gochujang)
70 g spring onions, of a thin kind as they are sold in Asia-Shops – chopped in pieces of 3 cm
70 g white radish (Daikon radish), chopped in fine sticks
poss. again some drops sesae oil
All parts of the cabbage can be used for the salad – but the tender yellowish leaves produce a better result than the hard white part of the cabbage.
More about the travel adventure of Secret Agent Hektor Maille:
While Hektor Maille sat absorbed in the spicy aromas of these culinary preparations, he pondered the meaning of the Solomon's Seal that had appeared before him all of a sudden:
First Publication: 1-12-2009
Modifications: 25-1-2011, 18-6-2011, 14-11-2011, 13-12-2011