STUFFED CUCUMBER KIMCHI

STUFFED CUCUMBER KIMCHI A popular summer time Kimchi using cucumber! All Kimchi ingredients are stu ed into this tiny gap of the cucumber. It’s refreshing and crunchy!

Prep to nish 50 minutes - Serves: 6 to 8 Ingredients • 5 Korean cucumbers or other asian cucumbers • cucumbers that are suitable for pickling (760g, 1.7 pounds) • 50g (1.8 ounces) garlic chives - cut into 2 to 3 cm in length • 50g (1.8 ounces) carrot - julienned & cut into 2 to 3 cm lengths • 4 cups water • 1/3 cup coarse sea salt • Sauce (Mix these in a bowl) - 3 Tbsp Korean chili flakes

- 2 Tbsp grated onion

- 1 Tbsp Korean fish sauce - 1 Tbsp sugar

- 1 Tbsp minced garlic

- 1 tsp minced ginger

Steps 1. Rinse the cucumber in cold running water. Gently scrub with some coarse salt to atten thorns on the cucumber skin and to give a brighter colour to its skin.

2. Remove both ends of the cucumber and divide each cucumber into 3 pieces (about 6 to 7 cm or 2.4 to 2.8 inches in length) if you’re using a long cucumber like mine. Give a long cross cut to individual cucumber pieces but leave about 1 cm (0.4 inch) near the bottom.

3. In a saucepan, boil the water (4 cups) with the salt (1/3 cup) until the salt dissolves.

4. Place the prepared cucumber into a large mixing bowl and pour the boiled salt water from step 3 over it. Press down the cucumber lightly with a weighted object. Leave it for 10 minutes.

5. Drain the water and rinse the cucumber in cold running water and air dry it for 5 minutes. Squeeze out any excess water after that.

6. Wear food prep gloves on both hands. Put the garlic chives, carrot and the sauce into a large clean mixing bowl and mix them well. Add the cucumber into this bowl and start stuf ng the seasoned mixture into individual cucumber pieces. Repeat this until all cucumbers are stuffed with the seasoned mixture.

7. Move the stuffed cucumber into a glass container and close. Leave it at room temperature for about 6 hours then move it to the fridge