Cucumber Kimchi

A couple of months ago I ate at a new restaurant in the Global Market called The Left Handed Cook. Though not paleo, they do label/make GF versions of stuff on the menu - which I find eases my mind to trust that the food will in fact be GF. The food was amazing, and the pair of (assumed) owners exceptionally charming. I was particularly in love with their cucumber kimchi, which I set an intention to try and make when my cucumbers came in. Which is now!

I think that part of why I loved this dish is because traditionally there is a little sugar in there and it is a wee bit sweet. I did not add it, but you could definitely do that for a sweeter taste. Without, it is a crisp, light form of kimchi that is not quite as hot or meaty as the napa cabbage version. It also (apparently) tastes best shortly after the fermentation process is done. I guess the cukes lose their crunch the longer they refrigerate. The recipe I modifed is from a blog called Aeri's Kitchen. The recipe there is for a pretty large batch, so I quartered it and changed some things (like I don't eat garlic, and didn't have fish sauce). I also did not have the traditional korean red pepper spice, which apparently has a really distinct and slightly sweeter flavor than american red pepper powder/flakes. It may also be stronger, since mine was a little mild. All of the blogs recommend that you get the actual korean variety, but I had not done that. Alas. One other post with nice photos and a slightly different recipe (with radish in it) that is worth checking out: Beyond Kimchi.

Main stuff:
6 pickling cucumbers
1/4 c. sea salt
3 c. water
1 green onion

Sauce:
1/4 c. red pepper flakes
1/2 onion, minced (I did mine in the food processor to get it more liquid-like)
1 T. anchovy paste or minced anchovies
1/2 t. minced ginger
2 T. water
(2 t. honey, optional)

1. Cut off both ends of the cucumbers. Then cut an x in the cucumbers, lengthwise, all the way down to about half an inch from the bottom; you could also cut all the cukes in half to make mini ones - but still do the same x cut.

2. Bring 3 c. water to boil with salt. Pour over cukes in a large bowl and let soak for 50 minutes. (The boiling water helps the cukes stay crunchy.)
3. Rinse cukes once and drain in colander. Pat dry if you are inclined.

4. In a bowl, mix all of the sauce ingredients.
5. Chop green onion into 1/4" pieces; add to sauce and mix well.
6. Put on some latex gloves to stuff the cucumbers: gently pull apart the four pieces of the cuke and put some of the sauce in there, and rub the cuke surface with it. Eyeball your sauce amount and try to use it evenly between the 6 cucumbers.

7. Put your cucumbers in a large mouth quart jar (or lay them down in a glass dish, whatever you have) and sit out at room temp overnight to ferment and then refrigerate. Mine actually fermented almost 24 hours til they got a taste I liked, so see what works for you. These will continue fermenting a little longer in the fridge, but very slowly. *These do not get covered with brine! Every other fermentation recipe I have made requires brine to cover the mix, but I read a few recipes and none of them covered the cukes...these do continue to fill with some liquid as they sit though, so I like to set them upright so the filling does not come out.

These will last up to a month in the fridge, so say the blogs, and are best a couple of days after refrigeration. These are great as is, or I had some this morning with some other veggies (sweated zucchini and steamed greens) and topped with eggs, and it was super tasty. I think I will make them spicier next time - and actually get the right red pepper.