1. Ingredients
-Main Ingredient : Radish
-Minor Ingredients : Season the salted radish with red pepper powder, green onion, garlic, akin, and pickled shrimp.
2. Taste Evaluation
-Spicy : ★★★☆☆
-Salty : ★★★☆☆
-Sweet : ★☆☆☆☆
-Sour : ★★☆☆☆
3. Kkakdugi(Radish Gimchi) 깍두기
One of well-known Korean cuisines is Gimchi. There are hundreds of types of Gimchi. Among them, what Koreans always eat is 'Beachu Gimchi(Napa cabbage Gimchi)' and 'Kkakdugi(Radish Gimchi)'.
The world-famous one is Baechu Gimchi(Napa cabbage Gimchi), but actually, you will have Kkakdugi a lot as much as Baechu Gimchi.
Kkakdugi is made of sour radish seasoned with red pepper paste and ripened. It's also called 'Mu Gimchi(Radish Gimchi)'.
It's added on one of foreigners' favorite cuisines, such as Samgyetang(Ginseng Chicken Soup), Galbitang(Short Rib Soup), Seolleongtang(Ox Bone Soup), and Kalguksu(Chopped Noodle Soup).
Koreans really enjoy eating Kkakdugi but there is no enough old records about it. The most well-known record is the oral tradition in the reign of King Jeongjo.
It's told that Kkakdugi was first made by Princess Sukseon, the daughter of King Jeongjo, 200 years ago. She got much compliment with it. It was called Gakdokgi at that time and this Gakdokgi eaten at the court was spread out to the public by Jeongseung who retired to Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do.
Cut radish into small cubes and salt them. Then, marinate it in red pepper powder, green onion, garlic, akin, pickled shrimp, etc.
Ripen it in the refrigerator for about a week rather than to eat it right away.
Ripened radish becomes more crispy and delicious with sour and sweet taste.
It's told the radish produced in fall especially, is sweet like a fruit 'pear', so the Kkakdugi made with radish is mostly made in fall.
Well-ripened Kkakdugi goes well with soup with meat broth. It always comes out with Samgyetang, Selleongtang, and Galbitang that are made of strong meat broth boiled for a long time.
When you have cold Kkakdugi with hot soup, it removes the greasiness of strong meat broth with its spicy and sour flavor, as well as cools the heat down.
In particularly when you visit Korea in summer, don't forget to try Kkakdugi with typical health food for summer, 'Samgyetang(Ginseng Chicken Soup)'.
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4. Types
There are different recipes of making Kkakdugi depending on people who make it or regions, but basically it's made of salted radish seasoned with red pepper paste. People mostly make Kkakdugi using this basic recipe.
You can add regional specialties or in-season ingredients like oysters, clams, and various vegetables.
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5. Ways to enjoy more delicious Kkakdugi
There are many Korean traditional cuisines that should be ripened to get right taste, such as Jeotgal(Salted seafood) and Gimchi. Kkakdugi has better taste after a week of fermentation, as well.
Fresh one has hard texture and it doesn't hit the spot and has spicy acrid taste, because the seasoning is not completely penetrated. However, well-ripened one has crisp texture and is delicious with spicy and sour taste.
At the center of Korean table setting, there is 'cooked rice'. We have side dishes with rice so they tend to be strongly seasoned. It's better to eat spicy, salty, and sour Kkakdugi with newly-cooked warm rice in order to enjoy the taste of Kkakdugi well.
If you want to enjoy its taste more, it would be good to put it on the rice and clean and strong meat broth like Seolleongtang and Samgyetang.
