[Korean Recipes] Stuffed Cucumber Kimchi with Shrimp and Minari

Stuffed Cucumber Kimchi with Shrimp and Minari is delicious salad with Korean style. Jupiter has aligned once again with Mars, in the blogging universe that is. Food Network’s Summer Fest features cucumbers this week. Our monthly cooking group, the Creative Cooking Club’s theme is “stuff-it.” And I planned to create another seasonal Korean fusion dish this week celebrating the honor of having my recipes featured in the Korea Herald Business.

Korean + Summer + Cucumber + Stuffed = Oi Sobaegi 

My recipe for stuffed cucumber kimchi came from studying 5 Korean cookbooks in my collection, plus researching many recipes online. One thing I kept noticing, especially on google image – the final dish was not very attractive; green logs with all this stuffing hanging out. No doubt they were delicious, but my challenge was to make the dish pleasing to the eye as well as the palate.

Pairing with shrimp was a natural combination, as the kimchi recipe contains tiny dried white shrimp. My recipe also contains a good deal of ginger, it is quite zippy. Minari is a bright herb sometimes called Korean watercress which adds a fresh note. I also used the thicker Chinese chives to hold the sliced cucumber together, making for a neat pretty presentation. This, my first attempt at oi sobaegi was surprisingly successful, so I am sharing the original recipe here.

Cookbook Resources:
Korean Cooking by Young Jin Song
Seoultown Kitchen by Debbie Lee
The Korean Table by Taeyung Chung
The Kimchi Cookbook by Kim Man-Jo
Aeri’s Korean Cookbook 1 by Aeri Lee

Stuffed Cucumber Kimchi with Shrimp and Minari Recipe

The cucumber kimchi will ferment for 24 hours, so this recipe is a two day process. After 24 hours I took the kimchi from the dark pantry and placed it in the refrigerator until ready to use. The cucumber marinates for only 24 hours, so it still remains crisp. And then it is chilled to keep the dish refreshing for the hottest summer days.

Ingredients:

5 or 6 pickling cucumbers
1 c. moo (korean radish), thin ribbons or shredded
1 T. garlic, minced
1 T. ginger, minced
3 scallions, sliced
2/3 c. buchu (korean garlic chives) sliced to 2″ length
3 T. dried tiny white shrimp
2 t. sesame seeds
1 t. sugar
4 T. gochugaru (korean red chili powder)
chinese chives, for tying the bundles

Make two perpendicular slits in the cucumbers, leaving one end attached. Rub the inside and outside with Kosher salt. Let sit for one hour, then rinse off all the salt.

In the meantime, combine moo, garlic, ginger, scallion, buchu, dried shrimp, sesame seed, sugar, and gochugaru.

Stuff the rinsed cucumbers with the moo mixture.

Place the stuffed cucumbers in a jar, packed in well. Cover tightly and place the jar in a cool dark place for 24 hours, occasionally turning and rotating the jar to distribute the accumulating liquid. Refrigerate after 24 hours.

Blanch Chinese chives in boiling water for 15 seconds. Slice the cucumbers into 1 1/2 ” – 2″ tall disks. Use the Chinese chives to tie the bundles and keep them together for presentation. (Slice off the ends of the cucumber and enjoy them as a snack).

Cook medium-sized cleaned shrimp, tail-on, in dashi for two minutes, or until cooked through. Stop the cooking in an ice bath then dry the shrimp on paper towels. Toss the shrimp with minari leaves.

To plate: arrange 5 stuffed cucumber kimchi bundles in a circle on a platter. Mound the shrimp and minari in the center. Drizzle sesame oil over the shrimp then season with gochugaru, sesame seeds, and salt. Garnish with more minari and buchu.

This platter is meant to serve two or three people as an appetizer. Enjoy with cold makkoli (Korean rice wine) and keep cool this summer!

This recipe and image sources are referred in website: Tastewiththeeyes.com. Thanks so much!