Jono & Jules do food & wine

Well this was a revelation! We love kimchi but admit that we’ve only ever bought it in jars and never attempted to make it ourselves; a new year’s resolution in there perhaps. Having no kimchi in the cupboard we decided to give this a go and it’s nothing short of delicious. It’s ideally made with the small Persian cucumbers which we couldn’t find in our local shops over Christmas but a regular cucumber works fine too, just scoop out most of the seeds with a teaspoon first.

Almost-instant cucumber kimchi – serves 4-6 as a side

• 3 Persian cucumbers or 1 regular cucumber (see note above)
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 tsp gochugaru red pepper powder
• 2 tsp unrefined sugar or coconut palm sugar
• 2 ½ tsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp roasted sesame seed oil
• 2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Wash the cucumbers and pat dry. Halve them lengthways and slice very finely. Put the slices into a bowl with the salt, toss to combine, then leave aside for 30 minutes.

Combine the rest of the ingredients, apart from the sesame seeds, in a bowl. Drain the cucumber of any liquid, then add to the bowl with the other ingredients and stir well. Cover and put in the fridge for at least half an hour or until chilled.

Serve sprinkled with the sesame seeds. If you can resist eating it all this will keep in the fridge in a sealed container for up to a week.

(Original recipe from Our Korean Kitchen by Jordan Bourke and Rejina Pyo, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015.)