(waves crashing)

- Hi everybody, I am in Puerto Escondido, Mexico.

It's a nice beach area.

Today I'm going to show you how to make kimchi

made with chayote.

Have you ever seen chayote?

This is a kind of fruit, it belongs to the gourd family.

It takes like squash, summer squash.

This is very popular cooking ingredient

in Mexican cuisine, Central America,

and also some countries in Asia.

So this tastes like kind of a crunchy crispy radish.

Here in Mexico they usually saute this,

stir frying, and sometimes add to soup.

They use just like a squash or radish in Korean cuisine.

Today's recipe is chayote kimchi.

It's kind of a kkakdugi style,

cubed radish kimchi style.

I couldn't find any radish here,

I couldn't find any cabbage.

So when I think about my readers

who are living in Mexico and Central America, this is a good chance

for you guys to learn how to make

Korean kkakdugi.

Let's get started, let's go!

These are 4 large chayotes, there is a seed inside.

Total, it's 3 pounds and 3 ounces.

I just washed these.

First I'm going to cut these chayotes into cubes.

You see a seed here.

We're making kimchi,

so cut like this.

Remove this.

And then,

They are not exactly cubes but these chunks are very tasty

and crunchy.

Cut like this.

It is around 1/2 inch in size.

Nice and beautiful, isn't it?

And I'll transfer this to my large bowl.

Look at that, I made nice chunks!

I'm going to salt these.

This is around 3 pounds chayote.

I will add two tablespoons salt.

One.

Two.

Mix these.

And then, set aside.

Every 10 minutes turn them over, and mix again,

so that all these chunks are evenly salted.

(waves crashing) (bright mariachi music)

I salted these for 30 minutes.

Now lots of brine is coming out.

I will just pour this to my blender,

it's about 1/4 cup.

We need garlic and ginger.

So 4 large garlic cloves,

and ginger one teaspoon.

Onion, around just 1/3 cup amount.

This is fish sauce I brought from home.

I always use fish sauce when I make

soup. It makes it savory, when I make kimchi I also use this.

If you're vegetarian, don't use it,

but use just a little bit of soy sauce and salt.

1/4 cup.

I'm going to blend this.

(blender whirring)

I will just add this here.

This is also Korean gochugaru, hot pepper flakes

I brought from home too.

I'm using 1/2 cup,

but if you can't eat spicy food, of course you can

use less hot pepper flakes.

This Mexican green onion is huge.

Usually I use four or five green onions,

I think two green onions are enough.

But if your green onions are so small and thin,

use four or five.

I'm going to cut this diagonally.

I'm wearing a disposable glove,

I feel like using my disposable glove.

Okay, and then all you can do is mixing, how easy this is!

By mixing, turning over, that's kimchi.

Just press down. Nice!

This container fits perfectly, I'm so happy!

3 pounds of chayotes.

And...

That's it!

You can start eating right away, let me taste.

Mm, so good.

Salty, crispy, spicy.

Little bit garlicky, yummy.

Cover this, and you can start eating right away,

or if you wanna ferment, make it taste sour,

keep this outside of refrigerator.

Today's weather in Puerto Escondido is so hot!

I think 1 or 2 days after it'll be well,

well fermented.

When it's fermented, a little bit bubbly,

Then you can turn it over sometimes

with your spoon, and then press down.

Always press down.

More kimchi brine will come out tomorrow morning,

kimchi brine is also tasty. Eat it together.

And this is tastier than kkakdugi made with radish.

Chayote kkakdugi, we made chayote kkakdugi.

Now I'm going to bring my lunch and eat.

(waves crashing)

This is spinach.

Yesterday I bought this spinach from the market.

The green leaves and really sturdy stems.

That's my favorite spinach, I can find it here

in Mexico too.

And this is, I told you, kimchi,

I made 3 days ago, it's well fermented,

it's so tasty, look at this.

How delicious it looks!

And also this is the red snapper skin.

I fried this. I sprinkled

a little salt and coated with flour,

and then pan-fried it.

Very crunchy like a kind of chips,

and also I made curry rice.

I brought a package of curry powder from home.

Whenever I travel, easily

I can take it out of my bag and make it.

Look at these beans!

I bought this from the open air market.

Put some rice here.

Add this here.

I made this with chicken, onion,

potatoes, and carrots.

Let me taste!

First these chips.

Fish skin chips.

Mm.

Delicious.

Fish skin has a lot of good nutrients inside.

I used chicken breast.

Mm

Chayote kimchi.

Mm.

Spinach.

All these recipes are on my website,

I also like to have some fresh kimchi.

The color is very awesome.

Mm.

for this kimchi I don't need to add any sugar here,

because by itself, it is sweet.

Probably I will make my kkakdugi with chayote all the time.

I have a story about chayote.

Years ago when I lived in Canada, I didn't know

anything about chayote. One day,

my coworker who is Korean, she told me,

I just showed her how to make LA style,

jangajji, pickles,

and then she said, "maybe you can

replace it with chayote."

"What does it look like?"

She told me it kind of looks like a baby's two fists,

stick to each other.

So she told me this, and it's green.

When I went to China town, I saw this kind of fruit.

It looked like two fists, so I never forget about what chayote looks like!

I never knew that I would make kimchi with chayote.

Think about my late grandmother,

if she were alive and chayote was happened

to be produced in Korea around that time,

absolutely she would make kimchi with this.

I just think about my grandmother.

She would make all kinds of delicious dishes.

Today we made chayote kimchi, enjoy my recipe!

See you next time, bye~

(waves crashing)