Stuffed Cucumber Kimchi
Oi Sobaegi 오이소박이
With Shrimp, Minari, Sesame Oil, Sesame Seeds, Gochugaru
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.
- 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!
Creative Cooking Crew Challenge
The Creative Cooking Crew is a group of 24 innovative food bloggers hosted by Laz of Lazaro Cooks! and Joan of FOODalogue. Each month brings a new culinary challenge with a round-up of all the entries posted at the end of the month. Although there is no real judging and the challenges are all just for fun, we take pride in sharing our entries, pushing our culinary limits.
July’s Challenge is STUFF-IT! Joan will showcase all the STUFFED DISHES in the round-up on her blog on July 29th. Check out and follow the Creative Cooking Crew’s PINTEREST BOARD here for inspiration without boundaries!
Summer Fest is Featuring Cucumbers!
Summer Fest is a season long franchise where Food Network editors team up with bloggers to share recipes about everyone’s favorite summertime fruits and vegetables. Be sure to check out the Pinterest Board with over 90,000 followers called Let’s Pull Up A Chair! And if this stuffed cucumber kimchi got you longing for some crisp cukes, you might enjoy taking a peek at other summery dishes from some fabulous bloggers below…
Feed Me Phoebe: Fennel Tzatziki with Mint
The Lemon Bowl: Japanese Quick Pickled Cucumbers
Jeanette’s Healthy Living: Burmese Cucumber Watermelon Composed Salad
Domesticate Me: California Salad with Roasted Chicken and Avocado Dressing
Taste With The Eyes: Stuffed Cucumber Kimchi with Shrimp and Minari
Devour: Cucumber and Mint Lemonade
Haute Apple Pie: Sweet and Sour Cucumber Salad
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Spicy Cucumber, Carrot and Onion Refrigerator Pickles
Red or Green: Spicy Cucumber Gazpacho
Virtually Homemade: Cucumber Tomato Bruschetta
Food for 7 Stages of Life: Neer Mor — Zested South Indian Buttermilk with Cucumber
Weelicious: Cucumber Cream Cheese Sandwiches
Blue Apron Blog: Barley Salad with Heirloom Cucumbers & Golden Beets
The Sensitive Epicure: Pimm’s Cups and Cucumber Tea Sandwiches
FN Dish: Pickles Past the Jar
Oh~ yum! it looks very appetising! Love pairing it with shrimp. A great summer food for sure. 😀
Thank you Sue. Pairing the oi sobaegi with shrimp really worked great. This was my first time making it, I was so excited about the jar fermenting my pantry. A little too excited I think, over cucumber kimchi! Ha!
LL
First of all congratulations for having your recipes featured by a Korean publication … how cool is that?!
This is wonderfully inspired and beautifully presented. I doubt there’ll be a duplicate. 🙂
Lori, it is a pleasure to meet you through Summer Fest.
Congratulations on being featured in a Korean magazine. As you said it is mandatory to make the food pleasing to eyes and your pictures does that magic. I just can’t wait to try this kimchi recipe.
Huge congrats on your Korea Herald Business feature – that is exciting!! And wow, is this beautiful dish impressive. I just made homemade pickles, but this dish totally blows them out of the water, lol!
Wow, it’s amazing. Cucumber Kimchi is the best for summer season. You’re so creative to make a cucumber Kimchi appetizer. You’d better publish your own Korean recipe book and translate it in Korean. ^^
You are so sweet Jessie! You know I love Korean food, and creating Korean fusion dishes…I have more to share in the coming months. Thanks for your support. Cookbook? Ha! I like the idea…
LL
I know it’s not a contest but as always as far as I am concerned you win! Also now I want those cookbooks …
LL, Congratulations on so many levels! Your Summer Fest participation, your recipes being featured in the Korea Herald and the fact that you are such a fabulous cook! Can I be you when I grow up?
Thank you so much Marie – I am outright flattered to have my Korean fusion recipes featured in the Korea Herald. And on the front page. Crazy!
As always, I appreciate your friendship. Going on 6 years of blogging. Isn’t this fantastic?
LL
As always, your cooking technique and food styling is simply amazing and so inspirational that I can’t describe how excited I am to receive your email every time. This is another beautiful and delicious dish!
Oh, you made my day Nami! Thank you. Especially sweet words coming from such an extraordinary cook as yourself!
LL
This is more work than I am inclined to do, but it looks amazing!
The recipe looks delish and I admire your ability to make even difficult to present dishes look so stylish!
Thank you Daniela – I really appreciate your comment. I attempt to plate the food so that it looks elegant, but not “styled.”
LL
Your pictures are so stunning. You are very talented cook who can make food look this great and photograph it beautifully.
Thank you so much for your kind words Ash!
LL
How cool! As a cucumber (too cheesy?). What a great idea to make stuffed cucumber kimchi. It’s really playful and unique. The presentation looks gorgeous too.
so much flavor, and what gorgeous presentation! great great dish 🙂
absolutely creative dish! I would love to try this!
You inspire us to be better…
You rocked the challenge with this one. It looks like a million bucks . I have often been amazed at how poorly classic dishes have been photographed and want to set things right (like the Full English this month… most photos of it are gross and unappetizing) Binding the little cucumber rolls is genius and makes such a great presentation. Well done.
This salad is so pretty. I am usually not a big kimchi fan because I cannot get past the fermentation process; but, that may change as your salad does not require that. Love all the flavors, it is like a party for your mouth!
Lori – This is really beautiful, creative and inspiring! Simply amazing. Congratulations on your being featured on the Korea Herald Business!!
Kamsahamnida Hyosun – your compliment means the world to me. I’m in good company at K-Herald! See you there!
LL
Better late then never to comment! Wow Lori Lynn this is an amazing creation. Sutffing cucumbers with kimchi is so perfect but would not have thought of it. Love your dish.
Thank you Evelyne – wish I could take credit, but stuffed cucumbers is a popular Korean kimchi. I just put my spin on it. It was a fun 24 hours 🙂 We thought it turned out great!
LL