Napa cabbage

Chou chinois

What it is

It is a hybrid of turnip and pak choi that stabilised in the Yangtze delta, and it reached Korea only in the late nineteenth century — before that, kimchi was made chiefly from radish and other greens. The cabbage now synonymous with kimchi has held the job for barely a hundred years.

In the kitchen

Salt it before you cook it, not after: quartered and left in brine two hours it sheds a third of its weight in water and will then fry or braise instead of stewing in its own liquid. Cut across the ribs and treat white and green apart — the leaf collapses in seconds, the rib wants four minutes.

Goes with

Gochugaru Garlic Ginger Saeujeot Pork Fish sauce

Same species

Baek-kimchi Broccoli Brussels sprout Cabbage Cauliflower Cavolo nero

Also used with

Myeolchi-aekjeot Perilla seed Karashi (Japanese mustard) Dried shiitake (donko) Ponzu

In season alongside

Bettarazuke Cévennes sweet onion Chioggia beetroot Prickly pear Hakurei turnip Jicama

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