Watermelon Water Kimchi
….Have you ever tried watermelon water kimchi? As I cut the watermelon into pieces to blend it, anticipating a new taste, memories of my younger days suddenly come to mind, making my face flush. Why did I do that? After getting married and living with my in-laws, my young nephew would visit during the summer and ask my mother-in-law to make watermelon juice. She would call me to make it. At first, I thought it would be easy, so I took out the blender and started cutting the watermelon, only to see all those tightly packed black seeds. Removing them one by one took forever. Why did watermelons have so many seeds back then? After struggling for a long time, I finally blended the juice, only for my nephew to drink it all at once and ask for more. At that moment, I went upstairs to my room, ignoring his persistent requests.
Nowadays, with seedless watermelons, there wouldn’t have been such emotional conflicts. I was quite narrow-minded back then. It’s a wonderful world where blending watermelon is so easy. For my watermelon-loving husband and me, I’ve brought @rinda.rejouissances’s recipe. Will it taste as I imagine? Will it have a unique charm? I need to try it to find out. I chose a crunchy watermelon and even prepared Korean melon and water dropwort from a distant Korean market to make watermelon water kimchi. Even without adding sugar, it was clean, crisp, and delicious. How did @rinda.rejouissances come up with this recipe? I’m curious! Blending some leftover steamed rice with the mixture was convenient and great. Adding a bit of hamcho salt (Korean sea salt) gave it a different, savory taste from the watermelon juice. With the weather being cool, I left it at room temperature for 12 hours and then put it in the kimchi refrigerator. What will it taste like once it’s well-fermented?
Servings: 2.5 L container X 1
Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
- Half of a watermelon (5 cups of watermelon juice), peeled, blended, and strained through a strainer
- 1 Korean melon, peeled and seeded (about 360g)
- 100g of white steamed rice (or leftover steamed rice
- 3 garlic cloves
- 200g of onion, half blended and half sliced for topping
- 100g cucumber, seeds removed and julienned
- 100g cabbage, julienned
- 100g red cabbage, julienned (soaked in cold water for 10 minutes to remove the purple color)
- 80g water dropwort, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 tbsp hamcho salt
Cooking Instructions:
- Peel the watermelon and dice it.
2. Blend the watermelon using a blender.
3. Shift them with a strainer. Obtain about 5 cups of watermelon juice and set aside.
4. Blend the Korean melon, onion, garlic cloves, leftover steamed rice, and 1 cup of watermelon juice in a blender until smooth.
5. Pour them into the watermelon juice and add the hamcho salt.
6. Add the cabbage, red cabbage, cucumber, water dropwort, and onion to the watermelon mixture.
7. Mix them gently and place them into a container. Leave it on the countertop for 12 hours, then refrigerate for 2–3 days.
8. After 2–3 days, serve it as a side dish.
You can also view this recipe on Instagram.
