Quick Cubed Radish KimchiKkakdugi

Kkakdugi is the radish kimchi that Koreans eat with seolleongtang — ox bone soup — the slow-cooked milky white broth that's the opposite of kkakdugi in every way: pale and mild against the vivid red and crunchy fermented radish. They belong together. The radish provides what the soup doesn't.

My grandmother made it in a big earthenware jar and kept it in a corner of the kitchen. Over weeks it would slowly turn more sour, the brine getting deeper in color, the radish cubes becoming softer at the edges while staying crunchy at the center. By the time it was three weeks old she'd use it to make kkakdugi kimchi stew, which is its own dish entirely.

Making kkakdugi for the first time, the salting step confused me. Salt the radish, let it sit for fifteen minutes, then drain. The liquid that comes out is surprising — almost a cup from a pound of radish. I thought I'd ruined the texture, but the opposite is true: that salting step is what keeps the cubes crunchy through fermentation. The recipe tip says don't skip it, and this is exactly right.

I made a batch in Auckland to bring to a dinner party. A Norwegian friend named Astrid had brought pickled herring from a Scandinavian deli and we ended up eating both fermented foods together, comparing the sourness and the texture. She was genuinely curious about the gochugaru ratio and whether ginger was essential. She said the fermentation smell reminded her of the herring but lighter and more vegetal.

Kkakdugi is the most beginner-friendly fermented food I know. No cooking required. The fermentation handles itself in the jar on your counter. Open it after two days.