Oi-sobagi (Cucumber Kimchi Stuffed with Chives)

Variations

• Spring onion instead of chives: use spring onion or scallion if garlic chives are not available, and add a little more garlic to compensate. Their sharpness is what gives this kimchi its character, so the substitution makes it a somewhat different food.
• Oi-geotjeori: the cucumbers sliced and dressed rather than stuffed. Much faster and eaten the same day; you skip the stuffing, but the seasoning never reaches inside the cucumber.
• Brothy oi-sobagi: a summer version with plenty of liquid, made by stuffing lightly and pouring salt water over.
• With radish in the filling: some households add julienned radish. It adds crunch, but the radish gives up water and the brine builds faster.
• Its place among the kimchis here: where kkakdugi and kimchi are made to ripen, this one is made to eat straight away. Other summer side dishes in the same spirit are kongnamul-muchim and sigeumchi-namul.
• What to eat it with: noodles above all. Beside a cold noodle dish — kongguksu, bibim-guksu, naengmyeon — the crunch is the contrast.
• When it softens: chop what is left into fried rice, or use it as a topping for cold noodles. The brine goes into the noodle dressing.

Tips

• Brine in hot salt water. It is the one trick here. Cold-brined, the cucumbers soften within days; boiling brine sets the surface just enough to slow the structure breaking down. Same cucumbers, several days' difference in crunch (salt and seasoning).
• Stop the cut 1cm from the end. Cut all the way through and the filling falls out and the pieces collapse. Too shallow and there is nowhere for the filling to go. The knife should reach about two-thirds in without piercing the far skin (knife skills).
• Do not rinse after brining. Rinsing strips the salt, so you over-season the filling to compensate, and the cucumber takes water back on and floods later.
• Fold the chives gently. Worked hard, the cells burst and they turn grassy and slippery. Turn the mixture over rather than kneading it.
• Gochugaru goes in first. The chilli has to take up the vegetables' moisture before the fish sauce and garlic go in, or those slide straight off. Same order as kkakdugi (chilli and heat).
• Be generous with the filling. The cucumbers keep giving up water, so seasoning that tastes exactly right on day one tastes of nothing on day two. Slightly strong at the start is correct.
• Swill the bowl out and pour it over. Partly not to waste the seasoning, but those three tablespoons are the brine on the first day and stop the cucumbers drying out.
• Do not leave it out long. A day or two at room temperature, as with cabbage kimchi, and it has already gone soft. Three or four hours in summer heat, half a day in spring or autumn, is the ceiling (fermentation basics).
• A week is its lifespan. It was never made to ripen. That is why the batch size here is six cucumbers.
• Serve it cold. Lukewarm, it reads as though half the crunch has gone. Take it out of the fridge at the last moment (serving temperature).
• Without jeotgal: replace the salted shrimp and fish sauce with 1.5 tbsp soy sauce and kombu steeping water. The savour is shallower, so a teaspoon of ground dried shiitake fills it back in (building umami).