Happy to hear you’re making your own kimchi and my recipes are helping you with Korean cooking! Yes, it’s important to rinse the cabbage really well.

My one tip is to really make sure to rinse the cabbage well after salting. The only time my kimchi turned out poorly was because I rushed this step, leaving me with an overly salty kimchi. My fault entirely but now I check the cabbage by tasting a small amount after rinsing just to be sure.

Thank you for making Korean cooking accessible! I was intimidated to try Korean cooking but your blog has made it easy to enjoy Korean food at home. Thank you!

There are sources for red pepper flakes in various areas of the UK. Depending on where you are there are a few large Oriental cash and carry stories. Some carry specifically Korean red pepper flakes and others carry Chinese varieties. If you are near Milton Keynes there are two locally. There are stores in Northampton, Nottingham etc and there are multiple places in London. New Malden is home to the largest South Korean community in Europe, and it serves as a commercial and cultural hub for Koreans living in the UK. Ethnic Koreans account for around one third of the area’s population. Kent has a significant Korean population as well.

I am lucky that in our relatively small community, we have a number of Asian supermarkets so gochugaru is readily available. But before realizing this I did order some on Amazon for a very reasonable price so you might want to try that.

Happy to hear you enjoyed making kimchi! Room temperature may be still too warm for kimchi to be left at for a month, so check in every few days and see if it reached the ripeness you desire. Should put in the fridge after that. It will continue to ferment in the fridge.