Morkovcha, a Koryo-saram kimchi variant (Морковь по-корейски)

Hi Maangchi!

This recipe request is for a kimchi type that I don’t think you’ve ever had before, and it is from the community I was born in and adopted from.

We Koryo-saram are the descendants of Koreans who were forcibly expelled from the far east of the USSR by Stalin in 1937, and we arrived into Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan after a long journey, where we came to settle on the steppes and plains and in the wild untamed mountains. Our language, Koryo-mar is endangered but our food lives on through our kimchi variant Морковь по-корейски (morkov po-koreiski), also known as morkovcha.

Due to the right cabbage being hard or impossible to find, and expensive if common, this dish relies on carrots as the vegetable. You must julienne the carrots, and then salt them to draw out the moisture. If this isn’t done, then the dish will fail. The proper oil to use is sunflower oil, as in central Asia this is the oil that is used most.