Gajami Sikhae

About the dish

Sikhae is a preserved dish of gutted fish lacto-fermented with cooked rice or millet and vegetables. Though known today as a Hamgyeong-do specialty, Oh Hui-mun's diary Swaemirok, written during the Imjin War around 1600, shows fish sikhae of many kinds on the tables of Seoul's yangban households. In coastal regions like Gangwon-do it was a winter source of protein and calcium — an appetite-whetting fermented food that kept for a long time.

Key ingredient

Flatfish (gajami) — supports muscle and heart function, helps support wellness around fatty liver and supports immune health; supplies energy to the brain and nerves while strengthening cell membranes and smoothing wrinkles. In season in January, mainly from coastal waters.

Ingredients

Main: flatfish 4 kg (10 fish), salt 1/2 cup, millet 150 g (1 cup), malted barley powder 120 g (1 cup), radish 400 g (1/2), gochugaru 1 cup, water for cooking the millet 200 mL (1 cup), water 600 mL (3 cups) · Seasoning: minced scallion 4 tbsp, minced garlic 2 tbsp, minced ginger 1 tbsp, salt 1 cup, fine gochugaru 5 tbsp, slivered garlic 2 tbsp, slivered ginger 1/2 tbsp

Simple recipe

1. Choose fresh, palm-sized yellow flatfish, gut and scale them clean, then salt them evenly and dry them on a tray until firm to the touch.
2. Cut the dried flatfish into 3 cm pieces.
3. Rinse and pick over the millet and cook it stiff.
4. Knead the malted barley powder in water, let it settle, strain it through a fine sieve, then boil the liquid and cool it.
5. Cut the radish into thick strips (5 x 0.3 x 0.3 cm), salt them and squeeze out the water.
6. Toss the millet with gochugaru in a large bowl, mix in the flatfish, salted radish and seasonings, then pack it all tightly into a crock and weight it down with a stone or plate to ferment.
7. Keep it somewhere cool, and in about a week brine forms and the sikhae ripens.

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