Kimchi

1 head Napa cabbage

A few radishes

1-2 carrots

1-2 leeks

4-5 cloves garlic

5 hot chili peppers

3 tbsp. fresh grated gingerroot

➧Combine 4 cups water and 4 tbsp. sea salt.  Stir to dissolve.

➧Coarsely chop cabbage, slice radish, carrots and leeks.  

➧Soak in brine for a few hours to overnight.  Weight them down with a dish and cover with a cloth. 

➧Feel free to add other vegetables to the brine, (snow peas, seaweeds, artichokes, etc.)

➧Prepare spice paste by mincing the garlic, finely chopping the chili peppers and mix with grated gingerroot.  Kimchi can absorb a lot of spice, so if you like it hot, add more.

➧Drain off brine, reserving liquid.  If the vegetables are too salty, rinse, if not salty enough, add more.  Mix spice paste into vegetables and stuff into a clean quart size jar pressing down until brine rises.  You may need to add more of the reserved brine.  

➧Cover the jar to keep the flies away. Do not screw a cover on tightly as the fermentation process needs to breathe. 

➧Ferment in your kitchen or other warm place (not direct sunlight).  

➧Taste the Kimchi every day. Press the vegetables down daily to keep under the brine. 

➧After about a week of fermentation when it tastes good and ripe, move to refrigerator.

Side note:  Fruit Kimchi is prepared in the same manner but instead of salt water brine, use the juice from a lemon. The longer the fruit Kimchi ages, the more it develops an alcoholic flavor…be careful.  

Food for thought:

KIMCHI: a spicy Korean pickle created by fermentation.  Check out  Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz who found that fermentation can be done with just about anything. If you are into preparing your own homegrown, home processed food, you won’t want to be without this excellent fundamental tutorial on your bookshelf.

Kimchi recipes call for soaking the cabbage and other vegetables in a salty brine for several hours. It is similar to making homemade sauerkraut, except with more vegetables and spices. It also takes less time to ferment, and therefore ready to eat sooner.

The health benefits of consuming fermented foods are incredible. Our ancestors used techniques such as fermentation to store foods from harvest season to consume later in the year, when gardening was not in season. Fermentation preserves nutrients and breaks them down into more digestible forms. It is also high in several vitamins as the vegetables go through the life cycle of fermenting. Some ferments even function as antioxidants, and everyone knows how good those are for our health.

Most of the live cultured food you find in the grocery store, such as yogurt, and even sauerkraut, have gone through a pasteurization process that heats the food to a point where it kills the rewarding bacteria. If you want the live culture fermented food you have to go to a specialty store or make them yourself. If you have a garden and love to cook, get fermenting. You will love the benefits!

Fermentation is nutritious and delicious.

Welcome to the 2018 A-Z Blogging challenge.  This will be my fourth year. Every year I take on the challenge with hopes of disciplining myself to keep writing throughout the year as much, if not more than just through the monthly challenge. (It certainly is a challenge.)  Some years are better than others.  Some I just lose track of time.  This year I have decided to put my favorite hobbies together. A recipe that is tried and true as well as some thoughtful insight.  Please note some of these recipes have been shared before, however they have gone through years of testing and this is the perfected recipe.  I really hope one of my recipes or “Food for Thought” inspires you to do something great.  Enjoy the read and the photos, try the recipe, share your thoughts or comments, and most of all, have FUN with the challenge this month!

Cheers,