I’ve adapted this recipe from my friend Alex Lewin’s book Real Food Fermentation, Preserving Whole Fresh Food with Live Cultures in your Home Kitchen. I love how he writes, There are lots of pictures, and he gives lots of tips and troubleshooting for many ferments.. Here’s a link to check his book out on Amazon. Props also to my friend Hans Breaux, who has also shaped this recipe which is a work in progress.
Ingredients:
2’ish pounds of cleaned vegetables: chopped Napa cabbage, any other cruciferous vegetables in pieces (radish coins, daikon spears, bok choy, kale shreds etc. (I like to chop my radishes into fanciful shapes like hearts and flowers.) carrots, peppers… I make sure the bulk of it is crucifers. They are the best source of microbes.
big bowlful, (or very clean 1/4-sinkful) of water, 1/3 C salt dissolved in it to make brine - it needs to taste quite salty!
1/2 head of garlic (3-4 cloves or more!), skinned
1 large or 2 small onions, chopped
1/2inch knob of ginger root, grated
up to 1/2 C of Korean red pepper powder, red pepper or pepper flakes (** careful, to your taste) Or none if you are capsicum-averse.
1 tablespoon of sugar, or 1/2 an apple or pear
1 teaspoon of fish sauce (optional - this is why kimchi might need it’s own fridge) and/or fermented shrimp paste. To make it vegetarian, use soy sauce.
a few scallions, chives or spring onions
Instructions:
Put the chopped veggies into the brine and allow to sit 6 - 8 hours, or overnight. (admittance: I have also done it for 30 minutes and made successful kimchi.) Then drain the veggies. I just pull the plug out of the sink to remove the water, then re-plug to contain the veggies. The sink makes a great mixing bowl.
In a food processor, blend garlic, ginger, onion, red pepper, sugar and fish sauce. add minimal water to blend easily in to a paste.
Cut scallions attractively into diagonal 1 inch lengths, and add to veggie mixture.
Add the paste to the veggies and mix thoroughly. You might want to use gloves depending on how spicy you’ve made your mixture.
Pack into jars leaving 2 inches of space at the top, and press down to remove bubbles - liquid will rise to cover the veggies and might spill out as the ferment progesses, so I put my jars on a plate. This is an anaerobic (oxygen-free) ferment, so keeping the veggies submerged is important. You can put in some extra brine if necessary (1T salt to 1 C water) Close the jar lid (not too tightly, so CO2 may escape) and put into a cool dark place. I use a cupboard.
Check the jars every day - I suggest doing this in the sink. Keep submerging the vegetables to avoid mold. Taste in a day or two, it will start to taste (and smell) like kimchi very quickly! Put it in the fridge to slow the fermentation to a crawl once it has reached the desired kimchiness (5-7 days for my taste).
Kimchi is yummy on salads, in soups, as an interesting sandwich addition - anywhere you’d use sauerkraut and more!
