I am the biggest fan of fermentation in all its forms. The health benefits for your gut are endless and I firmly believe that kitchens are soulless if they lack fully stacked shelves of pickled and fermented goodies. So here is my take on one of my favourites, a punchy Kimchi that you can keep in your fridge for months!
Kimchi comes in almost as many forms as there are vegetables because nearly any vegetable can be fermented.
Photography by Rusne Draz @food _rusnedraz
Kimchi - A love story
Ingredients
- 2 heads Napa cabbage
- 4 tbsp sea salt
- 1 carrot thinly julienned
- 1 daikon radish julienned
- 4-6 spring onions or bunch of Asian chives trimmed
For the paste
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 5 cm ginger minced
- 100 gr Korean pepper flakes (gochujang)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce (optional)
- 1 pinch sea salt
- Splash of water
Instructions
- 1.Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage, cut the thick white part of the cabbage lengthwise in half and each half into quarters.
- 2. Place the torn cabbage in a large bowl and generously sprinkle with 4 tablespoons of sea salt, set aside for 3 hours rotating the bottom ones to the top every hour.
- 3. Once the white part of the bottom of the cabbage is easy to bend we are ready to rinse thoroughly twice and place it into a colander to drain well.
- 4. Meanwhile peel the carrots and daikon radish and cut into small matchsticks or alternatively use mandolin with the julienne blade and transfer to a large bowl.
- 5. Throughout rinse the spring onions and pad dry with the paper towel, discard the top of the greens and the root end. Slice the spring onion into 1 cm pieces and place in the bowl with carrots and daikon.
- 6. Prepare garlic and ginger, greate in a bowl, add korean chili flakes, fish sauce if using, sea salt and splash of water to make a thick paste. Add to a bowl with cut carrot, daikon radish and spring onions and mi everything well and let it sit for 30 minutes.
- 7. Pace quartered cabbage in a bowl with the vegetable mix and spread the mix over each leaf.
- 8. Fold each quarter of the cabbage in half and place in a jar or air tight container once all the cabbages are in the jar or the container press down hard to remove air pockets and the liquid is above the vegetables. Wipe down the sides of the jar *.
- 9. Leave it out at room temperature for two days if warm and up to four days during cold days, then store in the fridge.
- Note * I use a 2 liter Kilners jar for this batch.
