Homemade Kimchi!!
Kimchi. The emperor of probiotics in the plant kingdom.
For this recipe, you’ll need a blender or stick blender.
If you’ve tried some from the shops, it’s going to have been too expensive to eat regularly. If you can spare an hour, don’t mind getting your hands dirty. Try out this simple recipe. However, you need to order a large jar of Gochugaru chilli flakes online.
Chinese leaf cabbages are hugely different in size. You’ll need approximately 2kg, which may be three small, two large, or something in between. If you have more or less, don’t worry, just use as much of the sauce as you see fit. The recipe is quite forgiving.
Before you start, make sure you have a 3L, sealable container. If you use glass, make sure you open it daily to let it breathe otherwise, it will likely explode.
Prepping the cabbage:
800g Chinese leaf cabbage cut the cabbages into quarters lengthways (i.e. from bottom to top). It’s important the leaves remain connected to the root.
1-2L cold water
30g salt stir and dissolve the salt into the water
Place contents mixing bowl and leave for at least 30 minutes. This will allow the cabbage leaves to absorb more of the marinate.
Preparing the marinade:
(Please note that all of this will be blended)
1 onion quartered
100g garlic peeled
60g ginger peeled
15g salt
30g sugar
4 sheets nori (optional)
80ml tamari or Soy Sauce
40ml rice vinegar or any alt. vinegar
Place all the above ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, the mixture should be quite runny. Then add:
200g Gochugaru flakes
100g spring onions roughly chopped
Up to 150ml water
Mix the first lot of ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Add water if it becomes too thick to move. It should be consistently similar to guacamole.
Preparing the cabbage for fermentation:
Get each ¼ of the cabbage you made earlier, starting from the outer layer, open out the leaves, place approximately a teaspoon of sauce and rub into the leaf, top to bottom. Continue to rub the mixture on both sides of the leaves and all four quarters. And use some if not all remaining sauce to rub on the outside of the leaves.
Grab your Tupperware container or mason jar, and pack all the cabbage inside, trying to fill all air pockets.
Leave it at room temperature to ferment, above 12°c and below 24° for 4-6 days.
Very Important! As you’re using glass or plastic containers, you’ll need to release some air daily during the fermentation process to stop the gas from building up. A glass container will likely explode or at the very least scare the living shit out of you when you open it after six days.