Never getting old. There is always a type of kimchi in my fridge – otherwise I don’t feel whole. Its like an emergy food. It upgrades every salad, works very well with legumes (in curries, stews,…) but also kimchi pancakes are some of my favorites (with rice flour, oats or lentils).
To capture the recipe, is not so easy since it changes from one time to the next based on season and what my local food providers provide. Important though is a cabbage base that is cut in small pieces and then soaked for some time (1-3h) in quite some salt (like 3 full big spoons for a head-sized cabbage) and then the sauce. For the sauce, I mix quite some pepper powder (a good spoon), 3-4cm of ginger, a small cucumber root (or some powder), a fruit (pear or apple or alternatively a spoon of cane sugar or some dried fruits), a spoon of soy sauce, chili (depending on how hot it should get) and sometimes spices (like coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom seeds…) and some more salt (it should be salty when tasting). All those ingredients are mixed to a sauce. I also like some carot or radish pieces in but this is optional. After the cabbage is soaked and soft, the sauce is added to the cabbage, well spread and all put together in jars so that the vegetables are beneath the liquid (left picture is before I put another smaller jar filled with water as a weight on top). On the right is the kimchi after fermenting for 10 days (in summer also less days will be enough depending on the temperature). The time also depends on how sparkling/fermented the kimchi should taste like.
Enjoooy 🙂
