Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Kimchi~~Korean Sauerkraut

This is another recipe that I cannot believe that I have not posted. Am I nuts? Do not answer that. So, now that I am moving into a more raw type diet, I will surely be adding these types of dishes. If you do not know, fermented food is one of the best foods to ingest, and for many reasons. It is a natural preservative and it beats the heck out of store bought pickles. Again, they have turned a beautiful type of food and turned it into garbage.

Try this and you will not regret it. They are simple and easy to make. And my son tells me, as long as I can keep up production, he will fore go store bought and eat mine on his subs!! Yeah to me.

1 head green or Napa cabbage, cored and shredded
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup grated daikon radish (optional, but I used it and liked it)
1-2T freshly grated ginger
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 t dried chile flakes
2 t sea salt
1/2 cup filtered water
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Place vegetables, ginger and red chile flakes in a bowl and mash down with a wooden pounder to release juices. Stuff into a 2 quart-sized wide-mouth mason jars and press down with pounder. The top of the vegetables should be 1 inch below top of jar. Mix water with salt and pour over cabbage mixture. Add additional water if needed to bring liquid to top of cabbage. Cover tightly. Keep in a warm place for 2-3 days before transferring to cold storage.

I did not have a 2 quart mason jar so I put it into two 1 quart-sized jars and it worked out just fine. You may leave the jars out on your counter and they will ferment just fine. Remember, you may hear a bit of hissing as the veggies are doing their thing. So don't think you have a snake in your kitchen, it is just veggies expanding.

I found this recipe from Nourishing Traditions. And even thought she does have many a meat recipes in this book. Her philosophy is all about traditional cooking and no processed foods. I would recommend this book, even with the meat recipes in it. Tons of information in this book.

1 comment:

Chile said...

I love kimchi. If you haven't seen the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz, you might want to check it out! He has a website by that name with the sauerkraut recipe on it for free.