My Kim Chi Recipe!

Hello Friends! Last week I harvested our family's first batch of kimchi out of the 2-gallon crock that was stinking up our counter. I opened it up, scraped off a crazy exciting pink mold to discover the sweetest, tangiest most delicious of scarlet kimchis. Not only is this fermented wonder DELICIOUS, but it's also a beautiful natural digestive. The coolest thing about making fermented things is it's pretty simple, you just have keep things clean and not get scared of the natural molds that are made where the brine and air meet. Here's how to make it...

First Fermentation:
Get a small-medium sized cabbage (say 4#ish, also I use red cabbage, but it doesn't matter) and grate/slice it. I like to run it through the grater blade of my food processor, it creates a really nice juice. I clean my crock really well and put a third of the grated cabbage in, and cover that with about a tablespoon of salt and mix all together, repeat this technique with the remaining cabbage. Pack this all down nice and tight in your crock taking care to remove cabbage from crock walls. Place a small plate atop your cabbage and place a clean half gallon jar filled up with water on top of the plate for a weight. Make sure to cover the whole operation with a clean dishtowel to allow air to pass through but not allow for contaminants to get in. Check your crock the following morning, if brine isn't over the top of the plate add some salted water to compensate for low brine levels. Allow this to ferment for 5-10 days. (You've just made sauerkraut!) Skim the mold off the top and take a taste of your delicious fermentation.

Second Fermentation:
Grate another cabbage! Slice some carrots up! Grate 4 apples! Mince an onion! Mince 1-2 heads of garlic! Grate a whole piece of ginger up! Mince 1-3 hot peppers! Mix this all together with your first fermentation of cabbage. Layer your mixture with salt and mix up as you repack your freshly cleaned crock. When you get to the top pack it down again and weight/cover/top off brine as previously described. Let it sit another 5-10 days and there you go! You can harvest this into jars and put it in the ridge to keep for as long as it will last!

ENJOY!!! This is SOOOO yummy, the Hopkins family is living on it!

I strongly recommend Sandor Katz's description of how to Ferment if you'd like more info.