Recipe(s): "Deep Kimchi" & Sauerkraut

It's really a conceptual rush to be making what appears to be a 3,000 - 4,000 year old recipe (or technique, if you will).  Last night I started my 4th kimchi effort.  The first two weren't bad, but combining the techniques of one recipe with the ingredients of the other, made for a superb batch that, after 7 days of lacto-fermentation, come out astoundingly well.

For years, I've wanted to make sauerkraut and kimchi, and only in the past couple of months did I have the homegrown ingredients, time, patience, and "wherewithall" to tackle them.  The process of non-yeast fermentation can been seen in most cultures, I had read so many testmonies to it's nutritional benefits, plus how easy and incredibly tasteful such products can be.

I'd grown a lot of cabbage.  Making sauerkraut is as simple as this:  salt and cabbage (and there variations using other vegetables, spices, etc.).  There are many recipes on the web, but essentially you just cut up cabbage, pound/mix it with salt until enough water is released to cover it, store, skim off the "bloom" daily, and wait two to six weeks (or more).  It's is unbelievable in taste, and I'll never buy the canned pasteurized stuff again.  It's like the difference between store bought and heirloom tomato, the later being light years further in taste (and probably nutritional profile).

There are some 180+ documented Kimchi recipes, some seasonal, some with different vegetables.  I opted for one with Chinese Cabbage (we call it "Napa" and I still have an incredible and hearty crop of them, as well as two kinds of Pak Choi, and Tat Soi growing even with snow and ice last week!).  After cutting up and soaking the cabbage for around 12 hours in a 3 gallon crock, I drained it all, saved the brine, and then added (per this recipe) 3x the amount (as I'm using over 6 lbs of cabbage):  spring onions, jalapenos, ginger, garlic, sugar, crushed red pepper flakes, no additional salt, some chili powder (no Korean hot pepper poweder nearby), enough water to cover, and mix thoroughly.

Now I'll be stirring it once or twice a day, adjust flavor if need (may add some additional chopped Pak Choi... my mixture is pretty strong right now), and when I get the "sourness" to the level I prefer, jar, put in 'frig (water or pressure canning would take out some of the beneficial microbes/nutrition/whatever).  Five to seven days!  It keeps for several months.

Here's photos (not all that great) of the kimchi first batch "nekkid," bottled, and then two images of my Pak Choi babies (click on thumbnails for larger images, all ©2009, by Mark Sutton):

Anyway, I urge everyone to look into lacto-fermention (it's raw and no added fat!).  So easy, especially with a food processor if you need to shred or dice.  The most recommended book on the topic, btw, is "Wild Fermention."  I haven't gotten my copy yet, but it's gotten quite a word-of-mouth buzz... almost as good as the buzz that comes from eating homemade sauerkraut and kimchi...

Comments

[Colin]

Hi just wondering if we can get the recipe you are using?

---
There are links to the two I combined/edited in the 1st paragraph of this post!

Best, Mark

[Anonymous]

that looks and sounds so delicious!! i love sauerkraut and haven't had enough kimchi to acquire a taste for it. on a more personal note (for a year i was very radical about eliminating added fats in my diet), i think it's dangerous to be so extreme about fat in the diet. especially for women and ESPECIALLY for female athletes... i came across this article: http://www.seattlewomanmagazine.com/articles/july07-2.htm. with a lot of fat-free blogs out there, i think the distinction between diets for men and women needs to be made and fat doesn't =demon. i guess the term "fatfree" demonizes all fats and psychologically messes with us (or, at the very least, me. and i' guessing countless thousands of "dieters")

[Well, we'll have to disagree a bit. For me, I've found that no added fat has been a boon, and I do believe the research regarding over 10 to 15% of calories from fat is deleterious to one's health and promotes several serious disorders (like heart disease).

Granted, it's not fool-proof and there are some genetically "gifted" who can abusively eat anything they want and live to be 100. It's the added oil (oil is not food) that concerns me the most. I just don't think it's necessary or advisable.

In any case, thanks being polite and providing a reference. That's always cool.

Best to you, Mark]

[Erin]

I'm with you on the homemade kimchi, especially made with red cabbage as here! http://www.zenpawn.com/vegblog/2006/05/08/kimchi/ And, Wild Fermentation is a great book. It's only after reading it that I felt confident enough to make it without salt (something that's usually recommended against for safety reasons, but there are ways).

[I felt that the recipe I used had lower salt recommendations than most (same issue with sauerkraut). Originally, the salt was mostly for preservation, as I understand it, and to promote the process of getting water outta the veggies & crisp a bit. I think with kimchi you might be able to rinse it off before adding the last ingredients, and in the case of sauerkraut, I usually rinse it before consumption.

Thanks for your note and the link to your post! Hope all's going well for you... I do check your blog periodically! Mark