HOW TO MAKE KIMCHI
Based off of and
Ingredients
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Base Recipe
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- 1000 g kimchi
- 100 g ginger
- 100 g garlic
- 20 g salt (2%)
- 3 T Fish sauce
- 2 T sugar
- 1 T ACV
- 1/3 red pepper flakes
Optional:
- A handful of radishes, julliened
- A "medium" carrot, juliened
Larger batch
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- 1750g bok choy
- 650g daikon
- 195g garlic
- 240g ginger
- 84 G red pepper flakes
- 7.5 T fish sauce
- 5T sugar
- 2.5T ACV
- 270g carrots
Fits in 1 gallon jar need 40 litre bowl to mix
Instructions
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Cabbage Prep
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Wash the cabbage. Remove outer leaves if they look grungy and
discard. Then, detach 3 more nice looking outer leaves and set those
aside.
Cut the cabbage in half. Then cut it across the short edge into 1-2
inch slices (or any size you find appealing to eat). Put the cabbage
into a bowl and weigh (be sure to tare the scale for the bowl). Add an
amount of salt that is 2% of the cabbages' weight. Combine, mix
well. Cover and set aside for 1-2 hours. Every 30 minutes or so give
the cabbage a squeeze to release its water contents.
Chop up any other veg you're using and set aside.
Paste Prep
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Mince the garlic using a press, or by squishing and pull with the flat
side of your knife. Flatten the garlic out into a thin layer across
your cutting board. (This will oxygenate the garlic and start the
process of activating the alicin). Leave the garlic like this for 15
minutes at least.
Remove the ginger skin with the back edge of a spoon. Slice 1/2 the
full amount of the ginger into matchsticks. Put the rest in a blender
with garlic, sugar, ACV, red pepper flakes, and fish sauce. Add a bit
of the water from the napa cabbage into blender so the ingredients
will blend smoothly. Blend until smooth. Red pepper flakes may remain
visible as specks. That's OK.
Combining it all
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Combine cabbage and sauce with hands or spoon. Put into a large glass
jar. Press the cabbage down towards the base of the jar with a
fist. This will release some water. Do this for a minute or so, to
release as much water as you can.
Now carefully place the cabbage leaves you set aside on top of the
kimchi mixture. These leaves will keep any debris from down below
rising to the surface. You can tuck the tip and tail of the leaves
into the sides of the jar. As well as you can, have these leaves cover
and contain the kimchi mixture below. You may want to use your fist to
gently press down on the leaves to compress them along with everything
below.
Add glass food weights on top of the leaves. Loosely cover with the
jar's lid. Set aside to ferment in a warm place.
Note: it's not necessary to cover the kimchi to the top with
extra water. Within the first 8 hours it will release enough water
from the leaves to create a layer of water that protects the kimchi
from the Oxygen.