Inspired by the book '
Wild Fermentation', and by the abundance and freshness of Chinese Cabbage at the moment, I decided to try my hand at making Kimchi.
It was a lot of fun! It is easy, fun, interesting, satisfying and super-easy (but I think I mentioned that already) to make Kimchi. I can't get over how EASY it was. There are a lot of recipes in the book that I am keen to try.
Anyway, let's get started. Uh, before I do, please excuse poor quality of pictures. New camera, new glasses. Bad combination. I'm working on it.
Cut up Chinese Cabbage, throw in bowl, together with any vegetables that you'd like to have in your Kimchi. I added carrots, leeks (home-grown), radish (a big one from the garden), celery (home-grown from Neighbour Gnomes).
Add brine and let soak for several hours or overnight, until vegetables are soft-ish, but still have a bit of crunch.
Drain. Keep brine. Make spice mixture. Grate ginger, finely chop chilli, onions and garlic. As much of each ingredient as you like.
Add spices to drained veggies. Mix thoroughly.
Squeeze into jars. Tightly pack jars until juices come up. Or add a bit of the brine you kept from the bowl of soaking vegetables. Make sure the brine covers the vegetables. Get some clean jars (filled with some water) that fit into the jars. Push into the jar with the vegetables. Cover with towel to keep out dust, flies, hungry people.
Let ferment for a week or longer, then put in fridge and enjoy. :)
As you can see, I made two different batches. The more colourful batch has lots of different veggies and tons of the freshly chopped/ground spices. The 'paler' batch, only contains chinese cabbage, carrots and a less spicy mixture.
(I had to divide the liquid into two No 65 Fowlers jars as I don't have a 4 litre wide-mouthed jar.)
And now we wait!
We might tackle a bowl of home-preserved cherries next. Or apricots. Or pears. Summer in jars! :)
Porridge with oats and sprouted lupins. And a teaspoon of powdered minerals, etc. to ward off pneumonia. In an ice-cream container for each sheep. You know what these oldies are like, if they don't get their own container. They just start jostling and pushing. *rolls eyes*
The heavy rainfall in the last few days has really saturated the ground. Despite the wild and woolly weather, there was not a complaint to be heard. Everybody is just so grateful for all this rain.
The first batch was Lavender/Chamomile lip balm. Can double as hand balm, too.
3 TB olive oil
*The honey may have been a mistake. Either there was too much of it, or it just does not work with honey. It didn't melt into the rest of the liquid. So that's why you can see the honey at the bottom of the little jars. It does taste nice, though. The mixture has a touch of honey. But as soon as you get close to the bottom of the jar, it gets a bit too sticky.
Cut up Chinese Cabbage, throw in bowl, together with any vegetables that you'd like to have in your Kimchi. I added carrots, leeks (home-grown), radish (a big one from the garden), celery (home-grown from Neighbour Gnomes).
Drain. Keep brine. Make spice mixture. Grate ginger, finely chop chilli, onions and garlic. As much of each ingredient as you like.
Add spices to drained veggies. Mix thoroughly.
Squeeze into jars. Tightly pack jars until juices come up. Or add a bit of the brine you kept from the bowl of soaking vegetables. Make sure the brine covers the vegetables. Get some clean jars (filled with some water) that fit into the jars. Push into the jar with the vegetables. Cover with towel to keep out dust, flies, hungry people.
Let ferment for a week or longer, then put in fridge and enjoy. :)
But I've had a little chat with my cabbages and they know what I expect of them. So far they are doing pretty well.
Now every time the chooks break into the garden, we put them into the enclosure. They have enough water to keep them happy and they can scratch to their hearts' content. The more they scratch, the better. They will dig into the soil, get rid of the grass, weed seeds, bugs, etc. and fertilise the area at the same time. Before it gets dark, we open the enclosure and the gate to the paddock so that they can go back to the chook shed for the night. Tomorrow, we shall play the same game again. Until the whole area is nicely dug over.
