Saturday 17 September 2011

Kim Chi, a Fermented Korean Pickle

I love Kim Chi, it's spicy, salty flavour goes so many dishes and fermented foods have many health benefits. It's based on inexpensive cabbage and brine with a good dose of Father Time thrown in and is very versatile...use whatever root vegies you have, alter the spices to suit to your taste.

For my recipe you'll need....

half a large cabbage, chopped
a carrot and a turnip, washed and cut into thin strips
1/4 cup sea salt
water


mixed together in a large dish and sprinkled with the salt. Give it all a stir and cover with water. Set it aside covered with a plate or tea towel for at least 12 hours.

Drain the briny water off into another vessel as you'll need it again soon. After the long soak any bitterness has gone from the vegetables and they have softened a little.


Now you mix in the flavourings and for this batch I used

4 large spring onions, finely sliced
2 crushed cloves of garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons of raw sugar
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh ginger
5 teaspoons of dried chilli flakes

Smells so good already!

Then I shared the batch out between a white ceramic storage container and a Pyrex bowl which I covered with a plate and a tea towel.I topped up the vessels with the saved brine and I didn't worry about using a weight to keep all the cabbage underwater as I intended to stir it carefully every day.

I did this and tasted it each day until today I deemed it delicious enough to bottle. I washed three large glass jars in very hot water and then packed the Kim Chi tightly into them, poured the brine back over them, took a photo and packed them into the 'fridge!
  tigress in a pickle says they will last a year in the fridge...these will be  long gone by then but at least it's something we can now make at any time of the year.



Enjoy the rest of your weekend and Go The Eagles today lol!

1 comment:

  1. I've never made this but it looks so simple and I know someone not far from here who would love it. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete