most of you have probably heard the saying “when life hands you lemons,
make lemonade.”
if you’ve ever really thought about it – it makes a lot of sense.
i don’t know how your summer has been so far, but in new england it’s been cool, rainy and hardly a summer at all. i keep waiting for summer to kick in, keep waiting for tons of fruit to jam, tomatoes to paste, cukes to ferment, chilis to dry, and so on and so on…
folks, up here in my neck of the woods, it’s been a lemon of a summer. as july catches up to august i’m realizing that i gotta work it out – i need to stop lamenting this lack of fermenting!
and so i say…when new england hands you a cool & rainy summer, not a day above 75
make kimchi!
kimchi
adapted from the joy of pickling
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
6 cups water
2 pounds chinese, savoy, or white cabbage, cored & chopped into 2 inch squares (about 1 large head)
6 scallions or 3 small summer onions with greens, cut into 2 inch lengths & slivered
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
2 tablespoons turkish pepper, korean pepper, or 1 tablespoon cayenne & 1 tablespoon hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon sugar (i use raw)
2 quart jar
zip-lock food grade plastic bag
first night-
1. dissolve 3 tablespoons of sea salt in water, chop cabbage and place in large crock or bowl. pour brine over cabbage and place a plate inside of bowl to weight down cabbage. i place a small iron teapot on top of plate, you can use a large can of food, jar of pickles, etc…
2. let stand for 12 hours overnight.
next morning-
1. drain the cabbage and save the brine.
2. chop scallions, ginger and garlic, combine with cabbage.
3. add sugar, last teaspoon of salt and pepper/paprika to vegetables and mix. i really love turkish pepper for kimchi as to my taste, it adds just the right spice. if you can’t get it near you, you can order it from here. (it is otherwise know as aleppo pepper).
4. pack all of this into a very clean 2 quart jar, and i mean pack it. i use a wide mouth funnel
5. once all the vegetables are in, pour in the brine to cover. you should have quite a bit left over.
6. pour some of the brine into the plastic zip lock bag and zip. push the filled bag into the neck of the jar. this serves the purpose of weighting it down. putting brine in the bag rather than water ensures that if the bag happens to break you still have the proper water/salt ratio in the mixture. i find a rubber band used on the bag comes in handy for balancing the filled bag in the jar. i also like to place the jar inside a bowl to catch any brine that may leak. this can happen as everything starts to settle and the bag sinks lower into the jar.
you will most likely have some brine left over, pour this into a container and save, you may need to use some to cover as things progress.
7. let this sit at room temperature for 3-6 days. ideally this should be no higher then 68 degrees. (remember; lemonade, kimchi…see what i’m sayin?) if you are somewhere that is perfectly, appropriately glorious & hot than you’ll have to place it in a cool place like a cellar. or, file this recipe away until the fall when cabbage is abundant and the temperature cooporates.
8. after 3 days check to see if it has soured enough to your taste. i find that 6 days is needed for a real kimchi taste. when done, take the brine filled bag out. if the kimchi is not quite covered, pour a bit more brine in to cover.
9. cap jar and place in fridge where kimchi will last perfectly for up to a year.
even if you’re busy making lemonade this july, i say find a cool place and give it a try. if you do, by fall you’ll be lining up those jars and emptying your local farmers market of it’s savoy cabbage…
and you’ll have a bunch of these little guys sitting around your kitchen making small talk:
they’re not bad conversationalists i must say…
enjoy!
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OOh..I have heard of this and now please tell me what to serve it with because how can I resist?:)
Thanks for the step by step..I hope Cayenne will do:)
Our summer is the same!! Every day.. chance of Thundershowers..sine July 1!!!
la table de nana -
cayenne will most definitely do, it will be quite hot though. you may want to put in less or mix with paprika. you can eat this with rice, and/or grilled meat or fish. it is quite potent, a little goes a long way and it will last in the fridge for a very long time.
OMG! it was sooooo good! We ate from that very jar. the tigress hosted a surprise b/day visit for our mom. she shared all the fruits, and pickles, of her labor. 4 days of glorious food and family
Wait — how the heck did I miss this? I've been dying for a good (read: trustworthy) kimchee recipe for ages. You're my hero!
And now that cabbage abounds, there's no stopping me…
(I've got to get on the green beans, too.)
frances –
welcome! yes this is a reliable and delicious kimchi recipe. so get on it, now's the time! and the beans too! hope to see you around here more often.
Gonna see me here more often for sure! Your Kimchee (and everything else) looks incredible…I just put cabbage on the shopping list
My son is in love with kimchee lately so I'll have to make another batch soon. Thank you, and have a great day!
I made this recipe but placed it in the fridge after 5 days, it smells and tastes fermented and yeasty, like it's gone bad, is this how it's supposed to be?
adventuress – kimchi is meant to be fermented and smell sour. but in a good way. your noes, knows as they say. if it smells good and sour then that is the way it is suppose to be. if it smells bad sour, like a rotten smell, than something has gone wrong.
tigress, it smells like yeast to me, and has fizzy notes in the end when I tasted it and a yeasty taste. Is that good?
adventuress – i'm sorry, unless i can actually see/smell/taste it myself i don't feel comfortable giving you a definitive answer on whether the kimchi you made is good or not. do you know someone who has experience with kimchi that can have a look?
Thanks for all the help, I agree, it's difficult to judge online
But I'll figure it out.
ooo, I love kimchi and I just got a savoy cabbage in my crop share this week that I don't know what to do with. I will have to try this recipe out! However, I don't really want the kimchi to turn out so spicy I can't eat it as a small side salad. Is the turkish pepper you use milder in flavor?
Yes, i am wondering about making it not too spicy too.
atomic hottie & anonymous – i use aleppo or turkish pepper which is quite similar to korean pepper (traditionally used). its a semi-mild hot pepper. you can use 1/2 hungarian (sweet) paprika and 1/2 cayenne to get a similar hotness.
where is the zuchinni kimchi recipe???