Home Made Kimchi

When I visited Japan 2 years ago I was impressed by their pickled veggies. When I got back home I realised that my life just would not be complete without a Japanese pickle press, so I got one at Amazon (http://amzn.to/hViyFN) and forgot all about it. Until now, that is, when I decided I needed a little kitchen challenge and decided to go make my own kimchi.

 Looking pretty

I went for the most common type of kimchi, based on Chinese cabbage, and here is the recipe I used.

Kimchi
1 head of Chinese cabbage
125 g salt
3 dl water
half a scallion (green end), shredded
1/2 dl chilli powder (I used a Thai, very hot, variety)
15 g sugar
20 g salt
3 cloves of garlic, minced
10 cm ginger root, minced
2 tablespoons of fish sauce

Boil the 125 g salt with the 3 dl:s of water until salt is solved. Chill.

Wash and trim the Chinese cabbage leaves of all brown spots.

Put the leaves in the press. Pour the salt water over them. Place the lid on top, pressing the leaves down (see picture). Leave it like that overnight.

The next day, rinse the cabbage leaves. Squeeze them to get as much moisture out of them as possible.

Mix grated garlic and ginger, shredded scallion, chilli powder, fish sauce, rest of salt and sugar in a bowl.

Gradually work the chilli mixture into the cabbage leaves, making sure it gets everywhere.

Put everything back into the press and put the lid on.

Leave it like this for 3-6 days (I left mine for 4).

When opening, the volume of the cabbages has shrunk to half its original volume.

Put kimchi in jars. It should be eaten within 3 to 6 weeks.

At first bite it tastes very salty. Almost too salty. But then the other aromas start to come through. There is sweetness from the cabbage, ginger, onion juice... In the end the chilli hits. It's VERY hot but the funny thing is, you don't feel that until the end, and the only way to quench that is to have another bite. I now understand how Korean people can be so addicted to this stuff. It's awsome!