living in the woods and making stuff

Here is my first attempt to make kimchee.

I found a recipe for kimchee in The Joy of Pickling, by Linda Ziedrich. My kimchee is a simple mixture of napa cabbage, a little bit of kale, ground hot pepper, slivered green onions, and lots of garlic and ginger. The whole mixture sits in brine for several days, until the desired sourness is obtained…

Step one is to chop and brine the cabbage overnight. So last night, I chopped my cabbage according to directions, into 2″ squares. I placed the chopped cabbage in a bowl, covered it with salt water, and placed a plate on top to keep the cabbage submerged.

This afternoon, I added the additional ingredients to the chopped and drained cabbage. Slivers of green onions, lots of garlic…

…coarsely grated and chopped ginger. I couldn’t find my smaller grater, but the chopping seemed to get most of the big bits out. I added a little extra ginger to the recipe, as I love it, especially in the winter!

I was excited to use the dried peppers that I put up last summer. In the summer I always seem to acquire more fresh hot peppers than I know what to do with. As a result, I usually end up with more dried peppers than I know what to do with. This was a perfect use for some of my lovely dried peppers. I did have to grind them into a powder, which was a little difficult, with their spiciness…

I placed the cabbage mixture into a glass jar, with a plastic bag filled with brine solution on top. Looks like I put a little too much brine into the actual kimchee…

Here is the jar, all tidied up and ready to ferment in a cool corner of my house (not a problem, as I have many).