So we were just at the end of the cabbage season and right in the middle of radish (or daikon) AND the Nashi pear (Asian pear) season.
What can we do with these 3 things? WE CAN MAKE KIMCHI!
Kimchi is a traditional Korean fermented food that is a must in every Korean household, either store-bought or home-made. But since a lot of kimchi requires for the use of Korean fish sauce, salty dried anchovy or other seafood (like octopus, clamps and so on) and vegans know just how these organisms are being over-fished and it is not sustainable to continue eating, we are making vegan kimchi.
Kimchi is basically fermenting vegetables in a low temperature (by low, I meant humanly environment) for a while with flavors seasoned into it while fermenting. One day I craved for my Mom's kimchi, so I attempted it myself, and I was surprised that it's so simple!
I tried to get something similar to the traditional Korean red chili powder, since they don't have seeds and have finer grain, but I couldn't find any in German shops in Berlin, and I thought these recipes are supposed to be locally accessible ingredients anyway, so I just got the chili flakes (available in Kaufland or Real, I think any big super market in a bag). You could of course get those finely grained chili powder they sell in a very small container and very expensive, but they are not spicy at all (you know what I'm talking about, those "Ostmann" and other brands, expensive spices!)
Please try to get sea salt or kosher salt, the kind WITHOUT iodine, because iodinized salt hinders fermentation process.
Since these kimchi does not use the traditional salty fish sauce, I used seaweed to compensate for the sea taste and used a bit more salt.
Since these kimchi does not use the traditional salty fish sauce, I used seaweed to compensate for the sea taste and used a bit more salt.
Mak Kimchi (the simple lazy way, for people just in it for the fermented taste of cabbage and spicy chili)
Preparation time: 20 to 30 minutes
Fermenting time: at least 4 days (warmer days) and 6 or 7 days (colder days), even up to 3 weeks (in fridge)
Yield: about 1 liter of kimchi
500g (about 1 lb) Chinese cabbage (or Napa cabbage, it's known as "China Kohl" in Germany)
40 - 60g (2 - 3 tbsp) Sea salt (the kind in big chunks without iodine or kosher salt, if you really don't have it, normal table salt is O.K., but it'd hinders the fermentation a little bit)
8 - 15g (2 - 3 tbsp) Red chili powder
20g (1 tbsp) Sea salt (for fermentation process)
1. Wash the cabbage well, separating the leaves and wash leaf-by-leaf.
2. Chop the cabbage into 3 - 4 cm wide pieces (horizontally, starting from the tip of the leaf to the bottom), if the length of the pieces are too long, chop it in half and put into a big bowl.
3. Add 40 - 60 g of salt into the cabbage bowl and toss and turn with your hands, make sure the salt is evenly distributed.
(Wait for about 20 to 30 minutes for the salt to work its magic on the cabbage.)
4. After the salting process, there should be some juice from the cabbage coming out. Tenderly rinse the salt off the cabbage leaves with water once or twice, make sure that the cabbages are not squeezed. Try to dump all the liquid out of the bowl when finished rinsing.
5. Add about 20 g of salt and chili powder into the cabbage bowl (if you don't like spiciness, add less chili or none), and stir well with GLOVED hands if you are using chili powder.
6. In an air-tight jar or tapper ware, then put in the cabbages, it's important that you lightly pat it when putting them in, so not so much bubbles are stuck in between. LEAVE AT LEAST 2-cm GAP IN BETWEEN THE LID AND THE TOP OF THE CABBAGE, since during fermentation, bubbles will expand and the jar might be overflowing with liquid.
** NOTICE:
- During the fermentation process, it is O.K. to open the lid, the air-tight container is for the smell not to get out in the kitchen or the refrigerator.
- Tasting the kimchi is fine, but if you are looking for the sourness in the fermented kimchi, you'd have to wait till when little or no air bubbles are coming up and the cabbage volume start to shrink a little (meaning that the fermentation slowed down) and this is when kimchi is sour.
Mak Kimchi (more flavored)
Preparation time: 30 - 40 minutes
Fermentation time: at least 4 - 5 days (if you leave it in room temperature)
Yield: ¾ - 1 liter of kimchi
Flavoring
25g (1½ tbsp) glutenous rice flour*** (optional)
80 ml (⅓ cup) water*** (optional)
10g (½ tbsp) sugar*** (optional)
25g (3 - 4 tbsp) chili powder (actually it depends on how hot you want it to be)
5 - 10g (½ tbsp) ginger (very finely chopped, more like minced)
30g (3 tbsp) radish (or daikon) (in very thin strips)
20g (2 tbsp) carrots (in very thin strips)
½ sheet seaweed (rip in pieces)
40g (2 tbsp) sea salt (or kosher salt, iodine salt is the last resort, it hinders fermentation process)
Cabbage
500g (1 lb) Chinese cabbage (or Napa cabbage, known as "China Kohl" in Germany)
60 - 75 (3 - 4 tbsp) sea salt (for adding to cabbage to sit, later would be rinsed off)
20g (1 tbsp) sea salt (for keeping in the jar)
1. Wash Chinese cabbage well, washing by separating them into individual leaves.
2. Chop the cabbage in about 3-cm strips, starting to chop from the top to to the bottom, if the strip is too long, cut it in half of its length.
3. Toss the cabbage in a big bowl and put in the salt and toss and turn the leaves around in the bowl a bit.
(while the cabbage is sucking on salt)
(the next step is optional, only if you do have the material and do decide to make the glutenous rice paste)
4. Water + glutenous rice powder in a sauce pan, heat with constant stirring till it gets thicker. Turn to medium to small heat, add in the sugar and stir till it gets even thicker. Now it's completely cooked. Set aside to cool off.***
(while waiting for the porridge to cool to room temperature)
5. Chop up the radish and carrot and mince the ginger.
6. Turn and flip around the cabbage a bit.
(Once the glutenous rice porridge gets to about room temperature)
7. In the porridge bowl (or just a bowl if you don't have the porridge), add in chili powder in the porridge*** (if you don't have the porridge, just mix together without it) and mix well.
Add salt first and stir.
Add pieces of seaweed second and stir.
Now add in the ginger and stir.
Then finally add the radish and carrot strips, this way nothing would be lumped together so the stuff would be more evenly distributed.
8. Wash and rinse off the salt from cabbage with water gently, not to squeeze the leaves, just once or twice. Afterwards, you can taste that the cabbage is still crispy and fresh, but a bit salty, and could be even sweet! Get rid of excess water after rinsing.
9. Add about 20g (1 tbsp) of salt in the cabbage again. Then add in the porridge paste (or the mixture of flavoring) into the cabbage bowl. NOW!! WEAR A PLASTIC GLOVE OR USE A PLASTIC BAG AS GLOVE ON ONE HAND! Toss and mix around well with your hand.
10. In an air-tight jar/tapper ware/container of about ¾ - 1 liter, stuff in the cabbages and everything else. Padding on it lightly to eliminate the air in between the cabbages. Remember to leave about 2-cm gab between the top of the cabbage and the lid to avoid overflowing of liquid during the fermentation process.
** NOTICE:
- During the fermentation process, it is O.K. to open the lid, the air-tight container is for the smell not to get out in the kitchen or the refrigerator.
- Tasting the kimchi is fine, but if you are looking for the sourness in the fermented kimchi, you'd have to wait till when little or no air bubbles are coming up and the cabbage volume start to shrink a little (meaning that the fermentation slowed down) and this is when kimchi is sour.
*** Optional ingredients
The red one is mak kimchi, the white one is mul kimchi (water kimchi).
Mul Kimchi (water kimchi)
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Fermentation time: at least 4 - 5 days (if you leave it in room temperature, I heard it takes about 3 weeks in the refrigerator)
Yield: about 2 liters of kimchi
500g (½ lb) Chinese cabbage (or Napa cabbage, known as "China Kohl" in Germany)
500g (1 lb) Radish (or daikon)
½ of a Nashi pear (or Asian pear)
2 pieces (each about 7 cm in length) green chili peppers, one can be red chili pepper (fresh!)
40g (2 tbsp) sea salt (or kosher salt, iodine salt is the last resort, it hinders fermentation process)
½ liter (2 cups) water (at room temperature)
20g (1 tbsp) sugar*** (optional)
1. In a big jar or a big bowl, add in the water, salt and sugar*** (optional) and stir until everything is melted.
2. Wash the chili pepper. Cut open the chili pepper in half vertically, remove the seeds and chop it up finely, in strips or in 0.7-cm strips (just finely). Add the chopped chili pepper into the bowl or jar of water mixture.
3. Wash the Nashi pear, peal it, and chop it into small pieces (smaller than ¼ of a bite size). Add it into the water mixture.
4. Wash the cabbage well, separating the leaves and wash leaf-by-leaf. Chop the cabbage into 3-cm strips, chopping from the from top to the bottom. Add the chopped cabbage into the water mixture.
5. Wash the radish well. Quarter the radish vertically (the cross-section area should be about 2 cm-by-2 cm or 3 cm-by-3 cm), then slice the radish in about 0.5-cm or 0.7-cm thickness. Add the chopped cabbage into the water mixture.
6. Stir all the ingredients well. If you started with a bowl, you need to put the finished "soup" into an air-tight jar/tapper ware/container, leaving about 2 cm from the top of the "soup" to the lid to prevent overflowing of the liquid during fermentation process.
** NOTICE:
- During the fermentation process, it is O.K. to open the lid, the air-tight container is for the smell not to get out in the kitchen or the refrigerator.
- Tasting the kimchi is fine, but if you are looking for the sourness in the fermented kimchi, you'd have to wait till when little or no air bubbles are coming up and the cabbage volume start to shrink a little (meaning that the fermentation slowed down) and this is when kimchi is sour.
The white one on the left is mul kimchi, the red one on the right is mak kimchi.
Kkakdugi (for the lazy)
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Fermentation time: at least 4 - 5 days (if you leave it in room temperature, I heard it takes about 3 weeks in the refrigerator)
Yield: about ½ liter or more of kimchi
500g (1 lb) radish (or daikon)
40 - 60g (2 - 3 tbsp) sea salt (or kosher salt, iodine salt is the last resort, it hinders fermentation process)
25g (3 - 4 tbsp) chili powder (actually it depends on how hot you want it to be)
1. Wash the radish well and chop it into about 2 cm-by-2 cm size cubes.
2. In a bowl, add the radish and the salt and stir well.
3. Add in the chili powder and mix well.
4. Put the seasoned radish into an air-tight jar/tapper ware/container. After a while there would be some liquid in there and some bubbles during fermentation process.
** NOTICE:
- During the fermentation process, it is O.K. to open the lid, the air-tight container is for the smell not to get out in the kitchen or the refrigerator.
- Tasting the kimchi is fine, but if you are looking for the sourness in the fermented kimchi, you'd have to wait till when little or no air bubbles are coming up and the cabbage volume start to shrink a little (meaning that the fermentation slowed down) and this is when kimchi is sour.
There is about 250g of radish in the jar.
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