What do you do when you are desperately wanting Kimchi but Napa cabbage is not in season?? (well just go to Winco and get one from China…) I must confess that I did buy the non-organic Napa a few times, but since I have been writing this blog I have been more and more conscious about where my ingredients come from. So here I am at the Saturday farmers market, and here is a beautiful head of cabbage…I do not remember what kind, but it looked exactly like the one you found those “cabbage patch” dolls under.
Once I got home I was determined to get my Kimchi, so I decided to try this new “hybrid”. A Kimchi recipe with a sauerkraut cabbage.
Cut to 2 weeks later (now) and with great trepidation I open my jar…and whewww, it’s really good!! Kimchi Kraut came out delicious!! Seems even sweeter than the usual Napa recipe, good crunchiness, not too spicy…
For the best original Kimchi recipe I have been using for years, you can visit Dr. Ben Kim’s website: http://drbenkim.com/how-make-kim-chi.htm
“..cabbage is loaded with indole-3-carbinol (I3C), a compound that is well recognized as a powerful cancer-fighting compound. Numerous studies indicate that I3C can offer protection against many different types of cancer and may even stop the growth of existing tumors.” (Dr Ben Kim)
- 1 head of organic heirloom cabbage
- ¼ cup sea salt
- ¼ cup of ko choo kah rhoo (korean red pepper flakes) http://tinyurl.com/m8q4xkg
- 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger, minced
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled
- 3 green onions, sliced
- 2 tablespoons of fish sauce http://tinyurl.com/kou6syj
- ⅔ anchovy fillets
- ½ organic apple (very ripe)
- ½ organic pear (very ripe)
- 1 medium organic sweet onion
- Trim the cabbage, then chop into medium sized pieces. (2/3")
- Put cabbage in a large bowl.
- Dissolve salt into a cup of lukewarm water.
- Pour brine on the cabbage, and toss until evenly coated.
- Put a weight (plate/bowl) on the cabbage and let sit from 4 to 12 hours. (I usually do this in the evening then let it sit overnight)
- The salt will wilt the leaves and make them soft.
- Now rinse the cabbage well in a colander, until the brine is removed.
- Return cabbage base to the large bowl.
- Now you can prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- In a food processor place ginger, garlic, green onions, pepper flakes, fish sauce and anchovy filets. Blend until roughly chopped and blended.
- Add this mixture to the cabbage and blend in well.
- You might want to use gloves if you are using your hands, as pepper flakes can burn sensitive skins.
- Now place cleaned and trimmed apple, pear, and onion in food processor, and mix until pureed. The fruit will add sugar to feed the fermentation process naturally.
- Add the fruit blend to the cabbage and mix well until completely blended.
- You kimchikraut is almost ready!
- Now you can bottle it up in sterilized quart jars. Do not fill jars to the top as fermentation will expand the contents!
- The kimchikraut needs to sit at least 24 hours at room temperature before going into the fridge.
- It can be eaten after about a week, and will last about a month in the refrigerator.
Unless you’re doing something very wrong it’ll last much, much longer than a month the fridge. There are some kimchi recipes that call for months worth of fermentation.
Unless of course you’re simply assuming it’ll be eaten well before then?
Hi Julian, I agree, it does last longer (mine usually gets eaten before hehehe) but I just wanted to give some “safe” guidelines 😉