Saturday 12 April 2008

Weekend playtime.. Kim chi time..

Good to be back to blogging land..with pictures! yipee

I spent last night reading up Kim chi ideas and recipes, really fancy having some of this in a week or two once I am transitioned back onto solids!!

Spent this afternoon making lunch for my friend, after that I got to making this lovely Korean treat! I guess what I made is Quick Kim Chi or.. Faux raw Kim Chi lol its my interpretation!

There were lots of ideas on various blogs, this one was super easy http://ohsoosun.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-to-make-kimchi.html


You can use English cabbage, Chinese lettuce as its called in UK, turnip, radish.. pretty much add anything you fancy!

Watched this sweet little video..(err..think I will SKIP the raw shrimps!)


THEN..got making a RAW version!


Okay I tried to photo document it all best I could!!


Hit the market bright and early managed to get everything I needed cost me £4.88 Pretty good aye!


I already had

Ginger root
Ground ginger
Small amount of onions


I got

2 large local cabbage

3 packs of various Chili

Spring onions (salad onions US)

Korean Chili Powder-bright red!! (thanks to the lovely girls at Norwich market helping me!)

4 Garlic


I sterilized two large jars, wooden spoon, and found some big disposable tins to use for mixing and salting since I didn't have anything big enough!! The jars cost me £1 each and hold 1kg dry products, so very big jars! Good quality and a bargain!


Needless to say whenever you go away and come back to the process scrub your hands, roll up your sleeves and wipe the surface again. Making fermented foods..keep it clean!! Enough said!


Firstly
Prepare the cabbage






Take off the outer leaves, shred it, cube it..grate it-- anyway you like!

Could process it, but I just used a bread knife it was very relaxing!

I put this into the tray, salting it as I went, every layer adding more salt and pressing down gently. Finally on top salting again and adding around 1 litre water.


Basically the ratio should be about 1 tablespoon per cup of water. But I went by eye. Use the best Sea Salt you can buy.

Next I Covered this, put a weight on top and left for 2-3 hours.

It should be wilted but still have BITE after this. There will be lots of water thats come out of the cabbage. Rinse it if its too salty, squeeze the water out. Simple way if your also using disposable tins is to just slit a hole in the bottom, so you can rinse easily. It is a lot of cabbage.. I think I will be finding cabbage for days to come!

Making Kim chi" sauce"




Did this to personal taste, go by your taste buds!!

Mixed up in a large bowl

Chili -- about 12 of them red and green

Spring onions

4 garlic

plenty of Chili powder mix(the trademark RED colour!)

Ground Ginger

Fresh grated ginger


Taste it.. blow your mind..mine is SUPER hot!! ..You could always get a red pepper dried mix to add to the chili.....go ahead and.. MIX with the cabbage





You MAY want to wear gloves, I enjoyed the hand tingling myself!! just make sure you wash them well before going to the loo! ouchie!
Forget what I said DO WEAR GLOVES..unless you enjoy having your hands on fire all damn night!

** You could add some ACV or Green powder if your feeling wild!


Pack it all into your jars, leave out for 24 hours, It will fill up with more fluid and become tangy, leave a little room or leave on dishes/saucers. 24-48hours max!


Check its tangy enough for your taste..then put it away in the fridge..2-4 days..for first tasting, it will keep ages!! Voila!
Here is mine now just made



Can you tell I am.. A BIT EXCITED about this...!! Think I forgot how good it is to make something..even if its not being eaten right now!
That's all for now..kimchi making is hard work! lol

2 comments:

HiHoRosie said...

Synchronicity time! I should've read your blog FIRST before handling peppers today. I was using Anaheim chilis which are bigger, therefore milder, right? WRONG! At least, when it comes to the skin. My fingers feel like I had touch a hot oven. They are so burned! Everytime I go to wash my hands or do the dishes I'd cringe in pain. And when water isn't touching them they are tingling. They are going to be burning all night!

Love what you did with the kimchi though. I love things spicy so seeing all those peppers made me drool. :)

Joel said...

Dayam does that look good.