Kimchee and the Mayor

Hindsight is everything. In hindsight, I should not have chosen to make a huge vat of kimchee (for the record, crock pot inserts are perfect for it) on the same day a meeting with the mayor was scheduled in a small, enclosed space.

Christoph just returned with a humongous cabbage, gifted by a friend. It's three times the size of store-bought. Time to make kimchee! 

Kimchee:
Make a salt brine in a pot (1+ cup of salt to 6 cups-ish of water, i.e. fill a small-ish pot). Core, then chop cabbage and toss it into your crockpot insert (and any other bowls needed, it reduces as it wilts and then you can consolidate). Ladle the brine over the cabbage and stir it every now and then until 2ish hours later, it is all bend-y and wilted. In a colander, wash and toss the cabbage until the brine is washed away, then put it back in the crockpot insert. The cabbage should be rinsed but shaken dry. 

In a small pot, mix cornstarch or rice flour with sugar and a bit of water, and cook until dissolved. In a blender, pulse chopped garlic, ginger, onion, and a mix of pepper spices: I used smoked paprika, chile, and cayenne instead of store-bought gochugaru, tasting to make it as spicy/garlicky/gingery as you like. (I like!) Now pulse in the dissolved starch mixture with rice vinegar and tamari, making a paste/sauce. Kimchee has many variations, including if the spice mix is a thick paste or a sauce, so do as you like; recipes also vary using fermented squid, anchovies, oysters or shrimp to flavor it, you can even make it vegan by adding miso instead of seafood. Today, I tossed in some fish sauce. I also sliced and added radish and carrots into the mix.

Once you get your thick sauce/paste tasting as you like, stir it into the cabbage so it’s well-coated. Many don gloves and massage the paste into the cabbage, but I just toss it regularly, and well. As it ferments over the next day or two, continue to stir and press the vegetables down so air escapes. When it tastes just right, store it in the fridge.

BOY DOES THE HOUSE REEK OF CABBAGE/GARLIC/FERMENTED FISH SAUCE and potent SPICES! MMMM! Oops, it’s already 5! Let’s go meet the mayor! (Sorry, Mayor.) The house stinks. As, certainly, do I.