I have tried my hand at making kimchi. It’s pretty easy to find recipes for it on the internet which is in direct opposition to how hard it has been to just buy some. Some friends said there’s a local company that sells it at the various farmer’s markets around town and gave me a bite which was very tasty. But I digress. I tried to make kimchi.
I decided to make a few different kinds: The typical cabbage, for which the recipe called for a two pound head of Napa cabbage. Some cucumber because I like the cucumber kimchi at Korea House. Brussels sprouts kimchi because they are basically tiny cabbages and people on the internet claimed to have done it.
It took about an hour to get all the greens washed, cut up and brined on the first evening. The next evening I started around 5:30 and finished around 8:30. It’s fairly time consuming. I think, if this works out and I don’t give myself botulism, future attempts might be a little more volume. The kimchi spice / sauce / whatever isn’t too bad but it is messy and requires both fish sauce (smells like cat food to me) and little salted, fermented tiny shrimps. I used gloves to mix and can everything even though the directions said to use your hands.
It’s now been about three days. The jars have been living in a styrofoam cooler in the kitchen for both temperature regulation and smell containment. It does smell, not super strongly but even with the rings tightened some fermentation gas and odor has been escaping and the house has an odd smell. That’s a bit of a problem but my hope is that it’ll calm down a bit and things will go back to normal. It’s really only noticeable when you first walk in.
Today I checked in on them and their lids were tightly domed. That means pressure so I loosened the rings and they all released a fair amount of gas. The two completely full cabbage kimchi jars actually bubbled when I released the pressure which was interesting. I believe that is actually a good sign. Internet estimates say it should be edible this evening but it will be better in a week and will reach it’s flavor peak at around three to four weeks.
The Moroccan preserved lemons won’t be ready for a month. I should probably write packing dates on all of these things huh?