Fermenting Foibles

 

Today, a small departure from foraging into fermenting! Seeing that my veg box regularly throws huge amounts of cabbage and other root veg at me, I am amazed (and slightly embarrassed) that I didn't get into making kimchi and sauerkraut sooner. It's not like I'd never tried making it before - being aware as we are nowadays about all the ways in which it sorts out our guts - but I somehow always lacked confidence and therefore tended to feel more dubious than joyful about the whole process. Yes sure, there are loads of recipes readily available on the internet, but for me what it took was a random and very hands-on fermenting workshop at a festival in Wales! With a group of friends, we made a delicious jar of kimchi which we ritually devoured a few weeks later, and ever since then, every spare bit of cabbage has served as an excuse to get fermenting around here.

KIMCHI

There are oogles of different kimchi recipes out there, and tastes do differ, so have a play and see what best suits your taste buds and gut microbes! You can totally experiment with these ingredients and ratios - feel free to leave some things off or add others, such as fish sauce or radishes for example.

Here's what I like to use:

• half a white cabbage
• small bunch of carrots
• 1 spring onion
• quarter red pepper
  
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 red chilli (medium heat)
• 4 small-ish garlic cloves
• 1cm of ginger
  
• 1/2 tbsp white or any miso
• 1/2 tbsp soya sauce
• 1/2 tbsp kimchi sauce
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• salt

Chop up all your ingredients, but keep an outer cabbage leaf aside (this is to pop in the top of your jar later in order to keep everything else submerged). I chop all the fresh ingredients up quite finely, except the carrots, which I prefer to keep as fine chunks (or chunky strips) to give everything a bit of a crunch. But grating them also works, if you prefer a finer texture. 

Bung all the vegetables in a large bowl, chuck in a few generous pinches of salt, and get massaging. You want to give everything quite a firm knead with your hands in order to break down the cabbage's cell structure so that it releases a good amount of water. Taste as you go along and add more salt as required. 

When the mixture feels quite liquidy and a bit mushy, mix in the paste you've made with the miso, soya sauce, kimchi sauce and sesame oil, and knead some more.

Pack your kimchi into a wide-necked jar, pushing down as you go along in order to release enough liquid to cover the mixture. Fold up your spare cabbage leaf and pop it on top (pushing it under the liquid as much as possible) - this serves to keep everything else submerged and means that if you get any mould growing on the top, this will be on the cabbage leaf which can be discarded at the end of the process.

Keep your jar at room temperature for 3-5 days, burping it every day (taking the lid off to let air escape). You may notice it fermenting as quickly as a few hours later - you'll see bubbles rising up in the jar, which is how you know it's doing its thing. I always place my kimchi on a plate for the first few days, in case it gets a bit overexcited and starts spilling out of the jar, which can happen if the jar is very full.

After 3-5 days, put the jar in fridge in order to slow down the fermentation process. They say it takes a few weeks to reach peak deliciousness, so if you can possibly restrain yourself, leave your kimchi for a couple more weeks before tucking in.

Enjoy (not before discarding the potentially mouldy cabbage leaf)!

 

SAUERKRAUT 

One of our small festival fermenting crew was so enthusiastic about sauerkraut making that I just had to give it a go (plus, all the cabbage!!). 

Here's the recipe and method I settled on:

• half a white cabbage
• 1cm of ginger
• pinch of black peppercorns
• pinch of caraway seeds
• salt

As with the kimchi, keep a spare cabbage leaf aside and chop up the rest of your cabbage as finely as you can be bothered. Add chopped ginger and a few generous pinches of salt, and get massaging. Taste as you go along and add more salt as required. 

Throw in your peppercorns and caraway seeds and toss about some more.

When it's all gone suitably mushy, pack into a wide-necked jar, again pushing down as you go along in order to release enough liquid to cover the mixture. Fold up your spare cabbage leaf and put it on top, pushing it under the liquid as much as possible.

Leave your kraut at room temperature for about a week, burping it every day (taking the lid off to let air escape).

When it's to your taste, transfer the jar to the fridge where it will keep fermenting slowly and maturing in taste. I once thought I had ruined a batch of sauerkraut by adding too much ginger, but after another week or so in the fridge, it was perfect!

As with the kimchi, discard your top cabbage leaf and enjoy!