Red Cabbage Kimchi

Catherine made the most delicious red cabbage kimchi at BS3 Jammin’, it was sweet, crunchy and full of flavour! Unfortunately she didn’t have the recipe so I just had the ingredients list to go on and I referenced another kimchi recipe to make this. I am happy to say it worked and is delicious (who knows if it does taste the same as Catherine’s original), but I feel confident enough to share this recipe with everyone! Plus would help me if I noted down what I did as well.

Ingredients

• 1 whole red cabbage (approx 1kg removing outer leaves and core)

• 100g sea salt (it needs to be pure salt, do not use table salt)

• 1 litre water

• 1 small carrot finely sliced

• 240g radishes (small bag from supermarket) finely sliced (I didn’t have any mooli, but of course you can use mooli too which is more authentic)

• 3 spring onions chopped in 3cm pieces

• 3 tbsp Korean chilli powder

  For the paste

• 2 or 3 garlic cloves

• 1 inch peeled ginger

• 1 small apple cored

• 1 small pear cored

• 3 thin chillies (remove seeds to make it less spicy if you want)

• 1 tsp sugar

• 1 tbsp miso paste

• 3 tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce (if you are veggie/vegan)

  Equipment

  Large bowl (big enough to mix everything in)

  Small bowl

  A pushing implement (eg a pestle)

  Gloves

  Sterilised jars (I used approx 5 jars)

  Method

  Step 1

  Take off the outer leaves of the red cabbage, cut in half and remove the core. Cut the cabbage into bite size pieces and put into a large bowl. Rub salt into the leaves, then add enough water to dissolve any remaining salt and fully submerge. Keep the cabbage submerged (add a weighted plate on top if needed) for 3 hours. Once the cabbage looks slightly soft, rinse it well under running water, then squeeze dry. The cabbage should taste salty but not overpowering after rinsing.

  Step 2
  Thinly slice the radishes and carrot , chop the spring onions into 3cm chunks and mix well with the chilli powder and put to one side.

  Step 3
  Whizz up the apple and pear (remove the core and seeds), chilli, garlic, ginger, miso paste, fish sauce (or soy sauce) and sugar in a blender to make a thick paste.

  Step 4

  Add the paste, radishes, carrot and spring onions with the cabbage and mix thoroughly making sure it’s all combined (I recommend wearing gloves for this). Fill your jars and pack the mixture tightly into sterilised jars, I used a pestle to really push the mixture down to remove any air.

  Step 5
  Close the lids lightly (not airtight) and open daily to release gas (it’s referred to as burping) and leave the jars to ferment in room temperature for up to 3 days (the longer you leave it, the stronger the taste). Then put the jars in the fridge for at least one week.

  TIP I would put your jars on a plate/tray as they will leak whilst they’re fermenting in room temperature.

  Enjoy!

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