Vegan day 82: KIM CHEE

I went to a class today: The Miracle of Lacto-Fermentation at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health, taught by Peter Berley. 
I enjoy making my own food from scratch when I can.. also my own beauty products like skin cream, facial cleansers and scrubs. There is something both fun and empowering to creating what you will use or consume. I’m into sprouting too lol- but I have never fermented any foods such as cabbages or pickles. I have always wanted to do this for the benefits of building healthy bacterial flora. Our intestinal flora has been and continues to be compromised thanks to antibiotic misuse, processed foods and GMOs.


I was going to blog this at a later date when I actually fully prepared KIM CHEE by myself but a few friends asked for the “how to” and besides, I did my share of chopping and squishing! I’ll take you through my experience before I forget the details– umm ginkgo hello! lol

 KIM CHEE
(as per Peter Berley)


Nappa cabbage 5 pounds
Apple 1 cup peeled and grated
Carrot  2 cups peeled and grated
Scallion 2 bunches, thinly sliced
Daikon radish or turnip, thinly sliced
Sea salt or kosher salt 4 T
Garlic 1-2 heads, peeled and left whole
Onion medium size, chopped roughly
Soy sauce 1T (to replace traditional fish sauce)
Korean red pepper flakes (or dried or fresh chills)

~We cut the cabbage lengthwise and removed the cores. Next, we sliced the cabbage crossway into 1/2 inch strips. 


~The carrots and scallions were chopped and thrown into a big stainless steel mixing bowl with the cabbage. 


~Today, Peter advised us to make a brine instead of crushing the cabbage with sea salt into a mix of part cabbage and part juice which is common. This entailed measuring out enough water to cover the cabbage mix plus a sea salt ratio of (1 and 1/4 cup salt to 5 quarts of water-adjust accordingly- this is the same as one tablespoon of salt per cup of water). 

~While the cabbage mixture was soaking in the brine, we prepared other ingredients in a food processor: we mixed the apple, daikon, garlic, onion and red pepper flakes– wow- lots of chilis!



~Finally we mixed the drained cabbage bowl with the food processor content. Gloves work well here! 


~The soy sauce is sprinkled in last. Traditionally, fish sauce is used- I was “vegan-ly” crushed to hear that– now I most definitely have to make it myself!  


~Once mixed together, we packed the KIMCHEE into a pickling jar (adding the drained brine back to submerge it completely and left it to ferment for 7 days.

Pickling jars


Disclaimer: The information given here is for educational purposes only. You should not use this to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified health care provider.
[Thursday 22nd 2012 blog]