Let's make Kimchi!

So this is the first recipe I'm posting here, but it's essential. As you will soon find out, Kimchi can go in almost anything. Definitely in anything that needs spicy fermented cabbage. Koreans eat more than 40 pounds a year of the stuff on average, and if you scale this recipe up 20x, you can too!

You will need:
Hardware-
3-4 quart jars with lids and rings
A giant, non-reactive bowl or 3-4 big mixing bowls

Software (all of this stuff is kind of optional except for the cabbage, salt, and chili paste)-
-6 medium carrots
-1 bunch of scallions/green onions (probably around 7-8 total)
-1 giant Napa cabbage
-3 medium Bok Choy cabbage
-1 2-inch chunk of ginger
-Around a cup of kosher/sea salt
-2/3-1 cup of Sambal Oelek or Korean Chili paste (to taste)- generally comes in a clear jar with a green lid
-2-3 tbsp of sweetener (white sugar, cane sugar, honey, etc.)
-1 Habanero (certainly optional)
-1 cucumber (optional)
-5 cloves of garlic (optional)

So this recipe takes 4-5 days to make, but it's all baby steps.
Step One: Make a brine with the salt and 6 cups of water or so. I think this covered me, but you may wind up making more. The brine should be about as salty as the ocean.
Step Two: Cut and peel the carrots and ginger into matchsticks (this will be the longest job). Why so many carrots? Here's why: pickled carrots maintain their crunch and get sweeter the longer they ferment. Also, unlike Bok Choy, which, despite being the most popular green veggie on the planet can be expensive, carrots are super cheap. Drop all of those matchsticks into your brine (which will be in the big bowl/3-4 smaller bowls). Clean and wash the cabbage, and chop it into 1 inch pieces (I start with about 3/4 inch pieces towards the base  and get to 1.5 inch pieces in the leaves for the Bok Choy). Drop this into the bowl, and mix with your hands. Dice your habanero (very optional) and garlic (which will be good pickled, but sometimes turn a weird blue color), and add the to the mix. Add the cucumber too, if you want. I only add the cuke about half the time, because they really don't hold their texture too well. Anyway, mix all this with your hands or a spoon, put a heavy plate on the veggies so they stay submerged in the broth, and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a cool dark place for 24 hours.

Pre-Kimchi soaking in Brine

 

Step Three: Put the salted vegetables in a colander and wash most of the salt off. The cabbage, in particular, will have absorbed enough to stay sufficiently salty. In a big bowl, mix the chili paste and sugar, and add the veggies. Chop your scallions into 1 inch pieces, and add them to the bowl. Mix with a spoon, add more chili paste or sugar to taste (spice level is according to your preference, and the Kimchi shouldn't be too sweet). Pack the Kimchi into cans (mine made 3 full quarts), and tighten the rings just enough to give the lids some space to move. When the Kimchi is fermenting over the next few days, you want to have a way for the air bubbles to escape. I generally let mine rest for 2 days, but anything up to a week is probably okay if you like it super funky. When it tastes how you want it to, tighten the rings and refrigerate. This will stop the fermentation. Enjoy! Taste great in fried rice, omelets/tofu scramble, and Kimchi pizza. The juice makes a lot of things taste better, too.

I kept losing more and more Kimchi in seeing if it was done