Home-made kimchi

As promised, here it finally is! My kimchi recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 small Chinese cabbage • 1 cup coarse salt • 5 cups water • 400 gram white radish • 100 gram carrot • ¼ Korean pear • bunch Chinese chives • 1,5 tbsp rice powder • ½ cup water • 1½ cup Korean chilli flakes • ¼ cup salted shrimp • 2 tbsp fish sauce • 15 garlic cloves • 1,5 tsp grated ginger • ½ cup water •

1. Cut the cabbages into quarters or in 6 equal pieces. Leave them stem on there so the leaves will stay together. Mix ½ cup of salt with the 5 cups water. Use the other half of the salt to salt your cabbage. It's important to put salt between every leaf. Put the salted cabbage in the salted water and put something heavy on top to make sure the cabbage is submerged. Soak for 2-3 hours while turning them every 30 minutes.

2. While the cabbage is being salted, put ½ cup of water in a small pan and mix in the rice powder. Simmer until thickens and gets a glue-like consistency. Set aside. You could also use cooked rice mixed in a food processor.

3. Mix all the other ingredients together. Grate the carrot, pear and radish. Put the shrimp and garlic in a food processor until fine. Add the rice powder-water solution, until you have a nice paste. Add extra water if it feels a little bit thick. Add the chives as well.

4. Rinse the cabbage and make sure there is no leftover salt in between the leaves. Drain them for a while and squeeze out any leftover water.

5. Put the paste you just made between every leave. Put in an airtight container or maisonjar. Push down real good. You don't want too much air in between the pieces of cabbage.

6. Keep out of the fridge for 2 days. After that, store in the fridge for a minimum of 2 weeks. It stays good for way, way longer (a couple of months), but after 2 weeks the flavour starts to develop. Watch out when you open the container/jar. The pressure can build up pretty quickly! Mine needed to release some pressure a few times 😅

Before serving, chop into bite size pieces and don't eat the stem that's left on the cabbage leaves!

Enjoy!!