My First Kimchi

Ok this is my first go at Kimchi well it is probably not technically Kimchi but it is the closest for me so far, it could also be referred to as a spicy kraut I suppose but I’m calling it Kimchi ok, I have been dying to make it but just didn’t get around to it at home and I seen this gorgeous locally grown Chinese cabbage at the market the other day and also some lovely purple topped turnips so that sealed the deal Kimchi it is.
I chopped the cabbage into rough slices leaving one leaf whole to cover the lot at the end I grated the crispy white turnip & crushed the garlic I put all this aside in a large bowl and then made a mixture of my home made shoyu sauce, fermented chilly sauce, salt & pepper with a tinny bit of water to loosen it up and then the fun part….. I massaged this all through the veggies and then stuffed the mixture into a large jar I covered the lot carefully with the whole leaf to keep everything under the liquid and then on top of the leaf I placed my river pebbles so everything was under the liquid I put the jar lid on loosely so the gas can escape but insects cant get in you can use a cloth instead if you like and this is now sitting on the bench bubbling away. I cant wait for it to be ready shouldn’t take long here in the tropics I will let you know how it goes soon 🙂

Wild Fermentation Happiness All Round

Down but not out, making the best of a bad situation ect ect  I am no longer mobile as my van broke down and it is going to take a few months to fix so I am parked up at my friends place Mick is his name and while I have use of a kitchen fridge and some one to feed I’m goin to take advantage of the situation, first thing I did was get started on my wild fermentation’s again, I actually thought I did this blog a while back but today realized I hadn’t done it I get confused between my blog and my facebook group some times and had put it up in my group but not as a blog so here it is anyway below are my new projects but I must admit most of these are gone already hehehe 🙂

From left to right- Sauerkraut, Ginger bug, beet kvass, kale juice & pickled green beans

From left to right- Beet kvass, Ginger bug & Kale juice

From left to right- HOT chilly sauce & Pickled green beans

I’m loving getting back into my fermenting I knew it was going to be one of the things I missed the most about living on the road, I have to say that chilly sauce there in that picture is stupidly hot I got these little chilies of a woman at the Mossman markets and she said they were hot when I asked her but this ended up to hot to eat and I have never said that about anything before I only need to put one teaspoon of this mixture into a 2 liter jar of ingredients to make it hot.
The pickled green beans stayed crisp and crunchy and my friend and I have been having beet kvass & some times the kale juice every morning and he is absolutely loving it so wild fermentation happiness all around 🙂