Kimchi

Sandor Ellix Katz, author of 'Wild Fermentation", has a self-described "fermentation fetish" .  This kimchi recipe is based on his. Kimchi is a spicy Korean pickle, made in an impressive variety of styles.  It is prepared by fermenting Chinese Cabbage, radishes or turnips, scallions, other vegetables and often seafood, with ginger, hot red chili pepper, garlic and often fish sauce.

Ingredients 500 grams chinese cabbage 1 whole daikon radish or several red radishes 1 to 2 carrots 1 to 2 onions and/or leeks, bunch of scallions, or shallots 3-4 cloves of garlic 3-4 hot red chilies 3-4 tablespoons of fresh, grated ginger

Method 1.  Mix a brine of about 1 litre of water to 4 tablespoons of salt. Stir well to thoroughly dissolve salt.  The brine should taste good and salty. 2.Coarsely chop the cabbage, slice the radish and carrots, and let the vegetables soak in the brine, covered by a plate or other weight to keep the vegetables submerged, until soft, a few hours or overnight. 3.  Prepare spices: Grate the ginger; chop the garlic and onion; remove seeds from the chilies and chop or crush, or throw them in whole.  Kimchi can absorb a lot of spice.  Experiment with quantities and don't worry too much about them.  Mix spices into a paste. (If you wish you can add fish sauce to the paste.  Just check that it has no chemical preservatives which function to inhibit microorganisms.) 4.  Drain brine off vegetables, reserving brine.  Taste vegetables for saltiness. You want them to taste decidedly salty but not unpleasantly so.  If they are too salty, rinse them.  If you cannot taste salt, sprinkle them with a couple of teaspoons and mix thoroughly. 5. Mix vegetables with the chili, onion, garlic paste.  Mix everything together and stuff it into clean litre sized jars.  Pack it tightly in to the jars, pressing down until brine rises.  If necessary, add a little of the reserved vegetable-soaking brine to submerge the vegetables.  Weight the vegetables down with a small jar filled with brine. 6.  Ferment in your kitchen or other warm place.  Taste the kimchi every day.  After about a week of fermentation, when it tastes ripe, move it to the refrigerator.