...although not necessarily together. Well, the kimchee didn't turn out so great. It started to smell, but sauerkraut tends to do that too, so dh wasn't too worried yet. When he scooped some out, however, he noticed the slime that was trailing from each spoonful. Not good. He speculates that he either didn't add enough salt, or something went wrong with the anaerobic fermentation. I speculate that it's because he forget to put it in the fridge after 2 days.
Anyway, for those of you who were wondering, dh's starting point was the Frugal Gourmet's recipe in the "On Our Immigrant Ancestors" book - he decided to base it on this because it was the only recipe he found that asks for the cabbage in pounds. Other recipes that he Googled and used for reference all ask for 1 or 2 heads of cabbage. We harvested at least 6 pounds of Napa cabbage. **correction from dh: he claims he didn't use this as his starting point; I assure you he was referring to the book, but because it lacks fish sauce and needs refrigeration, he didn't think it was authentic enough and therefore combined a bunch of the other Googled recipes.
Napa Kimchee a la Frugal Gourmet
makes 3 quarts
6 pounds Napa cabbage
1/4 cup Korean pickling salt or kosher salt
8 scallions, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups shredded carrot
2 T grated fresh ginger
2 T garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 T candied ginger
2 t sugar
1/2 cup Korean red pepper flakes
1 T salt
Remove limp outer leaves from the cabbage. Quarter the cabbage lengthwise, then cut across the quarters into 1 1/2 inch wide pieces. Put the cabbage in a very large bowl and add the pickling salt. Toss so that the salt coats the cabbage evenly. Allow to stand for 30 minutes. Toss the cabbage a couple of times during that time. Rinse the cabbage with cold water and drain. Toss with the remaining ingredients and pack into a large crock or covered pottery casserole. Add water to cover, about 3 cups. Allow to sit on the counter for 1 to 2 days. Store in the refrigerator, covered, in the crock or in individual glass jars.
Serve as a relish with any Korean dinner or use in cooking meat or soup dishes.
It would have been tasty, I'm sure.
But what of happiness? Through someone else's blog, and I wish I could remember whose it was, I discovered Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. She decided to get people to join in a
initiative for the following year by signing a petition and then committing yourself to it in 2010. So, I did. Heck, we can all use a good dose of happiness. I am swimming in happiness, but I tend to forget, so I thought that by undertaking this, I will keep reminding myself of how good I have it. Won't you join me?"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams
