Fermentapalooza

I've fairly recently become hopelessly addicted to kimchi. I've had the ultra-hot, mushy, canned variety and was none too impressed. Inspired by my New Favorite Person, Novella Carpenter (seriously, read her book, Farm City...now), I've come to realize how easy it is to make fresh, delicious kimchi at home. And often out of stuff that might otherwise end up in the compost bin. For example, my newest experiment:



This is proto-kimchi, of the radish top variety. I love traditional garden-type radishes, but there's so much waste with all those greens. I've tried cooking them (they're okay sauteed, especially if there's butter involved), but I'm betting they'll taste great fermented to perfect tartness with basil, cilantro, onion, garlic, and heaps of red pepper flakes.

The process of kimchiafication is simple. Take a bunch of sliced vegetables (radish, onion, greens of all sorts...the list goes on and on), sprinkle liberally with sea salt, mix, and let sit until they've released much of their water (an hour is usually sufficient). Rinse well and squeeze as dry as possible, mix with seasonings (which for me most often includes the aforementioned pepper flakes, garlic, grated fresh ginger, toasted sesame oil, and fish sauce or fish paste), a little honey or sugar, and pack into a clean crock with a plate on the surface of the kimchi to keep everything squished together. Then just put a lid on it and hide it in a dark corner of your pantry for a few days. When it starts to smell pickled, it's kimchi. Repack it into a sealed jar and stick it in the fridge. Eat it with meat, noodles/rice, in soup, or just by itself as a tart, slightly-salty snack. Like any pickle, it keeps virtually forever when refrigerated.

Extra-bonus: unpasteurized kimchi is full of "good", gut-friendly bacteria.