Adventures with Kim-Chi (fermented, spicy, pickled cabbage)

Stage One: First of all, the shopping for ingredients.

They include (but are not limited to):
-2 large nappa or Chinese cabbages
-Korean red pepper powder
-Asian fish sauce
-Daikon radish

Challenge No. 1 – is there a difference between nappa and Chinese cabbage, and what constitutes large?

We went to the local grocery store and bought the two biggest nappa cabbages they had. I am not kidding; they were the size of small children. The cashier had a hard time weighing them – even separately - because of their girth. Together they cost $14 – that is a lot of cabbage!

Challenge No. 2 - Korean red pepper powder. There is none to be found in Sudbury. I tried the Natural and International food store on Paris, Bulk Barn and two grocery stores. Nadda. Café Asia, which just opened, ran out in the second day of operation – but they have some ordered. But I had already decided that Monday was “the day” so we bought dried chili peppers instead.

Asian fish sauce. I’m a vegan. I can’t bear the idea of a mini-carp (goldfish) suffering let alone eating one. Yuck! So, vegan oyster sauce. But I have this funny feeling it is not as powerful as its fleshy sister sauce.

Daikon radish. Could not find one in Suds. I think it goes by another name so I just omitted it. Oops!

Stage Two: Next, Laur and I in the kitchen – with knives. Probably not a good idea.

First off, we are staring at these cabbages and figuring they are likely the equivalent of four, not two. We rinsed them off and they seemed to double in size, again.

Recipe A says to slice them up and put them in a very large container – ONE of them filled our 22-quart cooking pot. This same recipe said to mix one cup of water and one quarter cup of course salt and pour over to cover. HAH! We doubled it. HAH! HAH! Finally, Laur just put the pot under the tap and after, weighted the cabbage and salt water with plates to keep the cabbage from climbing over the top.

Since Recipe A wasn’t quite working with our plans, I looked up two more recipes. Recipe B suggested one gallon of water. Recipe C said to cover it. OK, Recipe C for this part!

All recipes said to let the cabbage sit for a while - from one to six hours. That meant until after supper.

Stage Three: Draining the cabbage and mixing the sauce.

This sounds far easier than it was. First of all, we had so much cabbage.

Secondly, each recipe had different ideas about what to do with the water – dump it?

Save it?

Now making the sauce. Three different recipes and we have no idea if we should be doubling, quadrupling or getting the heck out of Dodge.

We decided to do what we always do – make it up as we go along. We chopped up and mixed:
-One head of garlic (about 12 bulbs)
-Two inches of ginger
-8 green onions

No worries there – I could eat that in one sitting myself. But what to do with the fish-free oyster sauce? Options were two tablespoons to half a cup! I put in eight tablespoons. Wish I put in half a cup. What’s that? Eight tablespoons IS one-half cup? GREAT!

Now the big question. How much chili pepper, since we didn’t have Korean red pepper. The range for the red pepper was two tablespoons to half a cup. I put in two tablespoons – can always add more.

Stage Four: Putting it all together.

All the recipes recommend hand mixing but wearing gloves so you don’t burn your hands. Really!? I burnt my mouth tasting it, but worry about my hands? Ah, safety first. I opted for a very large spoon and spatula.

Then - to add water, or not. Two of the three said not to; the original recipe said to add one cup – but that was for one batch and we had the equivalent of four. I added two.

Next we put on the lid, weighted it down with plates, and put it in our storage room to wait the magical two or three days, or until the fire trucks show up.

I am not a pessimist, but I did put a call into Kim-Chi Canada which is located in Newmarket. Apparently they make amazing kim-chi and I am asking my son and his girlfriend, Julie, to pick up a barrel when they return from visiting family and friends in Southern Ontario. Besides, Julie is Korean and knows what good kim-chi tastes like and I don’t want her to feel obligated to eat whatever we are growing in the basement.

I’ll let you know how this turns out. Watch for my next recipe, or series of… 101 things to do with the second nappa cabbage, currently abandoned on your counter.

- Jan "Kim-Chi" Steven

Jan Carrie Steven is a volunteer with Cat Adoption Trust Sudbury (CATS) and the co-ordinator of Small Things: Cats & Books. For more information, go to www.smallthings.ca.