Summer Kimchi

Photo: flickr user avlxyz

Ingredients

6 cups water

ounce Korean salted shrimp

brown onion chopped

1 piece ginger root - (½" long) chopped

cup hot Korean ground red pepper

teaspoon superfine sugar

small daikon

1 head nappa cabbage

1 Asian pear

1 bn green onions

bn Asian watercress (minari)

Preparation

Bring water to boil. Add shrimp, onion and ginger and boil 35 minutes. Strain liquid through cheesecloth or coffee filter into bowl and squeeze shrimp to extract juices. Discard solids.

Place ground red pepper in piece of cheesecloth or coffee filter and tie with string to form small pouch. Add pouch to hot shrimp liquid and steep 30 minutes, until liquid is lightly colored by pepper. Squeeze pouch well into liquid, then discard. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Set liquid aside to cool.

Cut daikon in half lengthwise, then cut crosswise into thin slices. Cut cabbage head in half lengthwise. Discard outer leaves. Cut inner leaves into 2-inch pieces. Core pear and thinly slice. Slice onions into 2-inch sections. Remove thick stems from watercress and coarsely chop.

Combine daikon, pear, onions, watercress and cabbage in large mixing bowl and toss to mix. Divide vegetable mixture between 2 (1-quart) Mason jars. Jars will be about 3/4 full. Fill with cooled shrimp liquid to cover vegetables and seal. Keep in cool area 36 to 48 hours. Do not refrigerate.

Taste at end of fermentation time. Kimchi should have slightly sour flavor. If not, reseal and ferment longer.

Note: The cooler the temperature, the longer it will take to ferment. During the summer months, 36 hours should suffice.

This recipe yields 2 quarts.

Yield: 2 quarts