Kimchi

I have been wanting to make my own kimchi for years. Our recent

fermentation class pushed me to actually look up a recipe and gather

the ingredients. I made a dumbed down version using just carrots,

cabbage, salt and two types of whey. Now I am ready to move forward

and try adding a few more ingredients such as ginger, garlic, and

chili flakes to give the kimchi a little flavor. There are two

important things I learned on my first batch.

 

1. There are different types of whey. The whey that is a bi-product of

our cheese making is essentially dead. The enzymes and bacteria have

been killed off due to the high temperatures. I can use my whey

leftover from the cheese stuff, but I need to also introduce a small

amount of cultured whey which I have obtained from a kefir culture.

 

2. Vacuum sealing the mason jars worked well for my first batch. I had

a raging boil of activity and no air exposure which can cause

dangerous purification for vegetables not completely submerged in the

whey.

 

I ate the first batch with jasmine rice and it was deliciously

flavorful despite the minimal ingredients.

Done