If you were hanging around here last weekend, then you may know that I harvested a lot of Napa cabbage, for what has become my yearly kimchi making session.

As excited as I was about making my season 2011 kimchi, I must tell you that I debated on writing this post. This, because it’s not like we haven’t talked about it before, made it with of-the-moment ingredients, or put it in steamed buns even.

And yes this year I’ve added a few new ingredients (we’ll get to that) but then I thought, why not discuss the basic elements of kimchi-making so you can feel confident to experiment on your own?

Sound good?

The basic ingredients for a vegetarian cabbage based kimchi are:

• Curly cabbage – two of the most common varieties are Napa and savoy.

• Root vegetable – daikan is the most traditional, but other types of radish, carrots, turnips, jicama, or the honorary root, kohlrabi, are great variations that afford the same crunch and additional flavor.

• Aromatics – garlic, ginger, scallion, and a semi-hot dried chili pepper. Korean pepper is the most common of course, but I have found aleppo pepper to be a perfect substitute and since it’s ubiquitous in my kitchen that is what I use. If either are hard to find for you, mix Hungarian (sweet) paprika equally with cayenne and you’ll approximate the level of heat. Sugar is also added along with the aromatics.

• Brine – water and sea salt.

Kimchi-making does not have to be exact. It’s best to taste as you go. Here are the approximate ratios that I have found work best for me.

• 1 part root vegetable(s) for every 5 parts cabbage

• For every 5 pounds of cabbage & roots, I add the following:

1 bunch scallions – white and green parts
2 tablespoons dried chile pepper
2 large cloves garlic
1 & 1/2 tablespoons grated ginger
1 & 1/2 teaspoons sugar

• 1/4 cup sea salt per quart of water for brine. (I use course sea salt, if yours is fine, it should be a scant 1/4 cup). Note on water: chlorinated water can inhibit fermentation. It’s best to use spring or distilled water. Approximately 3 quarts of brine are needed for every 5 pounds of cabbage & roots.

Your special equipment doesn’t really need to be that special:

• For every 5 pounds of cabbage & roots you will need a 1 gallon vessel (or 2 half gallons/4 quarts) for the fermentation process. I mostly use these 5 or 10 liter fermentation pots. Also convenient to use and priced right are gallon or 1/2 gallon jars.

• You’ll also need a few large bowls or containers to soak the vegetables overnight.

Sometimes there’s a lot of hoopla around kimchi-making and fermentation in general. I don’t think it’s at all hard or mysterious. This is the basic technique:

• Clean and core cabbage, chop into approximately 1 to 1 & 1/2 inch pieces. Clean roots and slice very thin. I like to use a mandolin for this.

• Make brine by combining salt and water. I make it in 1/2 gallon jars, shaking the jar until the salt dissolves.

• Soak the cabbage & roots overnight in brine (I usually need to use every big bowl in the house for this). fill the containers with cabbage & roots and press down. Add some brine, cover with a plate and press down some more. Add more brine as needed to submerge completely. Keep plate on top overnight and let the whole lot sit out at room temperature. After 8-12 hours drain the cabbage & roots, reserving most of the brine.

• Chop up all of the aromatics and add sugar, mix together. combine this mixture with the drained cabbage and roots. If you are doing a large batch it is better to break it up into a few bowls to evenly combine.

• Fill your fermentation vessel/s with the mixture. Do not pack it too high or too tight. 3/4 full is perfect. Add some of the leftover brine to cover completely. You will not need all of the brine.

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• If you are using a crock with weights, place the weights on top of the mixture to submerge. If you are using glass jars, just cap the lid. Here’s the caveat with that though: as long as you check the kimchi once a day and push the vegetables back in the brine, or better yet give it a little stir, it will be good. If you cannot remember to do this daily then you better weight it down to keep everything submerged. I use the crocks now, with the weights, but pieces of cabbage always float to the top, so when making kimchi I give it a stir once a day and push the floaters back in. Whenever small batching in a jar, I use a wooden spoon to stir once daily and forgo the plastic bag.

• Ideally the fermentation vessel will be in a moderately warm environment, low 70’s are perfect. at that temperature it will take approximately 3-6 days to complete fermentation. I just made my 2011 batch in this 90+ heatwave we are having here in the northeast. All was fine, and to my surprise it took a full 6 days to reach full fermentation. Normally the hotter the temp, the faster the ferment.

• Taste! don’t be afraid to taste everyday! 2 or 3 days into it you will notice the bite of raw vegetable has dissipated. A day or two after, when you open the lid, you’ll smell the sweetest, most delicious smell. Then you’ll know your nearing the end of the fermentation process. It’s really up to you and your taste buds to decide on when it is ‘done’. Note: if something has gone wrong there is usually no question, your nose will know. It will smell bad. But this has never happened to me, and if you make sure your utensils, vessels and hands are clean it shouldn’t happen to you either.

• Transfer to storage jars and store in the fridge for up to a year or even more. Technically speaking the fermentation process is still happening only at a much slower rate due to the lower temperature in your refrigerator. I keep my fridge at 38 degrees and I do not notice a change in my kimchi even after many months of storage.
  

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Water bath canning kimchi? I would never do it because those healthy little probiotic beasties inside a jar of kimchi are much better for us when they are alive. Plus, the acidity is not high enough to safely hot water bath can, as in the case of sauerkraut which is fermented for a longer period.

Every time I make kimchi it varies a bit. I use what I grow or what my neighboring farmers grow, that’s the fun of it! a little something different every time, but always delicious. Here’s the ingredient list for my 2011 batch:

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Kimchi with Kohlrabi and Garlic Scapes

13 pounds Napa cabbage
5 kohlrabi – about 2 & 1/2 pounds (if you are following along, make sure you peel them)
3 bunches scallions – about 20
10 very large garlic scapes (heads only)
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons Aleppo pepper
1/2 cup minced ginger
2 & 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 gallons of brine

…see, BIG, bursting at the seams, garlic scape heads!

For the past two weeks I can’t say I haven’t thought about you. I have been eating a lot. Turkey, hell, probably the entire eastern Mediterranean knows how to eat. Fresh and local, seasonal, it’s in their bones. There is nothing new-fangled or trendy about it. It’s a way of eating that is so embedded in their culture, I imagine that had I been traveling through a couple hundred years ago, or more, I would have been eating much the same as I did last week.

And so what better way to come back to you from one of the most culturally rich areas in the world than with a little delicious culture of our own?

Yogurt! It’s ubiquitous in Turkey and in fact all over that side of the Med, and it’s definitely almost always included in some way as part of a meze. Yes it was – and still is – a way of preserving milk. Perhaps more important to us now, is that we can enjoy fresh yogurt made easily and just the way we like it because it is is the simplest thing in the world to make, and with a little experimentation you can produce exactly the kind of yogurt you like – on a regular basis. Trust me -it’s as easy as 1-2-3 (ok and 4).

Homemade Yogurt

You will need- Half gallon milk, pasteurized, cream on top, or raw, not ultra pasteurized and preferably organic 4 tablespoons plain yogurt, preferably organic and most definitely with no fillers, thickeners, additives, etc., just live cultures one large thermos (or 2 small)

1. Place milk in a stainless steel pan and bring to an almost boil on medium high heat. If you have a thermometer handy stick it on the side of the pot and let the milk get to 180-185. If not you’ll know it’s ready when you see small bubbles on the sides.

Like this:

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Let it hang out here for a few seconds. The longer you stay at this point, the thicker the yogurt. You can even keep it here for a few minutes. I like mine thinner so I pretty much turn the heat off when it hits this point.

2. Let the milk cool in the pan until warm, which means warmer than lukewarm but definitely no heat left in it. If you’re using a thermometer, let it cool to somewhere between 100 and 110 degrees. While waiting for the milk to cool, drop the tablespoons of yogurt in the thermos, or if you are using two, split it in half. You do not have to be exact here.

3. When the milk has cooled to between 100 to 110, pour a little in the thermos over the tablespoons of yogurt and mix or whisk. Pour the rest in and mix or whisk. Cover tightly.

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4. Here’s the trick; it has to stay warm for 6-8 hours. That’s why a thermos is ideal, but you can use any way you’d like to keep it warm. I use this ingenious and electric free yogurt maker. (But when I started I used two coffee ‘travel mugs’ and did it by cutting the recipe in half). After 6 or so hours check to see if it has ‘set’ or thickened. Occasionally it could take a bit longer than 8 but most times by 8 hours it’s done. If you like your yogurt on the sour side (I do!) you can let it sit out at room temperature a little while longer before putting in fridge; otherwise put directly into fridge.

That’s it!

Now what better way to celebrate summer? Fresh custom-made yogurt to serve with summer fresh fruits and berries, to have on hand to mix in garlic and fresh summer cukes, and some dill or mint from your kitchen garden or the farmers market?

And trust me, once you realize how ridiculously fast and easy this is you will be making it weekly – all year. So when it is time to indulge in all those wonderful jams or lemon pickles that we’ve been making all summer you will have just the thing to go with it!

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And lastly, you know that strained yogurt that is all the rage now? That’s right, been in Turkey for years. I know, I know, Greeks get all the credit, and who am I to argue? But take your homemade yogurt and put some in a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl and place in fridge for a couple of hours. There you have it! Keep it in there a couple hours more and it’s yogurt cheese. I do this so often I use this handy little gadget.

And the liquid that acquires in the bowl when making strained yogurt or yogurt cheese is called whey and you will see later on that whey can be used in place of salt when making fermented pickles. -more on that later. There’s just too much to talk about! so for now, I leave you to digest this. (I had to!)

Oh and one last thing: for consecutive batches just use tablespoons of your homemade yogurt to make more. My absolute all time favorite yogurt is made using this culture.  Use the packet instead of the tablespoons of yogurt for that first round and then carry on from there.

Johnny Appleseed is my homey. Well, at least he would have been if I had lived in the 1700’s. He was born in Massachusetts – and traveled all around these parts. And yes, he was the stuff legends are made of, but he was a real live person. He planted apple trees everywhere around the northeast and on through to the Midwest. It’s true!

Trees like this:

I love this tree.

Even though it’s a bit old, it was here long before I got here (maybe J. Apple really did plant it!).

This ‘ole tree bares a lot of apples! Way more than we could eat out of hand or even out of jelly or jam. Way more fruit than the three little gooseberries-that-try bushes I have.

So what the hell am I doing using up all my gooseberries for a pectin boost? It’s July peeps! It’s apple pectin making month! …And green apples are everywhere!

Thanks to Johnny!

The strawberries went in the third week of June. They are a very strange color and I was a bit worried. But I don’t detect any odd smell so I’m staying with it. The raspberries were put in a few days ago.

I’ve learned a few more things so far:

1. It’s best to weigh the fruit down. You can use a plate if you have one that fits. I used the weights that came with the crock and I think they are a bit heavy for soft fruit like berries.

2. It’s pretty hard to wing it & try to cover the fruit with sugar by sprinkling it over as I had originally planned. And the shape of this crock makes that action particularly hard to do. So I am going to add sugar at 1/2 the weight of the fruit. I’ve also read that to avoid sugar granules in your final product it is best to let the fruit sit for one hour in sugar and macerate. I’ll add sugar to fruit in a bowl, let it sit for an hour and then add to crock moving forward.

3. I went with kirsch, which is traditional for summer fruits. But any spirit will do as long as it is 80 proof, or 40% by volume.

Up here in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, these babies are in full bloom right now.

But you could do spring onions if that’s what’s sprouting in your hood. My neighbor brought over this lovely jar of homemade maple syrup. He doesn’t like to boil it down as much as the store-bought stuff. I call it maple honey.

If you don’t have a neighboring farmer making maple syrup or honey, I’m sure you have some neighboring bees making flower honey.

And this is the fun part. Herbs! What herbs are you or your local farmer growing now?

My lovage is forever the first to come soaring out of the ground each spring. Its taste is that of robust Italian parsley with a few ornery celery leaves strewn in. You could always use that mix to replicate this lovely herb. (But make sure those celery leaves are really ornery, like they should be shouting at you).

These pickles, my friends, are positively exploding with the taste of spring! Your turn – gather up a local edible allium, herb and sweetener and we’re in business!

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This past few months we’ve talked about the trend of canning, witnessed the beginning of the canvolution and a rise in bloggers who, like me, can’t resist the urge to share about pickling, jamming, mason jars and the like. From fellow preservationists’ blogs devoted mainly to the craft, like food in jars, well preserved, and put up or shut up! to other crafty cats that count canning high on their list of homesteading and/or cooking skills, like small measure, gluten free girl & the chef, etc., etc.!

What can I say?

I like this! IMO canning is catching on because even though it harks back to old food ways, it is so right now-

Local – I think many of us became interested in canning as an outgrowth of the locavore movement. Preserving fresh produce grown in your area is the logical progression. And when you grow your own, and a glut is on, it can become a necessity!

Organic – In an effort to control what we eat, be it produce, sweeteners, flavors, etc., when we make it ourselves we know what went into it, and we know how we like it. It’s having a real choice about what we consume.

In season – Canning produce in season in a way, keeps it in season all year. Ergo a much tastier interpretation of eating seasonally than abstaining altogether but once a year!

Hot water bath canning can contain anything that can safely be preserved by the hot water bath method. So I’m talkin’ about sweet or pickled preserves.