"Impatient Kimuchi" Oratnek style
Adapted from Chef Kenny Takayama at Cafe Oratnek
- 1 large Chinese cabbage or wombok (also known as Napa cabbage)
- 3 large red chillies
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 5 clove garlic
- 300ml/10.6 fl ozs. fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons chilli sauce
- 100g/3.5ozs. brown sugar
- 25ml/1oz. oil
Step 1 - Slice cabbage into half and then into thirds or quarters. Blanch cabbage in simmering water in batches so that the water doesn't stop simmering. Place cabbage immediately into ice water to stop further cooking. Squeeze the cabbage leaves of excess water and then place on a draining rack on top of a tray. Cover and then place something heavy on top to press out excess water. Leave overnight.
Step 2 - Process the chillies, salt, garlic, fish sauce, chilli sauce, brown sugar and oil to form a paste. Squeeze the cabbage one last time and then cut into 3cm or just over an inch pieces then coat in the sauce in a large container (or two). Mix well and place on the benchtop for 6 hours to start the fermenting process. Then transfer the container and keep it in the fridge. Allow flavour to develop for 2-4 days. As time does on the flavour develops further but I found that even after a week or two it was still really delicious and not too sour. Always use clean cutlery when taking kimchi out of the container.
Notes:
Kenny says:
- squeeze more, last longer.
- last for 2 weeks in fridge.
- quantity of ingredients for marinade mix may very as personal preference.
Personal Note
When I worked in advertising we would keep a sneaky little list of buzzwords that were commonly used during meetings. These would include and were not limited to "Blue skying" "Low hanging fruit" "Agile Marketing" and "Non linear" because some people in the room didn't quite know what they meant they would really just nod in reply as if they understood. And you'd get sign-off based on the fact that nobody quite understood what you were talking about.
I came across another buzzword or catchphrase a few months ago. It was #healyourgut. What it means the act of rebalancing your stomach or gut with probiotics. One way is by eating fermented foods such as kefir, kimchi and sauerkraut. It was a buzzword I could get behind because I happen to love kimchi and kefir (and to a lesser extent sauerkraut). Even better still you only need a small amount of these foods every day to do it. And home made fermented foods are best because you want them to be raw to preserve the goodness - store bought can often be pasteurised which kills the good bacteria. Lactobacilli or good bacteria is great for a healthy digestive system.