Functional Food - Part Two - Fermented Food

Okay so next up in the Functional Food journey is Fermented Food.

The first thing I decided to try is Kimchi.  For this one I caved and bought the Fermenting pot that Mad Millie sells.  This is not a necessary accessory and there are plenty of sites providing alternatives but I figured I try doing this with the Mad Millie Fermenting Pot.

I also used the recipe provided for Kimchi that came with the pot as I figured it had been tried and tested and... well... I figured I couldn't get it too wrong!

The top picture is that of a Napa Cabbage which the recipe called for two.  There is a lot of waiting time with the cabbage part as it first needs a 15min salt massage then needs to soak for 1-2 hours.  All the recipes I read called for Korean Red Chilli Powder which turns out is a little difficult to find online in Auckland.  I finally found a place which had some and of course the smallest amount I could buy was 500gm...  Yep 500gm is A LOT of red chilli powder but as most recipes call for at least 4 tablespoons I figured it would be ok.  Yes this is on the assumption that I am going to actually like Kimchi!  Here is the funniest part, when I was in Korea in '88 I refused to touch the stuff.  To be fair I was fairly young and wasn't quite ready to expand my taste palette but it's never too late to give something a go. 

When mixing the red chilli to the ginger, garlic, sugar and fish sauce you end up with a thick spicy paste which smells quite tasty but no I was not going to try it as I would be way to strong n spicy to taste it at this stage!

I added soaked and then rinsed cabbage to the spring onions and radish then using gloves I mixed through the chilli paste and once mixed I added to the Fermenting pot then packed it down and added the weights to keep the veges down.

Now its a matter of waiting for three days until the first tasting then it'll be a bit longer until it's ready.  A lot of functional food is waiting and tasting until things reach the taste profile you enjoy.  This is something that really draws me in as making foods to how you like them lets you explore and stretch your own taste palette instead of relying on what can be commercially made.  Now there is nothing wrong with buying ready made as it saves plenty of time however there is something really nice about making something from scratch.

The next thing I want to try making after Kimchi is Sauerkraut but for now I am just going to patiently wait for my Kimchi and maybe move on to part 3.