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Fermented Musings

• get a glass or ceramic jar-mine was a big fancy one with a lid that I bought at Linens and things years ago...totally unnecessary but fun to use.  BTW make sure that any jars or utensils you use for fermenting of any thing are clean and have no antimicrobial soap residue left on them.  The reason is if they aren't clean you will be introducing some bacterias or yeasts that may putrefy your kraut instead of fermenting it and if you have antimicrobial soap residue left on your utensils, pots or jars then you may kill the beneficial micro-organisms and there by leave your cabbage open to ravages of unfriendly bacteria and yeasts that float around in the air.  Either of these will leave you with a nasty mess that will not be palatable to ANYONE.
  
• I put in my bruised cabbage w/ it's own liquids and press the cabbage down.  If you do not have enough liquid that it will rise above your cabbage then you can add a brine solution or left over kraut juice...this has to be the real stuff folks.  Not that vinegar-ish type you get at the grocery stores.   To make your own brine if you do not have left over fermented juice to add  then mix 1 1/2 tablespoons salt to 4 cups water and pour over  until it covers your cabbage a little. 
  
• The brine is what keeps your cabbage from turning nasty so you want to keep your cabbage under the brine...but some of it is going to want to float up.  To solve this problem some people have special weights and plates.  I never could find a weight to use and the plate never worked for me.   I finally found a solution that did work though, sadly I can't remember who shared this with me so that I can give them credit.  What I did and I don't know if you can tell or not in the pic above but I took a never used before ziploc gallon bag and I opened it up and placed it on top of the smashed down cabbage.  Then I slowly poured water from a jug into it so that it would hold down the cabbage.  BE SURE TO CLOSE THE BAG WELL!!!
  If any little pieces try to slip around the edges you can use a clean finger or spoon and poke them back down.
• Then I laid a freshly cleaned tea towel over the top to keep out dust and put the lid on top of it to keep the towel from slipping off. 
  
• I left this out for 3 days at room temperature and then transferred it to two used big glass pickle jars I picked up from my Aunt's local sandwich shop.  I LOVE those jars.   I then put those jars in the fridge where they have kept very well and we are still eating on the last one.
• If you want to learn more visit this link... This is Sandor Kraut's website.  I have his book Wild Fermentation.  He is a fabulous soul and I truly appreciated his book on many levels. 

• I start out by cleaning and chopping the Chinese cabbage and bok choy into squares.  Then mix 10 cups of water with 1 cup of salt and soak the cabbages in it for a few hours.  I went a head and sliced up my turnips and added them to this to soak.
  
• When the five hours is up rinse them well in the sink.
• Then I chopped up the apples, pears, garlic (I used home fermented garlic and it was a real jump start to the fermenting process) and bell peppers. 
  
• Blend the apples, pears, garlic and bell peppers.  Add in red pepper flakes.   You'll probably also need a little liquid to help all of this blend.  Since I was adding my fermented garlic I also added it's juice but you could add some fish/anchovy sauce or a little brine- to make a brine 1 1/2 tablespoons salt to 4 cups water and then add the amount you need of this solution to keep the blender going until makes a nice smooth paste.
  
• I then mixed the sauce from the blender with the cabbage and turnips in a big glass bowl.  If you would rather use your hands to do this and the next step that's fine but if you are using the red pepper flakes you want to make sure you are using some clean latex or kitchen type gloves or you're hands will be ON FIRE for hours later...ask me how I know.
  
• After I thoroughly mixed this together I then stuffed it all into a large used glass pickle jar.  The sauce went well above the veggies and unlike the kraut I did not have any problems with the cabbage trying to float above the juice since it is so much thicker.
• Put the lid on loosely.  Let sit out at room temperature for 2-3 days and then transfer to the refrigerator. 
  
• I pulled this all together from many kimchi recipes I read and also a good video I watched on youtube.
  Here's a link to the video if you are interested.  

StOOpid!

You say Pean'uh Budder I say PB

Life

• I need to clean up around here and do some laundry (Mt. Washme is trying to take over my laundry room)
• declutter...  lots of decluttering to do
  
• I'm not supper worried about packing since the house isn't livable yet and it's only 17 minutes away.  The decluttering  is the most essential thing to me right now.
  

EDIT: Look, up in the sky!