Day 6

There are a lot of bubbles in the jar when I push the cabbage down into the brine.  It smells like kimchi which is a good sign.  I think 6 days fementing is good so I am moving the jar into the fridge.

Day 4

I have had to push down the cabbage the last few days so that it stays below the brine.  When I do push it down it is starting to get little bubbles that from what I read are supposed to be there.  It smells delicious and I cant wait to try it.

Day 2

I had to add a little water to the jar because there didn't seem to be any brine which is something the recipe did call for.  There doesn't seem to be much change from the day before.  It smells like kimchi which is a good sign. 

Day 1

      My first step was to cut up the cabbage.  I cut it into strips about 2 inches long.  I then put the cabbage into a bowl and poured a generous amount of Himalayan pink salt on it, about a 1/4 cup.  I then massaged the salt into the cabbage for a couple of minutes until the cabbage started to soften.  I then put water into the bowl to cover the cabbage, put a plate over the bowl and used a soup can to hold down the bowl.  I left the cabbage like this for 2 hours. 
      After 2 hours I rinsed the cabbage in a strainer several times to make sure all the extra salt was off.  I set the rinsed cabbage aside and let it sit.  I then in a separate bowl combined minced garlic, grated ginger sugar and water in a separate bowl.  Once a paste was formed I added the 3 1/2 Tablespoons of gochugaru which is a Korean spice to the paste.  I did not use all spice that the recipe called for because while I like some spice in my food I didn't want to burn my mouth off;) 
    I then squeezed the remaining water out of the cabbage and added some scallions and daikon to it along with the seasoning paste.  I used my hands and mixed everything together thoroughly.  I then took everything and put it in a large canning jar.  I place the jar on a plate on the counter and waited.....

         For my fermentation project I will be making kimchi.  I chose kimchi because it is one of my favorite foods and I have never made my own. For my project I will need :

1) 1 (2 pound) head napa cabbage
2) 1/4 cup sea salt
3)Water
4) 1 TBSP grated fresh garlic
5)  1 tsp grated fresh ginger
6)  1 tsp sugar
7) 1-5 TBSP Korean red pepper flakes (gochugaro)
8) 8 oz Korean radish or daikon, peeled and cut into matchsticks
9) 4 scallions, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces

        All of the other materials I have, such as a large glass canning jar and various basic kitchen supplies.  As I read farther in the recipe it said that the ingredients have to be fermented at room temperature, which will be interesting because of the temperature fluctuation in my house.  My house is very cold during the day and with the woodstove gets very warm at night.  It will be interesting to see if the temperature fluctuation has an effect on the fermentation process.