Two weeks ago I made Sauerkraut and this week I happened to be near the Oriental store so I stopped in. Well, this giant Chinese Cabbage and Daikon Radish screamed out at me. I love pickled radish and of course, you know I love to make my own Kimchi. It was a busy day in the kitchen as Kimchi is a process that takes some time.
I forgot to take a photo of the radish and the cabbage before washing all the leaves. You can sort of tell by the inner leaves how big it was. It weighed over 5 lbs so pretty big and it was extremely clean which was a plus.
I prepared the spicey rice paste while the cabbage wilted from the sea salt. It takes about 2 hours for the thick pieces to finally be pliable before mixing in the sauce.
I peeled and chopped the radish into bite-sized pieces and made a salt brine to cover it. I added a little hot pepper flakes for a bit of spice. I like to add the pickled radishes to my salads once they have fermented. It is an easy way to get some probiotics daily.
Another ferment that is extremely good for us is "fermented garlic in honey". This is the second time I am making it and I eat a few cloves during the week with a 1/2 teaspoon of the honey. It is wonderful to have during the fall and winter seasons when many germs are going around.
You can see that the garlic is fermenting by the bubbles in the jar. I stir it every morning until the bubbles stop and then I know that the fermentation process is complete. I keep it on the counter and over time the honey gets stronger and darker and oh-so tasty too.
The jars I started on New Year's Day with the Vanilla beans are coming along nicely. The jars are very dark and they smell amazing. I can hardly wait to use some of the Vanilla extract in a recipe to see the comparison from a store brand.
Are there any ferments that you like to make for your family? I would love to see what others make to assist their gut biome with good probiotics.
Until next time, this is Sunscape
Sun. Scape. Ing Your Day
