Asian pickled veggies

[landarc]

Quick KimChee
And by quick, I am omitting the weeks buried in a crock in the ground here.

1 medium head cabbage ( I prefer nappa, or Chinese cabbage here)
1/2 cup salt
4 cups water
lots of red pepper flakes (1 tsp to start)
1 clove very finely minced garlic (can add more)
1/2 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp chopped green onion whites
salt and sugar to taste

Shred cabbage and wash thoroughly. Dry (I use a salad spinner now). use 1/4 cup salt and rub into sliced cabbage. Using remaining 1/4 cup salt and water, soak cabbage for an hour. Drain and rinse thoroughly. Add and mix spices into cabbage. Now, you can place in a sealed jar, tightly packed, or, as we used to do, put it in a non-reactive bucket, place a piece or wood on top and weight it with a smooth clean river stone. Shove it into fridge to age (ripen) for 2 to 3 days.

[landarc]

Kim Chee 2
2/3 pound Napa Cabbage (1/2 a large head)
1/2 pound Daikon radish *
1 large Cucumber *
1 medium Turnip *
1/2 cup salt
3 Spring onions (chopped)
12 Garlic cloves (minced)
4 teaspoons Fresh ginger (grated)
1 tablespoon Dried chili flakes
2 teaspoons Soy sauce/tamarind sauce
1 cup Water
4 or 5 Thai hot peppers
* Peel daikon, cucumber and turnip, and slice 1/4" thick.

Layer whole cabbage leaves, sliced daikon, cucumber and turnip in a
large bowl. Between layers, liberally sprinkle with 1/2 cup salt. Cover
with water and place a wide plate or pot on top to submerge them. Leave
overnight or at least 12 hours. Drain & Rinse vegetables in a colander.
Julienne each vegetable into a uniform shape. return them to the large
bowl, and add spring onions, garlic, ginger, chili flakes, soy/tamari,
salt and 1 cup water. Toss to combine.

Spoon the vegetables with liquid into a large crock or clean jars.
Cover tightly or cap. Refridgerate for 3 days before opening. Everyday,
turn jars upside down a couple of times to distribute spices, or stir
vegetables in the crock. Store in refridgerator.

[landarc]

Pickled Ginger
Ingredients:
2 lb fresh young ginger
3 cups rice vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 tsps salt

Preparation:
Wash young ginger root and rub off skin. We tend to peel the ginger.

Slice the ginger thinly and salt them. One could use a mandolin, but, a knife works fine.

Leave salted ginger slices in a bowl for one hour. We massage the ginger with kosher salt them let sit. Rinse well with cold water.

Dry the ginger slices with paper towels and put them in a sterilized container/jar.

Mix rice vinegar and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil. You want all the sugar to dissolve. Fine sugar makes this easier. My sister uses less sugar by half, as she does not like the sweetness.

Pour the hot mixture of vinegar and sugar over the ginger slices. Now, this is a quick pickle, but, some folks go ahead and can it.

Cool them.

Pickled ginger changes its color to light pink. over the jar and store it in the refrigerator. We add a small shiso leaf, just in case the ginger was not fresh.

[landarc]

Quick Takuan
2 lbs daikon
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1 cup water
1/4 cup salt
yellow food coloring

wash and peel daikon, slice into thin rounds, or half rounds. Combine all remaining ingredients in a small stainless steel pan. Bring just to room temp. to boil and allow to cool. Add food coloring to desired color. Place daikon in jar, cover and let sit for 48 hours or so. Note, this is a refrigerator pickle and will not hold for a long time, and it makes three cups, so you should really like takuan. Also, it tastes similar to real takuan, not exactly like it though.

[landarc]

Real Takuan
2 lbs daikon, whole
3 cups water
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup salt
1 cup vinegar

The daikon should be air dried for 2 to 3 days until limp. This can be sped up by cutting into sections, or splitting. Boil water, add vinegar and sugar. Bring to boil until sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool to room temperature. Add salt. Simmer again until salt dissolves.

You should have, by now, packed 3 quart jars full of wilted daikon, optionally adding a couple of red peppers to each jar. You also should've prepped some lids and rings.

Pour hot brine over daikon in jars, seal them up and let em sit. The pickles will be ready when they turn yellow.

Now, obviously, these are not water bath processed, and contamination and fermentation can be real issues. Consequently, as a bit of a careless cleaner, I do not make these, although my family did, when Grandma was around. And the church ladies made it too.

[darthslater]

About time someone posted this stuff!! Awesome. I love Kimchee.

Darth

[landarc]

Spinach Gomae
2 lbs fresh spinach, whole with root crown
2 gallons boiling water
2 gallons ice water
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/8 cup mirin (sweet sake) or simple syrup
1/8 cup shoyu
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds, lightly toasted

Blanch spinach in boiling water until leaves go limp and stems turn bright green, this is no more than a minute or so. Remove and plunge into ice water. Remove once spinach is cold. Drain. For presentation purposes, we hold the roots together on one end, so that the spinach is oriented in one direction.

Mix liquid ingredients to form dressing, crush sesame seeds in mortar and pestle and add to dressing. Allow to sit.

Take spinach that has been draining, squeeze to remove water. Holding spinach by roots, dip into dressing until dressing is incorporated into spinach. Press lightly into log form and cut into 2" pieces. The roots are sweet and tasty if the spinach was very fresh.

[sorellina]

Yay! Thanks Bob!