Making Kimchi

This recipe for Baechu (Cabbage) Kimchi is adapted from Wild Fermentation. Check out that book, if you haven't already! Baechu Kimchi is a basic kimchi.
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Timeframe: 1 week
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Special equipment:
*Optional* Food processor (such as cuisinart / magic bullet / blender)
- 1 quart-sized glass jar
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Ingredients for 1 quart / 1 liter:
- Sea salt
- 1 pound Chinese cabbage (bok choi or napa)
- 1 daikon radish or a few red radishes 
- 1 to 2 carrots
- 1 to 2 onions and/or leeks and/or a few scallions and/or shallots
- 3 to 4 cloves garlic (or more)
- 3 to 4 hot peppers or a 1.5 tablespoons dried hot pepper flakes (without chemical preservatives)
- 3 tablespoons (or more) fresh grated ginger root
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Process:
1. Mix a brine of about 4 cups (1 liter) of water and 4 tablespoons of sea salt. Stir well to thoroughly dissolve salt. The brine should taste good and salty!
2. Coarsely chop the cabbage, slice the radish and carrots, and let the vegetables soak in the brine, covered by a plate or other eight to keep the vegetables submerged, until soft, a few hours or overnight.

Veggies in brine.

I used a ceramic plate to keep them submerged overnight.

3. Prepare the spices: grate the ginger; chop the garlic and onion; remove seeds from chilies and chop or crush. 
4. Mix the spices into a paste. For this step, I used a small cuisinart machine.

5. Drain the brine off the vegetables, reserving the brine in another bowl. Taste vegetables for saltiness. They should be decidedly salty, but not unpleasantly so. If they are too salty, rinse them. If you cannot taste the salt, sprinkle with a couple teaspoons salt.
6. Mix the vegetables with the spice paste. 

7. Stuff the mixture into a clean quart size (liter) jar. Pack it tightly into the jar, pressing down until brine rises. If necessary, add a little of the reserved vegetable-soaking brine to submerge the kimchi. Cover the jar with lid.

Voila!

8. Check on the kimchi once a day, using your (clean!) fingers to push the vegetables back under the brine. 
9. Ferment in your kitchen or other warm place. Taste a bit of the kimchi every day. After about a week of fermentation, when it tastes ripe, move it to the refrigerator. 

Kimchi love.

Eggs with homemade kimchi for breakfast!