While I was poking around online about a month ago I came across a technique that you can use to pickle (Lacto-Ferment) whole cabbages... several at a time, if you have a huge enough container.  Well... it's a long and tedious process and involves skimming and smelling fermenting cabbage (sulfur) in your house for weeks on end.  Uhh... no thanks.   But, my curiosity was piqued because I really REALLY wanted to try fermented whole leaves to make a variation of my classic Galumpki recipe that I shared on here a little while back. 

So, why not try rolled-up whole leaves in my usual mason jars???  That's exactly what I did and I'm never looking back to the full-head option again!

Pack the little cigars tightly into a quart-sized jar along with the horseradish matchsticks and caraway seeds. 

I've been meaning to try out this project for a while now, but every time I go to the store there's 1 or more ingredients that I can't find in order to make a *truly* traditional Korean Kimchi.  So I thought, why not do it anyway?  With ingredients that are readily available to most anyone in the United States?

I'm glad I tried this out because it's a really fun and dynamic ferment with a lot of bubble action to keep everyone entertained!


Cut the cabbage in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 2-inch pieces, discarding the core end. Place in a large bowl, sprinkle with the salt, and toss with your hands until the cabbage is coated. Add enough cold water to just cover,  making sure the cabbage is  completely submerged  Cover/weigh down with a plate and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours.



 Place a colander in the sink and drain the cabbage retaining about 1/4 cup of brine in a seperate small bowl.  Gently squeeze out the excess liquid and transfer to a medium bowl; set aside.

Assemble your radishes, scallions, pepper mix, ginger, garlic, and sugar in a bowl.

"The Fermentation Station" from left to right:  Kimchi, Apple Scrap Vinegar, and Sauerkraut

The outdoor farmstand down the street closed up shop this weekend.  What popped into the grocery store was local cabbage and the first pomegranates of the season.  Cabbage... hmm.   Not the most show-stopping vegetable in the world. But it's widely available, inexpensive, super fresh, and loaded with great stuff like vitamin A, B, C, E, calcium, magnesium, iodine, iron, and phosphorus.   Ok.  I'll bite.

I brought home 2 different kinds of cabbage.  (American) standard green cabbage and Nappa cabbage.  I'm currently in the process of fermenting a batch of kimchi with the Nappa cabbage, and I made a (BIG) batch of Nasi Goreg out of the Standard cabbage.  I also have 2 quarts of Traditional Sauerkraut fermenting away right now that will be ready right around Thanksgiving time.

My recipe for Nasi Goreg comes to me, oddly enough, from my German grandmother.   As the story goes, after WWII my grandma met my grandpa and moved to the Netherlands.  Then Grandpa was drafted into the Dutch marines and was sent to Indonesia.  This was one of the recipes he brought back with him!  My version has a decidedly European flare but to me that's what makes it so wonderful and accessible. There's no need to go to a specialty store for the ingredients.

I took the plunge and made a batch of Sauerkraut.  This was an intimidating project for me to take on because of some of the preconceived notions I had about traditionally fermented kraut.  1)  that it would need a special crock that I didn't own and didn't have any practice using 2) that it would inevitably get moldy and gross like so many people complain about and 3) that I'd be too grossed out to eat it after the 6 week process was complete with all that skimming and the different "phases" of fermentation which can sometimes be more than a little off-putting.

I had read about how people make these huge 20 lb batches of kraut and *mostly* seal them and put them in a hole in the ground to ferment for weeks and about how Michael Pollan had a really hard time with mold infestation in his first (and only) 10lb batch.

Then cabbage came into season.  And it was staring at me at the store. It was only $.69 a lb... and a  relatively small one somehow made it into my cart and then into my refrigerator.  And there it stood... staring at me... taking up a TON of room right there on the top shelf.

And so I gathered my tools, and my ingredients.

First, core and chop up the cabbage, leaving the outer leaves intact.

This was about 1.5 lbs of cabbage once it was chopped/cored

Then combine all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and get out a wooden rolling pin to crush the cabbage/start the process of brine creation.  The salt pulls the water out of the cabbage, so if you have a really fresh cabbage there's no need for added brine!

Stuff the shredded cabbage mixture into a quart jar, using the end of the rolling pin to really crush it down in there between handfuls.  Then use the intact outer leaves to seal off any small pieces from the top of the brine. The key is that you DO NOT want any of the cabbage poking up above the brine or it WILL MOLD.


Allow the jar to sit at room temperature for 24 hours.  By the end of that time, enough brine should have formed to completely cover the top cabbage leaf.

In my case, I had let the cabbage sit in the refrigerator for the couple days  before starting my project. After 24 hours, my brine was about 3/4 of the way up the cabbage in the jar.  I created some extra brine at a ratio of 1 tbsp seasalt to 1 quart of water and I topped the jar off.

See?  Nothing above the water line.  I then decided to be extra careful and fit some wooden skewers across the top of the cabbage leaf (also completely submerged) to make sure that the bubbles coming up during fermentation don't push anything up above the waterline.  This added precaution should completely eliminate the need to skim or otherwise mess with the ferment altogether.

Today is day 3 of my sauerkraut ferment and it is starting to actively bubble.  I've had to "burp" the jar 3 times to decrease the pressure build up under the lid. I'm expecting another 2-3 days of this rapid bubbling variety of fermentation, and the rest of the process will take about 5 additional weeks (tasting at 3 and 4 weeks to check for desired flavor/consistency. I'm really excited to see how it turns out and have a good feeling about this batch. I'm really happy that I decided to employ my tried-and-true fermentation method of using small batches of vegetables in mason jars. This was a very fun and satisfying project.

Enjoy!

I knew when I posted about making Zucchini Salsa there would be a "what could that possibly be used for" reaction.  Well, just thought I'd share some of the things we've enjoyed the salsa with/in.  It's got a lovely smokey, tangy, mildly spicy flavor and a GORGEOUS texture that you don't get from stuff that's been on the shelf in the grocery store for who-knows-how-long.

I have been gladly substituting my homemade salsa in any recipe that I'd usually purchase store-bought for and it hasn't let me down yet!



Perhaps the biggest hit so far was to use it to dip these super-easy kid-pleasing quesadillas.  It's just store-bought flour tortillas, smashed black beans, pepper and onion, and Daiya cheddar cheese. 


Next we tried putting it in a recipe for blackeyed pea salad.  It rounded it out SO nicely and gave it a delicious depth (and some added veggies).

Galumpki are something that my grandma used to make for us regularly while we were growing up.  They were one of my favorite things ever, but I failed to get the recipe from grandma before she passed away 10 years ago. I just couldn't bring myself to make them, b/c I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the sauce was that she put over the top of them.
Then, the other day, I decided that I just needed to go for it.  So I did... and I hit it spot on.