FLOWER POT KITCHEN: KIMCHI NATURAL PROBIOTIC HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN

20 Aug 2014

KIMCHI NATURAL PROBIOTIC HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN

This wonderful spicy, sour and salty Korean side dish is a super food, small amounts are eaten every day by South Asians for it's natural probiotic properties, incorporating a spoonful of this a day in your diet will boost your gut health along with vitamin A, B, C, loaded with healthy bacteria Lactobacilli the good bacteria which helps with digestion and seems to stop and even prevent yeast Candida infections, anti carcinogenic, high in fibre and low fat, this is a winner dish for supporting your overall health.

Ingredients

(makes two small /one large kilner jars)

1 Chinese cabbage (any will do)

1 cup of sea salt

1 ltr still spring water

1 tbsp grated garlic

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp sugar

2-3 tbsp fish sauce

1-5 tbsp dried chilli flakes (gochgaru)

225g daikon radish grated

4 scallions chopped

In a large bowl pour in the spring water and add half the sea salt, leaving the stem in cut the cabbage into quarters and place in the salt water for around one hour. Meanwhile to make the rub in a bowl mix the garlic, ginger, fish sauce, sugar chilli flakes and scallions together. Drain the cabbage, take the sea salt and sprinkle in between each leaf of the cabbage quarters then repeat this process with the chilli mixture getting a good coverage in between all the leaves, mix in the daikon radish and place in your clean dry kilner jars and seal.

Leave your jars on the side for two days to start the fermentation process and getting the good bacteria breeding giving off bubbling gases, there is a possibility of your jar exploding under pressure, but if you are eating this regularly this should not happen as you are ineffect releasing the gases each time you open the jar, what to watch would be a jar you have not opened in a while, approach with caution! Many Koreans make a years worth of Kimchi at a time and keep a separate Kimchi fridge, in times gone by Koreans used to keep their kimchi in a pit under the house.

If you are worried about bacteria, garlic and chilli have preservative properties and Kimchi improves with age and will not detoriate.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.