In a pickle

We have been gifted some amazing produce this fall. We have gotten the usual shares from close friends and family of garden fresh veggies eaten right away for dinners (thanks again!) and some large portions of 'extras'. My neighbor planted a ton of carrots this year and gave us two big bags full; one of the guys Kyle works with had too many cabbages and gave us two big tubs full along with some celery and carrots.


Yesterday I tried my hand at pickling. The jars will hopefully be spicy carrot pickles. I canned five pints of those and made two more quart jars of refrigerator pickles, one with horseradish (atomic carrots?) and one with jalapeños added. All that and I only used up one bag! I made some carrot muffins today, but I think I will have to try some other recipes soon!

The large tub is the last big cabbage we were gifted, all the others are in the kraut bucket or eaten for supper. This is my version of kimchi. I read many recipes online and in books and finally had to combine several. It seems to me kimchi is one of those staple dishes that doesn't really have a recipe, just a plan. So my plan was: chop up the cabbage and let it soak in a mix of a gallonish of water and hand full of fine salt for 24 hours. Then drain reserving some brine.
Most recipes then call for Korean chili paste, I maybe could have found some but I did have dried chilies from the carrots, so I used some of those instead. About 1/2 cup dried chilies, 1/3 cup chili powder, 2 tablespoons of honey and 1/2 cup of rice vinegar was warmed gently to rehydrate the chilies. Then all of that got tossed in the blender with 2 heads of garlic and a 2 1/2 inch chunk of ginger and a splash of fish sauce. The resulting mix was tossed with the drained cabbage and 3 bunches of chopped scallions. When I tasted it, it was REALLY hot. I know kimchi is spicy but I wanted to taste at least a little other flavor! So I mixed 2 cups of the leftover brine with a splash of white vinegar and tossed that through the mix. Now it is just about right...I am planning to leave it out for at least a few hours to let it get a little head start fermenting. Then into the fridge, now I just need to pick something great to make with it in a few days :)