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| I also have the perfect therapist for you. His name is Steve, and he's done wonders for me! |
Like many of the worlds greatest foods (Popsicle's, Nacho's, Elmer's Paste), this kraut came together almost by accident. My weekly vegetable CSA share had a head of cabbage in it one week, and when I mentioned I made sauerkraut, they said they had some extra cabbage and gave me one more. Armed with 2 heads of cabbage and an odd amount of Korean hot pepper flakes leftover from the last time I made Kimchi, I decided to to throw them together with some garlic and ginger and make a spicy kraut!
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| Wait.....Elmer's Paste? |
Ingredients
- Green Cabbage - 2 heads (I forgot to weigh them again)
- Korean Hot Pepper Flakes (gochugaru) 76 grams
- Ginger, unpeeled - 45 grams
- Garlic - 25 grams
- Sea Salt - 2.25% salinity
Process
Mince the garlic and ginger and set aside. Peel off a few of the outer leaves of the cabbage and set aside, then shred the cabbage until you have 1000 grams. Mix that with 22.5 grams of salt and some of the garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes and let it rest in the crock while you shred more cabbage. When you have another 1000 grams of cabbage shredded, pack down the previously mixed batch and put the new cabbage/garlic/ginger/pepper/salt mix on top of it. Keep going till your out of cabbage or your arms get tired.
Once all your cabbage mixture is packed into the crock, put the outer leaves you set aside earlier on top of it all to cover the shredded bits, then place your weights on top of those, press down to submerge it all under the brine that has formed, and top off with a salt water mix if needed (1 tablespoon per cup). Cover the crock with a lid to keep anything from falling into it, and let it ferment!
The typical fermentation time for sauerkraut is 4-6 weeks, and I usually do 4 weeks. But our printer was out of ink when it hit the 4 week mark, and nobody likes kraut without cool labels on the jars, so I let this one ferment for 5 weeks.
Once all your cabbage mixture is packed into the crock, put the outer leaves you set aside earlier on top of it all to cover the shredded bits, then place your weights on top of those, press down to submerge it all under the brine that has formed, and top off with a salt water mix if needed (1 tablespoon per cup). Cover the crock with a lid to keep anything from falling into it, and let it ferment!
The typical fermentation time for sauerkraut is 4-6 weeks, and I usually do 4 weeks. But our printer was out of ink when it hit the 4 week mark, and nobody likes kraut without cool labels on the jars, so I let this one ferment for 5 weeks.
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| I also used the Lens Blur setting on my phone to take this picture, which I think you'll agree is pretty fancy. |
Results
This is the spicy sauerkraut of my dreams! It's hot, but not overly so, it has glorious pops of fermented ginger, and it has a perfect tangy acidity to it. So perfect that I might start fermenting all of my krauts for 5 weeks now.
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| I also might talk to that therapist about my spicy sauerkraut dreams. |
The only problem with this kraut is that I didn't make very much of it. The 2 heads filled just over 6 jars, so if you were one of the lucky ones to get some I hope you enjoy it. And if you missed out don't you worry, once I get motivated I'll make it again..... on second thought, maybe you should worry.
Enjoy!
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