Making Kimchi with Bok Choy

We've produced lots of bok choy this fall and have really enjoyed its crunchiness, flavor, and health benefits.  We have a full row of it and it was planted close together and not spaced.  It is a resilient crop and fast growing.  Out of everything planted in the Fall Garden, it's the first thing that's ready for harvesting.  It was planted last year for the first time and has become a mainstay in our Fall Garden.

The row of bok choy

A few warm days has induced the bok choy to bolt.  Bolting is when the crop sends up a shoot that contains a flower.  In effect, the plant is trying to produce seed to ensure that there will be more bok choy next year and the year after.  We have discovered that bok choy is more tender and tasty before it bolts.

The flower of the bok choy

So that means we'd better either start eating even more of it, give it away, or preserve it.  I picked four or five plants and decided we'd try something new.  We always make sauerkraut, but we've never made the Korean equivalent - kimchi. Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish made with fermented vegetables.  In this case, we'll use bok choy, instead of cabbage to make it.  Bok Choy is, after all, called Chinese cabbage or Chinese greens by some.

Bok Choy Harvest

We got the recipe from Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook put out by the Weston A. Price Foundation and written by Sally Fallon.  While I was out in the garden, in addition to the bok choy, I selected some fresh carrots and radishes to add to the mix.  Yum!

Fresh radishes and carrots

The other ingredients besides bok choy (continuing clockwise in the photo below) was fresh green onions from the garden, ginger, carrots, Criolla Sella pepper flakes, radishes, sea salt, whey, and garlic.

The Ingredients

I popped all the bok choy into the food processor and chopped them up real good. The greens transformed into a deep green chopped salad that was heavy with liquid.

Chopped Bok Choy

After removing the chopped up bok choy, I shredded all the other vegetables in the food processor, making a slaw-like amalgamation of veggies.

A multitude of shredded vegetables

I added four tablespoons of whey and one tablespoon sea salt that will act as the preservative.  Whey is a by-product of making cheese or yogurt and we save it in jars in the fridge for lacto-fermenting vegetables.

Adding the whey

After mixing it all up thoroughly, I took a wooden mallet (meat tenderizer) and began scrunching (is that a word?) the mixture all together, bruising it and releasing all of the juices contained int the vegetables.

It's Hammer Time!

I then spooned the kimchi into two wide mouth jars, leaving an inch head space at the top of the jar and then sealed them tightly.  We'll leave these at room temperature for 3 days.  It looks a little scary, know, but we're going to give it a chance...

Letting the kimchi sit for 3 days at room temperature

At the end of 3 days, we'll move the jars to the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation process.  I noticed last night the lids were bulging a little, letting me know that the fermentation process is well underway.

So I don't forget...

Once you move the kimchi to the fridge, you can begin eating it, but I'm told that it gets better with age.  A friend of mine who is of Korean descent told me one time that kimchi is delicious, BUT that it packs a powerful smell.  In fact, his wife wouldn't let him eat it in the house.  He had to open the jar and eat it outside.  This is going to be an interesting experiment.  (We might open the jar outside!!)