Kim Chee

or Kimchi. At least the beginnings of Kim Chee. My adventure today was making my own Kim Chee. I love Korean Kim Chee, and decided it is time to try making my own. Around here, it is about $6.00 for a pint jar. So, it's much cheaper to make your own, and I understand, much tastier. We'll see. In this bowl are napa cabbage, bok choy, daikon, black radish, and carrots. It is soaking in a brine solution. Tonight, I drained off all the brine and made the chili paste for it. It has chili pepper flakes, lots of grated ginger root, lots of garlic, some bonito flakes and several green onions chopped. The chili paste is mixed with the veggies, put in a big jar, and left to ferment. In a couple of days it should be ready. I'm anxious to see how it turns out. I made it once before several years ago, but I cheated and used a commercial mix for the seasonings. As I recall, it was quite good, but this time I decided to do it from scratch. As I understand it, there are about as many ways to make Kim Chee as there are Koreans. It is considered to be one of the five healthiest foods in the world, due to all the vegetables and the chili, ginger and garlic. So, I thought it would be much better for me to snack on than the cheese and salami that I usually have for a snack. I'll keep you posted on the progress.