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I know how much you like kimchi.......this is a dynamite recipe I hope you enjoy. The most essential step is the very first one – brining the cabbage, which kick-starts the process of lacto-fermentation.

Cabbage
1 head Napa cabbage, cut into 1-inch, bite-sized pieces

1/2 cup Kosher salt

1 cup water

Porridge
2 cups water

2 tbsp glutinous rice flour

2 tbsp brown sugar

Seasoning
10 garlic cloves, minced

1 inch-piece ginger, minced

1/4 white onion, minced

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/4 cup natural apple juice

1/4 cup fermented salted shrimp (saeujeot), chopped

2/3 cup best quality gochugaru (Korean red pepper powder)

Vegetables
1 medium-sized daikon, cut into matchsticks

1 carrot, cut into matchsticks

7 spring onions, chopped

1/2 Asian pear, chopped into matchsticks

Directions
Cabbage
Place cabbage in a very large, non-reactive bowl or plastic tub. Mix together salt and water and stir until sea salt has dissolved. Pour over cabbage and mix together with your hands. Cover with clingfilm and let sit for 2 hours.
Porridge

Whilst the cabbage is salting, make the porridge. Combine the water and rice flour in a pan and gently whisk over a medium heat till it begins to bubble and thicken – around 10 minutes. Add the sugar, and cook for a further 30 seconds, stirring continuously. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Seasoning
Once cool, add the minced garlic, ginger and onion to the porridge, swell as the fish sauce, apple juice, fermented salted shrimp and gochugaru. Mix well until you get a paste that isn’t too thick and isn’t too runny.
Vegetables
Once the cabbage has been sat in it’s brine for 2 hours, rinse it under cold water to get most of the salt water off. Place back into the very large bowl then toss the cabbage with the spicy red seasoning mixture until well-coated.
Add the sliced daikon, carrot, spring onion and asian pear. Mix well with your hands (use gloves to stop your hands staining).

Place everything into a large jar and compress everything tightly by using your fist to smoosh it down. Keep stuffing until the jar is full and by pushing everything down, a small amount of liquid is sitting above the seasoned vegetables. Close the jar tightly.

Leave the kimchi to sit at room temperature for a day or two. One day on hotter months and two in cooler months. Move to the fridge after a day or two and leave to ferment. It is edible immediately but I like to leave mine for a week or so before I unscrew the lid. The longer you leave it, the more complex in flavour it will become.

When taking kimchi from the jar, use a clean, non-metal implement like a wooden spoon or chopsticks and press everything down again as tightly as you can. You want the kimchi to be sat under a little juice at all times.