Ingredients
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1 small Wombok (napa/baechu) cabbage (about 800g), cut into bite-sized pieces
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2 tablespoons sea salt (plus more for brine)
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1 daikon radish, julienned
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4-5 spring onions, cut into 3cm lengths
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6-8 dried jujubes, soaked in warm water for 20 minutes, then sliced
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3cm knob of fresh ginger, julienned
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4 cloves garlic, minced
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1 Asian pear or apple, julienned (for natural sweetness)
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500ml filtered water (approximately)
Directions
- Salt the cabbage. In a large bowl, toss the cabbage pieces with 2 tablespoons of salt. Massage gently until it starts to release water. Let it sit for 2-3 hours, tossing occasionally, until the cabbage has wilted and released a good amount of liquid. The leaves should be soft and bendable.
- Rinse and drain. Rinse the cabbage well under cold water to remove excess salt. Give it a good squeeze and drain thoroughly. Taste a piece - it should be just pleasantly salty, not overwhelming.
- Make the brine. Dissolve a tablespoon of salt in 500ml of water. Taste it - it should be about as salty as seawater, maybe slightly less. Adjust if needed.
- Combine everything. In your largest bowl, combine the drained cabbage, daikon, spring onions, jujubes, ginger, garlic, and pear. Use your hands. Get in there. Mix it well. This is the bending-over part. The thinking-through part. Take your time.
- Pack the jar. Pack everything into a clean 1-litre jar (or two smaller jars). Press down firmly as you go - you want to eliminate air pockets. Pour the brine over the vegetables, making sure everything is completely submerged. Leave about 3cm of headspace at the top.
- Weight it down. If vegetables float to the surface, weight them down with a small glass jar, a cabbage leaf, or a fermentation weight. Everything must stay under the brine to prevent kahm yeast or mold.
- Ferment. Cover loosely or with an airlock (the jar needs to burp out CO2) and leave at room temperature out of direct sunlight. In hot Melbourne summer weather (25-30°C), this will ferment quickly - check it after 2 days. In cooler weather, give it 3-4 days. You're looking for a pleasant sour tang and gentle fizz. The vegetables should still have good crunch.
- Refrigerate. Once it tastes right to you, seal with a lid and refrigerate. The cold dramatically slows fermentation. It will keep for months and continue to develop more complex flavours over time. I often think it's best after 2-3 weeks in the fridge.
Recipe Note
Tasting notes:Â The result is crisp, refreshing, slightly sweet from the pear, warming from the ginger, with a subtle fruity note from the jujubes. There's no heat, no chilli burn - just clean, bright, cooling vegetables. Beautiful alongside grilled fish, stirred through rice, or eaten straight from the jar when you need something alive and crunchy.
