Making Spicy Kimchi

It’s so great to have garden space and a “big” kitchen again. Don’t get me wrong, eating out is great but there’s something that feeds the soul when making a meal with your partner. The teamwork and the ability to enjoy something you created right then and there. What’s this all have to do with Kimchi? Well, having the garden and kitchen has gotten me back to my cooking and fermenting ways. Along with a partner that encourages me every step of the way, I’m being pushed to new heights and challenges. With our new found love for kimchi fried rice, it renewed my interest in making kimchi from scratch. A trip to the Asian market to pick up the goods and I went quick to work. Gojuchang, a Korean pepper paste along with garlic, fish sauce, ginger, scallions, a huge Napa cabbage, and some salt. Does that not sound like it will be good?

I loosely followed the recipe found here: https://www.feastingathome.com/how-to-make-kimchi/

Here is the delicious kimchi fried recipe, super simple! https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018097-kimchi-fried-rice

The Kimchi turned out great and it’s lasted 6 plus months in a container in the fridge. The Kimchi fried recipe has been the main way I use Kimchi. It’s been awesome to incorporate Kimchi fried rice into our dinner options as Mallory loves it, it’s easy to make and the ingredients are easy to have on hand not to mention it’s cheap!

how to sprout seeds for eating (simple and easy)

Sprouts, so healthy, so good. That sprout needs a lot of energy to start growing, so, mother nature packed seeds full of nutrients. When you sprout a seed, you increase the bioavailability of those nutrients. That’s where you come in. You get to chow down on these delicious little buggers. They are tasty on their own, but they also make a great addition to many meals. Here’s a quick, simple, easy to follow guide to sprouting your own seeds. Today, I will be using alfalfa seeds as an example but this method can be applied to all seeds that are edible such as broccoli, sunflower, mung, and adsuki beans.

alfalfa sprouts diy

Step 1…Cut a hole in the box! Just kidding, I regress.

You can get started with any glass jar but I choose to use canning jars. The wide mouth version of canning jars are able to fit a variety of sprouting lids. The lids can be purchased online, or at local hardware stores and some groovy garden centers such as Harmony Farm Supply. If you don’t want to use a lid, start with a rubber band and some mesh or cheesecloth.

Step 2….Obtain the seeds, preferably organic (you don’t know what yucky chemicals the conventional ones have been sprayed with). Some conventionally grown seeds are treated with fungicides, definitely avoid those! Put a couple tablespoons at the bottom of the jar.

Step 3…Fill with water and let sit overnight.

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Step 4… Empty jar of water then rinse seeds and leave jar upside down at angle to drain.

Step..5 Repeat step 4 every morning and night until the seeds have sprouted and are a good size. Overtime, you’ll get better at determining when the best time is to stop rinsing and eat.

Step 6 (optional)… Put sprouts in a bowl of water and scrape the hulls of the seeds off the top of the water. This is easy to do with bigger seeds like mung beans.

Step 7 (not optional)… Eat those sprouts and store the leftovers in an airtight jar in the fridge. The canning jars are great because you can throw a canning lid on and be done with it.

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P.S. I will soon be starting a youtube channel and will be posting a video of this process! Thanks for reading.