Kimchi with a Balinese twist

Today we experimented with another kimchi. I loved the last batch so much, that I really wanted to make more. This time we tried something a little different. For the last batch Leeland, a student in our group, had managed to bring some traditional kimchi chilli paste that his neighbour had made. It made the kimchi delicious and have that classic red colour. This time we didn’t have the chilli paste, so we did what we do best and improvised. We made a Balinese sambal, with chillis fresh garlic and a garlic mixture that we got from the warung at green school. We also put fresh ginger, salt, and jeruk lemoh, which is a Balinese lime.

From my research you are supposed to soak the napa cabbage in salt water overnight, but I didn’t prepare that far in advance so we only soaked it for maybe 10 minutes. I massaged it around it in the water a little bit to get it a bit wilted but you don’t want to bruise the cabbage or it becomes mushy after fermenting. After washing and soaking the cabbage we mixed it in a big bowl with thinly sliced daikon and scallions. Then very carefully I mixed the EXTREMELY SPICY sambal in with all the vegetables. It took a long time to sufficiently mix in because I was using a spoon to avoid contact with my skin so the chillis would not burn my hands. But then it came around to packing it in a jar and I had to use my hands. They burned all day and into the night. I did this a full day ago now and I just rubbed my eyes and it burns. I think it’s all going to be worth the pain, so far it’s already started fermenting a lot. I can’t wait to try it!