Ani's Raw Food Essentials (33 page)

Here is a basic recipe:

Cabbage is softened in saltwater, then left at room temperature to ferment and pickle. Using a mandoline slicer will make it easier to shred your cabbage.

1 tablespoon sea salt
1 cup filtered water
1½ pounds green cabbage (about 1 medium head), cored and grated into
⅛-inch strips.

Place the salt and water in a large bowl; mix to dissolve the salt. Add the cabbage and mix well. Place a plate on top of the cabbage in the bowl. Next, add a weight on top of the plate. Stacks of more plates work well, or if you're camping, use large, clean rocks. Cover and set aside the container at room temperature for 2 days.

 

Check your sauerkraut, and skim off any thin layer (a skin) you may see on top. Then, repack it down again. Check every 3 days. After 2 weeks, taste to see if it tastes ready for eating. Once it's to your liking, transfer it to a glass quart jar, and store in the fridge.

 

Will keep for many weeks in the fridge. The flavor will mature for the next few weeks.

It's easy to make new sauerkraut flavors by adding spices and herbs such as fresh dill, thyme, rosemary, or chiles. Here, I add garlic and onion to give it a more savory flavor.

1 recipe Basic Green Cabbage Sauerkraut (page 121)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 sliced yellow onion

Follow the recipe for Basic Green Cabbage Sauerkraut, adding the garlic and onion before setting the sauerkraut to ferment.

Pickles are faster and even easier to make than sauerkraut. And I've included a couple of recipes here so you can make some to enjoy with your sun burgers and in your Thousand Island Dressing (see page 188).

I include two types of recipes. The first is vinegar free, made using a salt brine, and is ready in one day. The second uses vinegar as a way to speed up the pickling process, which happens overnight.

Cucumber is softened in salt and lemon juice, then set aside for a day to pickle. Add 2 tablespoons of fresh dill, or other dried or fresh herbs and spices, to this basic recipe to make additional flavors.

1 cup peeled cucumber, cut into ¼-inch-thick rounds
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice

In a mixing bowl, toss the ingredients together. Place in a pickle press, under pressure. Or, place a plate over the mixture in the bowl, and stack heavy plates on top of it. Set aside at room temperature for a day.

 

Will keep in the fridge for several days.

Sliced cucumber, carrot, and onion are softened in vinegar and salt. They're flavored with pickling spice, which is usually made up of allspice, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, ginger, mustard seeds, and peppercorns.

This recipe will be ready to enjoy after pickling overnight.

¾ cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons ground pickling spice
1 cup filtered water
1 cup cucumber (use one 6 to 8 inches in length),
peeled and cut into ¼-inch-thick rounds
½ cup carrot peeled and cut into ¼-inch pieces
¼ cup sweet yellow onion, sliced into ¼-inch pieces

Place the vinegar, salt, pickling spice, and water into a 1-quart mason jar with a lid. Mix well. Add the remaining ingredients and close the lid tightly. Shake to mix well.

 

Set aside at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours. Then place in the fridge overnight.

 

Will keep for a week or more in the fridge.

The Korean style of pickling and culturing vegetables is my favorite, perhaps because of my Korean heritage, or because I love spices and the kick of garlic and ginger.

Traditionally, kimchi was made to last through long, cold winter months when fresh vegetables weren't available, and recipes vary by region and family taste. Kimchi can be made with different vegetables, cabbages, cucumbers, and daikon radishes, to name a few variations.

As I developed the kimchi recipes in this chapter, I'd pass them to my mother to make sure they still taste authentically Korean. Sometimes, she'd call one of her two sisters (one's in New York City; and the other, in Seoul, Korea) for another opinion. So be assured these recipes are pretty close to the traditional flavors and textures. Mom and my friend So Young, both of whom are from Korea, helped me change Korean ingredients to those found here in the States.

I start you off in this section with simple recipes such as Napa Cabbage Kimchi, made by softening cabbage in salt water, then adding spices and setting aside for a few days to pickle.

For the recipes in the later part of this section, I recommend making a jar of Kimchi Sauce, a spicy red pepper paste, to keep on hand. When you find your favorite kimchi vegetables on sale, you can bring them home and make a jar of kimchi quickly and easily with this premade sauce.

Enjoy my simplified vegan versions of Korean-inspired kimchi as an accompaniment to any dish, on salads, even in sandwiches when you want to kick up the flavor from just everyday lettuce.