"Korean mothers doubtless could thank kimchi for preserving the virtue of many of their daughters..."

As we speak there is cabbage rotting in my kitchen. Which is, I guess, my way of saying that I decided to make kimchi with some of my cabbage surplus (almost gone, but still have a bunch more cabbage). Now, let me stipulate that many of the ingredients I wanted were not at my disposal. For example, this awesome looking raddish would've be great to put in the kimchi:

Alas, it was not to be. Still, I was able to – more or less – follow Mark Bittman's recipe.

Cabbage Kimchi

1/2 head cabbage (about 1 lb), seperated into leaves

1/4 cup of salt

1/2 tablespoon hot red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons sugar
Layer the cabbage leaves in a colander, putting salt in between each layer. Lit sit over a bolw for at least a few hours. When the cabbage is wilted, rinse and dry. Chop the cabbage and add it and all other ingredients to a jar. Let sit.

So my first problem was that my red pepper flakes were weaksauce. I ended up putting in a bunch of cayenne instead but it still wasn't hot enough. Maybe I should've chopped up some chili peppers. So how was the final version after it fermented for a few days. Well it was pretty pungent, a bit sour and complex but not spicy enough. I don't know if I even get to call it kimchi, maybe I should say pickled cabbage instead. My landlady was touring the place so I had to open a bunch of windows to get rid of the smell before the visitors came. Still, I'm glad I have it in a jar, so I can use it for other meals. In fact, I've already used it in another meal... that you'll hear about next time on The Frugal Veggie!

PS– The quote is from a book called Korea: The First War We Lost. I remembered the phrase dimly but couldn't remember where it was from or the exact wording. So I typed in virtue+kimchi+korean+war into Google Books and it popped up the result. What an era we live in!