Basic Kimchi Recipe

I was nervous making this for ages due to a past failure but turns out it was fairly straight forward and super tasty.

I wanted to use ingredients that are easy to find because I'm lazy and a cheapskate.

I half arsed the method as well but it seemed to work ok

Ingredients

Remove any rough outer leaves of the cabbage, chop into quarters, remove the tough middle section then chop into rough chunks like.... the size of a child's palm?
Weigh a container that's big enough to hold the cabbage and enough water to submerge it.
Wash the cabbage a few times then add to the container with enough water to submerge and weigh this.
- You can use something like a pot or plate to keep the cabbage submerged (don't include this when weighing it)
Add 3% of the weigh of water and cabbage as salt to make a brine
- If cabbage and water is 2.5kg then 2500 * 0.03 = 75g salt
Leave the cabbage for anything from 4 - 24 hours in the brine, check progress every now and then. You want the cabbage leaves to go floppy and pliable and taste a salty once rinsed.
When brined enough drain and wash a few times. The leaves should still taste salty
Make a thick roux with some flour and water, you'll use this to thicken the paste to ensure it sticks well
Blitz all the remaining ingredients in a blender / food processor until smooth, add enough of the roux until you've got a thick sticky paste. It should smell quite pungent
Wang it all into a big container and smash it down as much as possible to submerge the cabbage where possible
Leave at room temp for a few days, you should see it start to bubble after a day. After a few days of fermenting the sharp onion/garlic smell should subside and you'll have a cleaner more acidic tang smell.
Pop it in the fridge then nom to your heart's content.

If is starts to smell rank, be sensible and don't eat it. It's a pungent ferment but it shouldn't smell minging at any point.