Day Two of Making Kimchi

Now that I let the cabbage sit in a brine of salt and water for 24 hours, I had to rinse the cabbage under cold water and squeeze out any excess water that the cabbage would have retained. The next step to making the Kimchi is to throw the rest of the ingredients into a bowl, mix it all together, and let it sit in a 2qt glass container tightly sealed and tightly packed for 24 hours in a dark cool place...the basement.

The photo above is the all the ingredients combined to make the Kimchi! All that is left, is to let at all ferment.  When preparing all the ingredients to add to the mixing bowl, the smell of fresh produce and spices like the ginger, garlic, and ceyenne pepper were amazing. The cabbage that I let sit in the brine did smell a little funny, but after it was rinsed and drained, it smelt like, well, wet cabbage. The mix of all the ingredients together that I need to let sit in the basement for a day smelled good enough to eat without fermenting. It looked like sort of coleslaw. I'm hoping that the fermentation goes well. 

Tomorrow, I need to bring the Kimchi up from the basement, release the pressure, and set in the refrigerator for 2 days to a week, and then it should be good to eat. When the product is ready to eat, I will have an idea on what I need to do different and what should stay the same the second time around.