Kimchi-zy

This is a basic kimchi with a few variations do to lack of laziness in finding proper ingredients. This recipe is out of "Wild Fermentation" by Sandor Katz. Even with my variations, it turned out delicious! Next batch I'm going to use red chilies.

Baechu (Cabbage) Kimchi

TIMEFRAME: 1 week (or longer)

INGREDIENTS (for 1 quart/1litre):
Sea Salt
1 lb Chinese cabbage
1 daikon radish or a few red radishes
1 to 2 carrots
1 to 2 onions and/or leeks and/or scallions and/or shallots (or more!). I USED RED, YELLOW, & GREEN
3 to 4 cloves of garlic (or more!)
3 to 4 hot red chilies (or more!), depending on how hot-peppery you like food, or any form of hot pepper, fresh, dried, or in a sauce (without chemical preservatives). I USED SERRANO CHILIES.
3 tlbs fresh grated ginger root

PROCESS:

1. Mix a brine of about 4 cups of water and 4 tlbs of salt. Stir well to thoroughly dissolve salt. The brine should taste good and salty.
2. Coarsely chop the cabbage, slice radish and carrots, & let the vegetables soack in the brine, covered by a plate or other weight to keep the veggies submerged, until soft, a few hrs or overnight.
3. Prepare spices: Grate the ginger; chop the garlic & onions; remove seeds from chilies and chop or crush, or throw in whole. Mix spices into a paste.
4. Drain brine off veggies, reserving brine. Taste veggies for saltiness. You want them to taste salty but not unpleasantly salty. If you cannot taste salt, sprinkle with a couple to teaspoons salt, and mix.
5. Mix veggies with the ginger-chili-onion-garlic paste. Mix thoroughly then stuff into a quart size jar (I used a crock pot insert). Pack tightly into the jar, pressing down until brine rises. If necessary, add a little of the reserved brine. Weight the veggies down with a smaller jar.
6. Ferment in your kitchen or other warm place. Taste everyday. After about a week of fermentation, when it tastes ripe, move it to the refrigerator.