Medicinal Food Preservation: Kimchi

We have a big tradition about fermenting cabbage and turnips and I was talking about fermenting those sometime ago.
Last year I tried fermenting Kimchi for the first time and I totally fell in love with it.
As I don't have all the ingredients used in Kimchi, I used similar kinds that I found in my kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 2 kg of napa cabbage
• kosher salt
• 400 g of black radish
• 350 g of carrots
• 1 onion
• 1 apple
• 300 ml of water
• 3 tablespoons of rice flour
• 8 garlic cloves
• small ginger root (about 3 tablespoons)
• few whole chills
• 13 tablespoons of smoked sweet red paprika powder
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable salt
• 4 tablespoons of soya sauce
• 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

Preparation:

1. Cut the napa cabbage in half, lengthwise and wash it well under water.
   
   Cut away the core and roughly cut the cabbage.
   
2. Put it in a big bowl and salt it well. You don't need to weigh the salt here as it should be washed away later. Mix it well with the salt, cover with the lid and let it sit for about 2-4 hours for the cabbage to relise the water. Mix it a few times in between.
   
3. Wash away all the salt from the napa cabbage and drain well.
   Gently squeeze out the excess liquid.
   
4. Cut carrots and radish into juliennes and add it to the napa cabbage. Slice the onion and grate an apple and add it to the cabbage bowl.
   
5. Weight all the vegetables together and salt it with 1.5% of the vegetable weight, with kosher salt. Mix it well.
6. Mince garlic and ginger root in a mortar or run through the food processor.
   
7. Put 300 ml of water in a small pot and bring to boil. Add 3 tablespoons of rice flour and simmer for about 5 minutes.
   
   Stir frequently, not to burn the thick mixture. Take off the heat, add ginger and garlic puree, a few whole chills, smoked red paprika powder, vegetable salt, soya sauce and apple cider vinegar.
   
8. Mix the mixture with the vegetables. Start filling it in clean jars. Stuff it well layer by layer and push it down with a wooden spoon. Push it down really hard and beat it down, to get rid of the air bubbles
   
9. When the vegetables are stuffed in jars, put on a lid but don't close it. The gases that are produced during the fermentation need to have an exit to get out. We only put a lid on to prevent something falling in the jars.
   There will probably be some liquid coming out of the jars so be sure to put something underneath the jars, I'm using a big container.
   Place it in a warm place, best for fermentation is between 21-24°C.!
   
10. Let it ferment for 3 days, or more if you like it very fermented.
    Take a look at the vegetables in the process and mix though a jar with a wooden spoon, twice per day. You will see some bubbles appeared.