Pickled Cabbage

Assalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

A very good Friday, the weather is just nice out there. I cannot expose myself to the wind after the rain for few minutes because I am subjected to Siddha norms. I am practicing Siddha and Ayurvedic methods for health practices. The wind at the flat land is not nice unless if I am on the mountainous region. Today I would like to share about pickled cabbage. Very easy and simple one since everybody could make it...

Ingredients

1 lb cabbage, remove the tough outer leaves

2 tablespoons salt

2 dried finger hot chili peppers

1 cup hot water

3 cups cold water

2 tablespoons vinegar

1/4 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns

Instructions

Cut the cabbage to pieces roughly 1" x 1 1/2" and separate the leaves. Using a wide mouth jar, dissolve the salt in hot water and then pour the cold water down together with Szechuan peppercorns and chillies. Mix them well.

When cool, add the vinegar and cabbage into the jar. Non-Muslims could put the gin (some kind of vodka or rice wine) but I do not take alcoholic stuffs so I simply use plain vinegar. Cover it up and put in the refrigerator for four to five days. Remove the cabbage from the solution and serve cold. It could be use over and over again and add two tablespoons more salt every time we use it.

After the first use, it only takes about two to three days for the cabbage to pickle. Maybe we need to add some more chillies and another tablespoon vinegar after using it twice. We can also substitute it with different kinds of vegetables. We can use nappa cabbage, green beans, or carrots. We can also mix all of these vegetables together.

I used to make few kinds of pickle and most of all they are Chinese style since I am not good in Indian style cooking. I eat mostly like a poor Chinese guy since we could easily get Asian stuffs in our neighborhood. If I am closer to Indian shops then I will practice Indian style cooking, it depends on the location but mostly I prefer vegetarian since it is easier to digest and to eat. We also make Indian style pickles such as Acar and it is quite oily for me and more elaborate in spices. I have a whole notes about spices and I studied about them, lol. There are many kinds of Indian style acar and not only confined to vegetables but also fruits such as mango, lime, beans and stuffs. 

As for Chinese style pickle, we could take it with both noodles and plain rice. Indian style pickles could be taken with various kinds of rice and unleavened bread. I have heard about Sauerkraut (Sour Cabbage) in my beginner German class around 2011 but I have never tried that. For North Eastern Asian style pickle, we can put some chili powder in it with some blended ingredients such as garlic, ginger and other things. I think, the Korean call it as Chimchee or whatever it is, haha...   

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!