When I wrote about the garlic scapes a while back, I mentioned that we were going to make kimchi with some of them. Now that we’ve tried the kimchi, I have to admit that we much prefer to eat the garlic scapes stir-fried. Still, we’d probably make this kimchi again if we couldn’t get through all our garlic scapes while they are still fresh. The kimchi tastes fine, even if it’s not as good as eating freshly cooked garlic-scapes, and it’s certainly a good way to preserve them.
I tried making two versions of the kimchi — one raw and one blanched. The raw one was stringy and horrible. Even Kevin wouldn’t eat it, and he’s a full-scale garlic monster! We won’t be making that again! We certainly advise blanching the garlic scapes before making them into kimchi.
Garlic Scape Kimchi
- Blanch enough garlic scapes to pack into one quart-size jar, so that it is full up to about 1 1/2″ from the top. (To do this, just bring plenty of water to a rolling boil, drop the garlic scapes in, and drain the water out about 3o seconds later. Immediately rinse the garlic scapes in cold water.
- Pack the garlic scapes into the quart-size preserving jar.
- Mix 1/2 a cup of water with 2 tablespoons of whey* (see note below), 2 teaspoons of sea salt, 1 tablespoon of grated ginger, 1 large clove of minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of chile flakes or chile powder.
- Pour this mixture into the jar with the garlic scapes.
- Top up with water if need be, so that the garlic scapes are fully covered with liquid. The garlic scapes tend to float a bit, so you can weight them down with a clean river stone if you want to. The water should be at least an inch below the top of the jar, since the contents may expand during fermentation.
- Close the jar tightly, and keep it at room temperature for about 3 days. After that, it will be ready to go in the fridge.
- Now you can eat it. . . but ours tastes much better after three weeks than it did when we first made it. We advise you to wait a while! it should keep in the fridge or cold room for many months.
NB: *To make whey, line a strainer with a cloth and pour in some good-quality plain live yoghurt. The liquid that drips out of the strainer is they whey you need for this recipe.