Korean-style pickles — {Spicy Cabbage}

Try to choose large cabbages with whole leaves.

Cut the Chinese cabbage, soak it in light salt water for 5-10 minutes, then rinse it clean and drain the water.

Drain the water from the Chinese cabbage and place it in a large bowl. Sprinkle fine salt into the root of each cabbage leaf. Any loose outer leaves of the cabbage can be removed directly before pickling. You don’t need to use too much salt, as it will be seasoned later; here, it is just to soften the cabbage and release water to make it firm.

Pickle until the cabbage leaves become soft and release water. Rinse several times with water and drain for later use.

Prepare the marinade: Cook glutinous rice flour into a rice paste, let it cool, then add fish sauce, minced garlic, minced ginger, chili powder, sugar, and shrimp paste. Here comes the key part, add a small amount of Sprite, then mix in carrot sticks and apple sticks. At this point, you can taste it; if it’s too bland, you can add some salt or chicken essence, and mix well.

Then evenly coat each cabbage leaf and the cabbage stem with the sauce, stuff some carrot sticks and apple into the stem part, and repeatedly apply until everything is evenly coated. I did this by hand, it's really hard to take a photo of this step, hope you understand~

Find a clean, oil-free sealed container, put the prepared sauced cabbage into it, cover with plastic wrap, and let it ferment for a few days before eating. Actually, the finished product can be eaten after marinating for a few hours, but the flavor will definitely not be as strong as that of the product after a few days~ When it's hot, the fermentation needs to be stored in the refrigerator.