It's been a month and my beautifully crunchy sauerkraut is done! Whipped up some sausages and mash potato and with a young Pinot Noir we had a simple yet delicious meal of bangers and mash.
Sauerkraut is a German version of the preserved cabbage grandma used to make back in our hometown in northeastern China. Only they weren't chopped up but packed down whole in clay urns (very hard to do for apartment living) and of course, we used Chinese cabbage. Seems like it's a shared recipe all across northern Asia and Europe, its high content of vitamin C and reminiscence of fresh vegetable helped people through the long, cold winters back in the old days.
苦苦等了一個月，我的德國酸菜終於醃好了！那個叫脆呀。馬上煎了兩條香腸再搗點土豆泥，超級簡單又美味的晚餐就解決了！
其實德國酸菜和東北酸菜最大也幾乎是唯一的區別就是德國的要把白菜切絲，所以醃製時間短些而且可以用小的容器，在家里也很容易做到。另外當然了，他們用捲心菜而不是大白菜。感覺上整個亞歐北部都有做酸菜的傳統，在過去食物短缺的日子酸菜可在漫漫冬日里提供了香脆口感和必不可少的維他命C。
德國酸菜可以生吃或煮熟，與東北酸菜一樣和各類的豬肉製品是絕配，可以當沙律，和土豆泥混合或者和蘋果洋蔥一起煮來做配菜。這次配香腸我稍微加熱了一下。
Ingredients:
(Makes about 1 litre in volume)
2 Cabbage (about 2 pounds, the fresher the better of course)
1 tsp Caraway seeds (although I didn't have any at hand so I skipped it)
1 2litre jar (or any food safe, non metallic container, lid is not needed)
salt
water
Instructions:
1.
Dice cabbage thin, to about 2 or 3 millimetre, discard the core and bruised outer leaves.
2.
Start the fermentation - In a container, sprinkle 1 1/3 tbsp salt on the cabbage and mix well, let sit for about 10 minutes or until cabbage becomes soft and very moist.
3.
Pack down the cabbage - Put cabbage in jar and pack down hard with either your fist or a wooden spoon. There should be plenty of cabbage juice being squeezed out, covering the cabbage by at least 3cm. If not then pour in some brine (1 1/2 salt per litre water, boiled and cooled). The caraway seeds can be added now.
4.
Weigh down the cabbage - Fill a food safe bag with brine (in case it leaks it won't spoil the salt level) and place in the jar, be careful not to leave any air bubbles underneath, make sure cabbage is submerged in the liquid. Another way (the traditional way) to do it is to use a muslin cloth to keep cabbage submerged, then add a plate that fits almost just right and something heavy on top to weigh it down.
5.
Put in a dark cool place (15 to 20 Celsius is the best, too cool it will spoil and too cold it will take longer) for 4 weeks. If you make it in the fridge it should be left for 6 to 8 weeks. If the container is not big enough the liquid will keep oozing out slowly, a plate can be placed under the jar to collect it.
6. A month later - enjoy!
Notes:
1. DO NOT let the cabbage/brine come in contact with anything metal, including the metal rim of a jar - the salt will react with metal.
2. During the first week or so of fermentation, there will be lots of bubbles rising in the jar, after that bubbles will keep forming but slowly, and the signature smell of sauerkraut will come out. When bubbles stop forming, the fermentation is finished and the sauerkraut is ready.
3. Sauerkraut can keep in fridge for a long time, it will just be more pungent and lose the crunchiness slowly, try to keep as little air in the container as possible. It can also be frozen and will keep for a even longer time, which is good if you make a lot once and use them up in batches, it can even be jarred but it will lose the vitamin C.
食材（做出來大概一升的樣子）：
2個 捲心菜（大概兩斤，越新鮮越好）
1茶匙 葛縷籽 （我手邊沒有於是就沒用，更像東北酸菜了）
1個 2升或更大的食物容器
鹽
水
做法：
1，捲心菜去掉外面的老葉子和裡面的硬芯，
切細絲。
2，
出水 － 切好的菜放在大盆里加入1 1／3的鹽，混合均勻後靜止十分鐘。
3，
裝瓶 － 把變軟出水的捲心菜放入用來儲存的瓶子或其他容器里，用拳頭或者木匙狠狠地壓實 － 這時應該有很多汁液被擠出來，菜應該被壓到液面至少3厘米以下。如果汁液不夠的話倒入一些鹽水（1個半湯匙鹽混一升水，煮開後冷卻）。這個時候可以加入葛縷籽。
4，
壓實 － 在保鮮袋里倒入鹽水放入瓶裡，注意不要讓菜浮起來或壓住氣泡，總之是不能讓菜碰到空氣。傳統做法是用細網布之類的壓住菜絲，在上面加一個與容器尺寸幾乎吻合的碟子，再放上重物壓實。
5，
放在陰暗涼爽的地方（15到20攝氏度是最好的，太熱了菜就壞了，太冷時間就需要更久）一個月。如果放在冰箱里的話由於溫度低需要放6至8個星期。另外如果容器不夠大在醃製過程中汁液會不停慢慢溢出來，可以在容器底下墊個碟子。
6，一個月後 － 可以吃啦！
提示：
1，捲心菜鹽水不能碰到金屬（包括封瓶子口的鐵絲） － 會起反應的
2，醃製的第一個星期左右會有很多氣泡冒出來，之後會慢下來但也會持續有氣泡產生，而酸菜特有的味道也會慢慢出來。當氣泡不再產生時發酵過程就完成了，酸菜就可以吃了。
3，酸菜可以在冰箱里放很久，它會繼續慢慢發酵而失去生脆的口感。儲藏過程中盡量隔絕空氣。酸菜還可以冰起來，如果一次做很多的話這樣就很方便了。另外還可以封罐，不過在加熱消毒的過程中酸菜的維他命C就失去了。
