A Spring creation when the Wild Garlic and the stunning Magnolia flowers are blooming.
This delicious Wild kimchi in the making sourced from foraged ingredients.. I created an adapted Wild “kimchi” recipe to help me get through the Wild Biome Project 2025 where I was without kimchi, which is a tough situation in itself and just eating nothing but Wild food as part of the project. Inspired by “Eating Wild Japan” @winniebirdwords and @pascalbaudar and his incredible book on Wildcrafted fermentation, I’ve gone for this mix. Winne Bird talks of what Japanese cuisine used to be which involved preserving foraged food, whatever was available. Pascal Baudar ferments Wild food and often exactly what is available in the wild, capturing the seasons. I wish I had documented with photos but I was too busy running around gathering, virtually in the dark! I have been caught foraging with a head torch on at 11pm at night for a ferment that just has to be made! So this is rough quantities, and done to taste.
2 big handfuls of wild garlic washed and chopped (before it flowers) This is your garlic kick for a typical kimchi
8 magnolia buds (peel off the outer furry layer and separate the petals Magnolia has a bitterness appreciated in kimchi but also the ginger kick we love in a kimchi too
1 tsp of myrtle berries these give a fruity, pepperiness to the ferment
1 tbsp of dulse seaweed for umami flavour
And to add to this some cep mushroom broth for added umami
2 tbsp of deseeded rosehip for fruitiness and to balance and work with
2 big tsp of freshly grated horseradish to give the kick or the closest I could get to the chilli in a kimchi.
I added 1 tsp of honey to add the sweetness for balance
2% salt to make the ferment complete.
Korean Kimchi usually hits sour, sweet, salty, bitter and spicy flavours and with a strong umami note. This was not the kimchi in the traditional sense but I loved it so much I made 3 kgs more! When it comes to kimchi why not experiment with what the season shares with us.
Wild garlic is such a wonderful wild green that can be so versatile. How to identify and forage for Wild Garlic