Wild garlic kimchi —¶

Last Friday was the first attempt of the year to pick wild garlic in the woods. It was a success (like all walks in the forest are) but not entirely. The wild garlic was still relatively small but it didn’t stop me from picking enough to make a pasta sauce for dinner and barely enough leaves to make a test batch of wild garlic kimchi. My sister recommended this recipe to me a few weeks ago, on the first sunny spring-ish day of the year.
Last year, she harvested so much wild garlic that she had to find a creative way to put it to use. Wild garlic kimchi – what a fantastic idea! ¶

Today, I am salting the 80g of wild garlic with a small tablespoon of salt. Toss everything around until it starts to sweat. Leave it aside while you prepare the red chili paste. First, grate the apple and the garlic. Add the brown sugar and the Korean chilli flakes (gochugarou). Mix well until you get a homogeneous paste.
Use a clean kitchen towel to absorb some of the water off the wild garlic leaves and then rub the red paste on the leaves. The wild garlic leaves need to be covered all over. Place everything into a jar and spread the remaining paste on top. I’ll leave this jar outside for a few days and then move it to the fridge. I’ll add updates around timings and results below soon. ¶