Probiotics

[Ellen Madono]

Dear Vicki,

I hope you're finding some comfort for your teacher.

I thought of you this morning as I was taking the Chinese cabbage out of its broth. I'm making two Hakusai pickles. One is the ordinary Japanese pickle with no hot pepper or fish sauce. The other is a Korean kimchee. The Japanese one feels fairly raw still. It's not been in the broth quite so long.

I'm doing two things that are rather unconventional.

First I'm using the old broth from the previous batch of the same pickle.

Second, I have added fermented rice to both pickles. When I tasted them several weeks ago, I felt they were too salty and not sweet enough. That's why added the fermented rice. I think you can find blocks of fermented rice in any Korean food store. It's white, sold in blocks and looks a bit like cotton. You can still see the rice grains, but their knit together by the white strands of something that is fermented and dried. Both kinds of pickle tasted much sweeter. Also they ferment much faster when they have this addition. Traditionally the Koreans add sweet rice, Cooked rice to kimchee. This is slightly more expensive, but I think worth it.

Today I will go to the vegetable store and buy more Hakusai. Probably just another head of it. I will wash it and put it in the shade to dry, so this evening I'll stick it in the broth. Both of the pickles still have some of their leaves that are not yet eaten. I don't care and I'll just throw in the new leaves. I'll pick out the old ones until the new ones are ready.

I had cataract operation recently and they gave me antibiotics. Dr. Roz thinks these pickles are good enough as probiotics. My gut seems to agree also. My feeling is, the Korean kimchi has more variety of bacteria in it. So, as a probiotic it probably is stronger.

The ophthalmologist who did the surgery is very pleased with my progress. He doesn't know that I only take half of the amount of his medicines and the rest is homeopathy. Shhh. If it were up to me I wouldn't take any of his Medicines.

Blessings,
Ellen