Kimchi and Sauerkraut

Kimchi is korean fermented cabbage. A different type of chinese cabbage fermented with chilly pepper paste and sea food .
Sauerkraut on the other hand is German fermented cabbage. English cabbage fermented with just plain salt.
IN both cases similar organisms ferment the cabbage and make it more palatable(less palatable depending on what you find palatable or agreeable taste)
Both these types of fermentation definitely reduce the myrocin induced cabbagey smell of cabbage and impart a more sourish taste to it.
Kimchi is used like a pickle in korea , as a side to a bowl of rice.
Sauerkraut is used to saute with bacons bits and onion for breakfast or in soups or stews per say.
The thing is, I make my own vegan version of kimchi and sauerkraut.
I make kimchi sans the seafood bits. I make sauerkraut the usual way but use it to make sauerkraut omelette or sauerkraut soups.
I love them both as condiments or in salads to spike up the deal .
I usually don't post recipes in here due to recipe stealers who won't give me any credit or link back to me on their foodblogs . I also am saving up the pictures and recipes for my future vegan cookbook. If inspite of this if you need my recipe, place a request in the comments section.If I accumulate twenty requests from 20 people, I shall take the time to post a step by step picture blog for the recipe.Free time is hard to come by and unless i have solid requests , I won't waste time watermarking stuff and putting them up on this blog.

My breakfast patterns from 2006-How I gave up eggs and milk one day

whoa , I cannot believe it is 2009. three years down the drain? Shall we call them that? Or three years of soul searching and self discovery.
Well, I am just gonna be happy and all positive and call them, THOSE THREE YEARS OF PERSONAL GROWTH AMONGST RELATIVE SELF IMPOSED SOLITUDE.
So yeah, I remember my breakfasts from 2006. I used to more patient, I used to take time to set my plates neatly on the table one by one after fixing them and then finally , I would make my cup of coffee and then lay this whole beautiful set up near the window of the balcony and then finally take a picture with the rising sun and then slowly proceed to eat them one after another.
I became vegan in the past six months. I was ovolacto vegetarian prior to that. For one, till i gave up eggs and milk, I was super addicted to both eggs and milk and cheese . To such an extent that though In my head I had been wanting to become vegan since the age of 14, I just could not fathom not eating eggs and being happy. I was afraid that If i stopped eating cheese, I would die or be miserable for the rest of my life. So for most part, I kinda felt like a hypocrite eating up tons of cheese and then talking about how animals are not part of our natural diet and such. One night suddenly I realized that the only way to gain respect in my own eyes would be to actually just give up eggs and that is that. I gave up eggs that night. I took my last eggs(there were three and i made a midnight snack with those three eggs and ate them up telling that they would be my last eggs. I ate them and rinsed my mouth( I don't remember if i did rinse ) and then with a nodding conviction went to sleep. I haven't eggs since then. Ya know what, it doesn't matter . coz , eggs do not belong to us. The wild hens would peck you if you attempted stealign their eggs in the wild. So yes, keeping a poor hen in a cage and not allowing it enough room even to turn around and then stupidly stealing those eggs and eating them up, not something we must be proud of. I haven't eaten eggs in six months, and I am very proud, I have more respect for myself than ever before. I haven't eaten cheese in six months or more, and surprise, surprise, I haven't died.
anways, My breakfasts in 2006 invariably used to contain eggs. each day one type of egg preparation. I also used to add up toasted bread with jelly or jam and butter and a small serving fo sliced fruit with each egg serving each morning. And a good latte to go with it all.
The pictures all llok cool, scarmbled eggs, bull's eye fried egg, frittatta, this and that, scones with eggs, cake with eggs and fruits. It was all great.
fastforward to 2009, my breakfasts contain nice bean tortillas, millet panckaes, corn bread, fruit , toast and jelly, vegan scones, raisin bun, vegan cinnamon bun, vegan bagels and what not. Infact, after I gave up egg, the variety of my breakfast has multiplied.
So yeah, Now I have this urge to go and look at all those breakfast pictures. Maybe I will go look right now.

Malting and fermentation as methods to enhance nutritive value

I did write a blog post about fermentation. I just gave out a basic definition of fermentation and how it can make foods more digestible. Now that I have talked about fermentation, why not talk about Malting.
Malting is a natural way of processing foods.
Malting essentially involves sprouting various types of grain and thus arresting this process of germination by suddenly application of moderate heat- as in not roasting out the germinated cereal but actually slow gentle heating of the germinated cereal and then finely powdering this grain.
Fermentation might occur to a lil extent during the time that the grain is left in damp conditions to sprout.
Either ways, Malting makes things easier to assimilate and digest. Therefore ofcourse in older times home malting of tough grains and then making baby food out of the malted grain was a better way to ensure that the baby is able to take full advantage of the diet being fed.
My gramma for one actually undertook huge projects of home malting to make baby food for her grandchildren(me included) I was trying to recall in my head what she used to do while she malted millets for my aunt's babies . No one really tries home malting anymore . They should though, especially if one is vegan and wants a super great milk supplement in the morning that does not contain non vegan ingredients in them. Look at it this way, On a sunday , if it takes a good 20 minutes to go out and then 20 minutes to order your breakfast and then 10 min to eat it and another 20 minutes to come back home., why not just save gas and save the environment and spend the two hours at home malting stuff that will last a whole month?
Anyways, if you look at modern protein supplements and those protein powders that people that work out partake of, many of them do contain one or more malted cereals in them. Go look on the food labels. Many liquors also use malted grains . so , if you are one big drunk ass, you sure are consuming some malted stuff .
So yeah, coming back to home malting, Germination is gonna be easy to do .Wet your grains damp , let them sprout.the tricky bit is the gentle heating part. What my grammy used to do was to sun dry the germinated grain, thus ensuring that everything dries gently but crisply dry . If you live in the sunny southern states, you could very well try this trick of drying things on your back porch on large polyethene sheets. works. try it and tell me how it worked.cheers.