It seems that the natural progression after you have been foraging for a while is to make kimchi aka fermented foods using the traditional Korean recipe for fermented cabbage. In this recipe I used wild garlic, which transforms into the most fragrant spicy and garlicky kimchi you can think of.
You can either do wet or dry fermenting: wet fermenting requires brining then rinsing off the water, then adding spices, and the traditional method also requires fermented fish sauce. With dry fermenting you layer vegetables and salt first then add spices. Chlorinated water from the tap interferes with fermentation so distilled water is preferable for this preparation. It is also worth noting that industrial table salt may contain chemicals that also interfere with fermentation: I used Himalayan salt for this recipe, but you can choose any natural sea salt.
Vegetables reduce greatly in volume with this process so if you want to make a good batch of kimchi you need plenty of raw materials. As this was my first experiment making homemade kimchi, the quantities are reduced so simply multiply them as needed.
INGREDIENTS
200 gr wild garlic
1 tablespoon Himalayan salt
For the gochujang paste:
½ teaspoon sugar
1 cm cube of fresh ginger, minced
2 tablespoons dry chilli flakes
2 tablespoons soy sauce
METHOD
In a large bowl layer the wild garlic with the salt, then scrunch the leaves and bruise them until they release water. Wrap a weight (food cans for example) with cling film and place it over the wild garlic and salt mixture. Cover with cling film and leave to macerate for at least 1 hour, maximum 2 hours.
For the next step you can wear clean rubber gloves: add the gochujang paste made of sugar, ginger, chilli and soy sauce, mix well with the wild garlic, scrunching everything together.
Transfer this mixture to a sterilised jar and pack it well to release any air. Cover the top with cling film and put a weight over it, then seal the jar with its lid.
Leave in a cool dark place for at least a day and up to 7 days.
The kimchi is ready to serve as an accompaniment to meat, fish or vegetarian dishes as a crunchy side or starter, or can be used in stir fry recipes.