Guizhou Pickled Cabbage

Salads, Pickles, and Other Cold Foods

Guizhou Pickled Cabbage
Ingredients:
1 cup coarse non-iodized salt
1/4 cup Chinese brown slab sugar
1/4 cup Maotai or gin
1/4 cup fermented rice, liquid preferred and not the rice
1/4 cup Shaoxing yellow rice wine
1/4 cup dried chili peppers, lightly crushed with side of the cleaver
1 whole nutmeg, partially crushed with handle of a cleaver
3 whole star anise
1 Tablespoon whole Sichuan peppercorns
1 whole white peppercorns
3 pounds Chinese or any leafy cabbage, shredded, and air dried overnight
Preparation:
1. Bring six cups of water to the boil and pour it into a clean sterilized jar and add the salt and brown sugar and stir until dissolved, then cool this to lukewarm, add Maotai and the fermented rice liquid, and set aside to come to room temperature.
2. Put chili peppers, nutmeg, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, and white peppers in a large cloth spice bag and tie it closed. Pour two cups boiling water over it washing the spices, then put in the pickling jar. And stir once or twice.
3. Add the partially air-dried shredded cabbage to the pickling jar, stir a few times, and cover with a plate or something that will keep the cabbage submerged. Set aside outdoors, in the shade, for five to seven days,. Take out the amount of cabbage needed and store the rest in a cool dark place.
Note: A second batch of air-dried shredded cabbage can be put into the pickling liquid when all of the previous cabbage has been removed, it will pickle but not be as sour as the first batch.

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