Thai Style Sweet and Sour Pickled Cabbage, Made with Monk Fruit Sweetener

Method

1. Strip the tough outer leaves from 2.5kg cabbage and cut it into quarters from the top down, or into six if the head is large. Leave the core in so the cabbage holds together in the brine.
2. Rinse the cabbage and drain it. Bring a pot of water to a hard boil and blanch the cabbage, lifting it out into a basin of ice water as soon as the water returns to the boil. Once it has cooled, tip it into a colander and drain it thoroughly.
3. Peel 250g carrot, trim both ends, rinse it and cut it into rounds about 0.2cm thick. Trim the roots and wilted leaves from 200g celery, wash it in salted water and cut it into 3cm lengths. Peel 50g garlic and slice it thinly. Stem 25 to 30g hot chili and 25g red horn chili, rinse them and cut them on the diagonal.
4. Wash the jar and dry it completely.
5. Mix the brine: bring 500ml vinegar to a boil and turn off the heat. Stir in 360g kOBE Monk Fruit Blend, 50g salt, 100ml fish sauce and 500ml cooled boiled water until everything dissolves. Let the mixture cool completely.
6. Pack the cabbage into the jar in layers, alternating with celery, carrot, garlic and chili. Pour the cooled brine over and seal the lid.
7. After about a day the cabbage is sour and full flavored. Move it to another container and keep it in the fridge, where it holds for about a month.

Tips

• Boiling the vinegar first softens the sharp sourness and helps the pickles keep.
• The jar must be spotless and dry and the brine fully cool before it goes in, or the surface films over and the vegetables spoil.
• Da Lat cabbage has thick ribs, so it needs a slightly longer blanch than the local kind.
• Eat it soon after mixing, since standing draws water out of the vegetables and dilutes the taste.
• Slice the carrot into 0.2 cm rounds, as thicker takes the brine slowly and stays raw tasting.