I adapted this recipe from the fermenting guru, Sandor Kraut, and it turned out fantastically (yours can, too!), even though this most recent batch was concocted in the dead of February*.
1 small cabbage, ~1.5 lb, chopped
1 lg carrot, grated
1 daikon, ~0.5 lb, grated
1 bunch green onions, incl green parts, chopped
4 sm or 2 lg cloves garlic, minced
2 T non-iodized salt
Put all in your big stainless steel bowl and either pound w/ a mallet or smoosh with (thoroughly washed) hands, till you've gotten a bunch of liquid out of it and the veg are collapsed. Pack the mixture very tightly in 1-quart glass jars (this amount of veg should fill about 2 of them), using your fist to make sure it's packed down as tight as possible and that the liquid rises over the solids. Work till the vegetables are about 1 in from the top of the jar. They need to be submerged under the liquid, so if you don't have enough liquid, top the jars off with a bit of filtered water. **END ACTIVE PART**
**BEGIN PASSIVE, POETIC, PRODUCTIVE PART** Cover with the jar lids (screw on fairly loosely), and set aside on your countertop, out of direct sunlight but not somewhere that you'll forget about them, because after about a day's worth of fermenting they'll start to bubble and build up air pressure. You'll have to let air out of them twice a day, morning and night, during this process, and if you don't, I'm not sure what could happen, but with amount of pressure that builds up just in an 8-hour period, I bet you'd be looking at broken glass and a cabbage explosion. In any case, taste your sauerkraut after about 3 days and decide if you like it. If not, let it keep going and taste it again a few days later. Once it tastes like you want it to, put the jars in the fridge.
Every time you have some, just make sure to press the veg under the liquid and screw the jar lids on nice and tight. I don't recommend adding any more filtered water at this point, since after the initial fermentation more water just seems to dilute the flavor. This stuff seems to keep for as long as it takes you to consume it; I've kept mine in the fridge for months and just gets tastier!
*We keep our house an average of 68F, which they say is the ideal temperature at which fermentation occurs.
