I’m a big fan of pickled things - cucumber pickles, sure, but also the stranger stuff like beets and herring. Just Bento recently blogged about “instant” pickled radishes - she used a combination of vinegar/salt/sweet that sounded really interesting with the heat of the radish, and it sounded so good I needed to try it. I picked up some radishes at the Ballard Farmers Market, scrubbed and trimmed them, and cut them each in half lengthwise. Her recipe called for a 4/3/1 ratio of rice vinegar, ume vinegar, and strawberry syrup. I had the rice vinegar on hand, our local PCC had ume vinegar - a really unusual salty plum vinegar - but I didn’t have strawberry syrup. Instead, I strained a bit of my strawberry jam and came up with a couple of tablespoons of liquid. I mixed them together and added them to my jar of radishes.
After a quick photo op next to the lettuce (Look! Still no slugs!), they went into the fridge to chill and pickle. I tried them two hours later and they were great! Just a couple of hours in the fridge and everything had kind of mellowed - the radishes weren’t too hot, they were just nice and salty and vinegary and radishy. They were really fast and easy, and I’ll definitely make them again. I’m not that fond of radishes on their own, but these were super.
Here are a bunch of other unusual pickles from some of my favorite food blogs:
Pickled grapes with cinnamon and black pepper from Smitten Kitchen
Pickled Garlicky Red Peppers from Smitten Kitchen
Bread and Butter pickles from Simply Recipes
Pickled jalapenos from David Lebovitz
Pickled carrots from David Lebovitz
Pickled beets from Goodbye City Life
5 Comments
My uncle makes Tabasco Pickles which have very much the same flavor of hot, sweet and vinagery. I use Tapatio instead of Tabasco Sauce.
TABASCO PICKLES
Recipe By :
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Sauces
Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 qt Hamburger Sliced Dill
-Pickles
2 1/2 c Sugar
1 oz Tabasco Sauce
Take a regular quart of pickles and drain the juice
off the pickles. Add the sugar and Tabasco Sauce. Let
it set for 5 days. Shake or invert the jar at least
twice a day to insure an even coating. This makes a
very tasty pickle. Of course the amount of Tabasco can
be adjusted to suit your own taste.
Pretty! Pickled grapes? Hmmm…
Yum, radishes! Great vehicle for pickles. In Japan practically every meal is served with a few slices of pickled daikon, a very big, long white radish. My father made pickled baby turnips the other day, threw one beet in the mix for color. Very pretty, very tasty.
I used to live in Korea, I loved daikon!
How’sabout some pickled watermelon? Yum!