K's Kitchen - Vietnamese pickles from Simply Recipes

One of the things I missed about living in Japan is fresh vegetables. Chinese people eat a lot of vegetables, but in the area I lived in, they were usually doused with sauce. It seems people are not very accustomed to eating raw vegetables, or in enjoying the flavor of vegetables rather than the sauce.

I love crunchy vegetables and I love the sourness of asazuke. These Vietnamese refrigerator pickles were even easier to make!  These are the pickles that are served with bahn mi sandwiches.

Adapted from Simply Recipes, shared on Weekly Reads #8 (March 2011).

Note: I have no idea whether these are Vietnamese or not, so please don't point that out! I'm just using the name of the recipe that was on the original website!


Yield: about 1 liter
Prep Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 8+ hours (these need to sit overnight in your refrigerator)

Ingredients: (original recipe halved, see below for my modifications)
- 450g carrots (I used 3 medium ones)
- 450g daikon (I substituted 3 medium cucumbers)
- 2 teaspoons + 120ml sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 190ml white vinegar
- 120ml warm water


Instructions:
1. Julienne the vegetables. Yes, they should be much thinner than what you see in the picture above.  I cut off half of the nail on one of my fingers while I was cutting the first carrot, and subsequently had less motivation to put in the effort to cut the vegetables.  A really careless accident - I forgot I hadn't cooked much in the past 2 years!
2. Put the vegetables in a large bowl and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons sugar and 1 teaspoon salt. Toss well and continue to mix as the vegetables soften, until they can be bent all the way over without breaking.  I highly recommend using as large a bowl as you have, it is much easier with a big bowl.
3. Rinse the vegetables well.
4. In a bowl, mix the warm water, vinegar, and 120cc sugar.
5. Pack the vegetables into containers and pour over the liquid. Sit in the refrigerator overnight before eating.

These were super easy and went well with the mushroom burgers I made last week.

 

Hope you enjoyed this recipe!

xoxo, K