Red Radish Pickles
Here is my red radish pickles recipe. You can mix the radishes with summer baby Kirby cucumber and/or baby eggplant. After 1 to 2 days of waiting – depending on the size of the vegetables that you are using; smaller vegetables are pickled in a shorter period than the larger ones – they are ready to eat.
These pickles area healthy, delicious snack anytime of the day.Â
1 ½ pounds assorted small summer radishes, thoroughly rinsed and leaves cut off
1 tablespoon sea salt
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup mirin (sweet cooking wine)
2 teaspoons salt
In a medium bowl combine 2 cups water and1 tablespoon sea salt, and submerge the radishes for 4 hours at room temperature. In a saucepan bring the mirin to a simmer. Add the sugar,  2 teaspoons sea salt, rice vinegar and ¾ cup water and cook the mixture over medium heat until the sugar and salt dissolve, stirring continuously with a spoon. Turn off the heat and cool the liquid. After 4 hours soaking, rinse the radishes briefly under running cold tap water. Drain the radishes well and place them into a pickling pot or a glass or plastic container*. Pour the cooled pickling liquid over the radishes in the pot or container, press the radishes with an inner pressing board, and cover the container with a lid. Refrigerate for 2 days before serving.
*When you are using a glass or plastic container which does not come with a inner pressing board such as the picture with a special pickling pot shows, place a clean flat plate, which is slightly smaller size than the container, on top of the radishes, and place about 2 pounds of weight objects – a food can, large stone or exercise weight – on top of the plate. The weight objects should be placed in a Ziploc bag so that they do not have a direct contact with the pickling liquid.
Tags: hiroko shimbo, Japanese Cuisine, japanese pickled vegetables, Japanese recipe, pickled vegetables, red radishes
