During the pandemic my college roommates and I began talking via Zoom every Sunday. As life has returned to normal, there are more interruptions. Sometimes nobody can make it; it's rare for all five of us to be there for the whole hour. But it's so nice to have a regular time to see each other's faces and stay caught up.
For the past few weeks I've been cooking during the calls. (I usually keep myself muted so the kitchen noises don't disrupt the call.) This is the time of year when we have both CSA bounty and CSA fatigue, so it's been hard to stay on top of the veggie situation. But a quiet hour chatting with friends turns out to be a perfect time in which to do some chopping and roasting. It's also been a good time for trying some new things in the kitchen, without the weeknight pressure to get a meal on the table efficiently.
Last week, for the first time, I tried making pickled daikon. I've always enjoyed pickled radish at Korean restaurants, but in the US "pickle" and "cucumber" are practically synonymous and I'd never attempted to make it at home before. We get a lot of daikon from our farmer, and we only eat up some of it in slaws and stir-fries. I decided I'd see how home-pickled daikon turned out.
To my surprise, I've been eating it all week, in everything. If I take leftover stew to work for lunch, I put some pickled daikon in a baggie to sprinkle on top after it's heated up. This morning i made myself a little batch of egg salad, and I added olives and pickled daikon before I scooped it into hollowed-out tomato halves. Like any pickle, it's sweet and sour and salty. Unlike cucumber pickles, it is still deliciously crunchy after a week in the fridge. It's such a nice flavor/texture contrast that my first batch is almost gone.
If you also enjoy pickled radish at Korean restaurants, or if you're seeing beautiful daikon at fall farmer's markets, or if you just prefer your pickles nice and crunchy and want to try something new, it couldn't be any easier. Here's what you do:
Dissolve 1/2 c. sugar and 1 t. salt in 1/2 c. rice vinegar and 1/2 c. hot water. Peel and cube a pound of daikon. The recipe says half-inch cubes; mine vary in size. Combine and leave at room temperature for 24 hours. Refrigerate thereafter.
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