New Experiences: Pickling

Stuck in a pickle with you

Later tonight, Brian and I will be cooking bulgogi! It is marinating in the fridge as we speak. In the meantime, I have been snacking on some pickled radish, a dish that's typically served as a side by almost all Korean restaurants.

We were thinking of sides for our bulgogi recipe, and pickled radish quickly came to mind. I have always liked them, but I never thought to make them at home. My family I once bought a jar from a Korean grocery store, but it didn't quite taste like the ones you get from restaurants. The recipe I found on Friday night seemed promising though, so I bought the ingredients at Metro and spent my Saturday night pickling radishes for the very first time in my life.

Step one was cooking pickling liquid on the stove. Because of the size of my radish, I doubled the proportions of the remaining ingredients from the get-go.

Step two was peeling my massive daikon radish, slicing it into half-inch cubes, and throwing the cubes into pickling jars.

Once the pickling liquid had cooled down, I proceeded to step 3: pouring the pickling liquid over the daikon. I ran out of it with an inch of room left in my first jar, so I fired up the stove and made another batch, which was enough to top up my first jar and fill up my second jar. Then I placed both jars in the fridge to pickle overnight.

Pickling in progress

True to their name, these pickled radish cubes are crunchy, tasty, and refreshing. They are a good palette cleanser, and I have been eating them non-stop since this morning. They will definitely taste good with our bulgogi tonight. Dinner will be excellent! :D