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    Asian Radish, Carrot, and Turnip Pickles

    By trkingmomoe on Mon, 01/27/2014 - 2:19am |

     

    The last couple of weeks I have had a large daikon radish in my CSA box. Also there was carrots, hakurie turnips, pablano and jalapenos.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    What was I going to do with these?

    I spent time on the internet looking up how to cook the radish and turnip. I kept running into various recipes to make pickles out of them. A sweet and spicy vegetable pickle. Normally they make them as refrigerator pickles but I had too much to be able to eat them all in a few weeks. So I did find a few recipes that processed them in sterilized jars and water bath for long term storage. I spent hours watching videos on how it each asian country made these pickles and how they served them. Most of the time I had no idea what they were saying but just watched them. I now know what kimchi and do chua is.

    I washed and sterilized my jars first and put them in a hot oven at 250 degrees with a little water in them so they would be ready when I wanted to pack them. I peeled the daikon radishes and cut them in long sticks about ½ inch thick. I did the same with the carrots. I put them in a container and sprinkled kosher salt on them to sit and weep for a half hour or more. I then cut up the turnips in chunks and put them also in the container with the other vegetables. The salt causes them to loose water so they will take up the brine better. I peeled garlic cloves. One for each pint jar. I also cut up the peppers. The jalapeno I cut in rings a ½ inch thick and the other pablano in stips so each jar would have a piece of both peppers. I didn’t want the pickles to be to hot but just a mild heat to them. I also was given some fresh dill the week before that I picked enough sprigs for each jar.

    I made the pickling brine from 1 part sugar, 2 parts water, and 2 parts white vinegar. I was going to fill 9 pints because that is what my canner holds at a time. So I started with 1 cup sugar, 2 pints of water and 2 pints of vinegar. To that I added a teaspoon of ground turmeric and heated it until the sugar was dissolved and the brine was hot. I tasted the brine then added a little more sugar.  I held back on the sugar until I was sure it wasn't too sweet.

    I drained the liquid off of the vegetables and packed them in the hot jars adding a clove of garlic, sprig of dill and a piece of each kind of pepper. Then I put a half teaspoon of kosher salt and a teaspoon of pickling spices to each jar. I poured the hot brine on each one as I finished packing each one and wiped the rim so the lids would seal. I tighten the lid and put the jar in the canner of warm water. I didn’t peel enough carrots so I had to add more of them to the last few jars. I made additional brine also to finish packing the jars. I processed them in a hot water bath for 15 minutes after the canner started to boil hard.

    There is one jar that lid has a wrinkle in it and sealed. I have never seen that before. I am going to put it into the refrigerator to open in a week to taste. I have never had this type of pickle before. I have made many jars of pickles in my life but not radish and turnips.

    This CSA adventure this time made really pretty jars of pickles.