Daikon Monolith, originally uploaded by exoskeletoncabaret.
Yes, folks, I did it again. I succumbed to yet another pickling experiment, this time with a chunk of daikon radish, acquired from the Asian grocery I frequent in the International District of Seattle. Pickles are so incredibly easy to make, and these went over very well at the Thanksgiving meal I shared.
Pre-pickling, the massive daikon loomed on my yellow cutting board like a crisp, snowy henge. I pried off the rind and chopped the radish into medallions, tucked it smartly into a mason jar, and bathed it in a salt, garlic, and pepper brine.
The lacto-fermented daikon pickle recipe came from The Urban Homestead, which is a superb book by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen of the blog Homegrown Revolution. They recommend using a very clean quart jar (I boiled mine and let cool), and enough daikon rounds or quarters to fill. I added a few garlic cloves for flavor, and then mixed in a solution consisting of cool bottled water and 2.5 tablespoons of sea salt. Iodized salt is frowned upon as it kills the good bacteria that make these sorts of pickles tasty, good for the digestion, and safe to eat.
The salt water should be blended in a separate container and then poured over the radish pieces, leaving a small amount of “breathing” room at the top of the quart jar. Cap it and set the daikon aside in a cool and dark place to hang out for a few days. Expect some amount of fizzing when you open the pickles, but toss them if they smell off or feel squishy. I tend to rinse the salt water off of mine before consuming, but you can eat them directly from the jar if you prefer.
I think these pickles would be epic in vegan sushi. Yum!
