Pickled Radishes

Like what I said, anything touched with vinegar is delicious to me.  And I am presently in a vinegary food binge.  I recently cooked the salt & vinegar potato chips and it fixed my craving (for now) for those very good French potato chips.  Then came the avocado, tomato & spring onion salad which was so good with the grilled salmon that I bought some more avocado and salmon soon after for an encore. 

Here is a discovery from Jun Belen's Jun-blog (who in turn got it from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home) that takes almost no effort in making but is lipsmacking good.  The sweetness & sourness of the pickling agent is just perfect.  From the original recipe, I had to add a pinch of salt & a dash of pepper.   I felt like I had to break the sweetness & the sourness a bit.  That is how I would like my pickled radishes to taste like.  It can be different for you so the salt & pepper are of course, optional. 

I prepared these pickles much in advance. When I tried them a few hours after preparation, something like 3 hours, the radishes already caught the taste of the pickling liquid.  But then, when I had them again the following day, the radishes completely absorbed the liquid. They were strong and delicious. I was amazed at how the vinegar took the color of the skin of the radish and in turn made everything red.  

I finished the radishes in no time but the pickling liquid remained.  The penny pincher in me didn't want to throw out the liquid so I did another batch of radishes using the same pickling agent.  They didn't taste as good as the first batch. In fact, even the day after, they still didn't catch the full taste like they should. So based on my little experience, you can't recycle the pickling liquid.  Maybe you already know that.  I didn't. 

Pickled Radishes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup champagne vinegar (I substituted it with white wine vinegar.)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup red radishes, washed, trimmed, thinly sliced or quartered
• salt & pepper (I added these on my own.)

 Directions:

1. Combine vinegar, sugar, and water in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  
2. Remove from the fire and let cool to room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator.
3. Put the radishes in a canning jar or other storage container and pour the pickling liquid over them.   Let stand for 20 to 30 minutes, then cover and refrigerate for up to 1 month.  
4. The radishes absorbed the vinegar mixture after a few hours in the pickling liquid.   I enjoyed them better the day after.