how to make sweet n’ sour pickled radish

My boyfriend and I were supposed to go to Boston for his niece’s 2nd birthday party this weekend, but we had to cancel it because his sister had another baby girl! We are so excited for his sister and her family. 🙂

Since we weren’t going to Boston, we were able to attend the birthday party of one of my old friends from my art school. The party was at McCarren park in Brooklyn. The weather was nice, and it was very nice to see my old friends. Understandably, there were a lot of people besides us at the park, but we didn’t expect to see zombies. Yes, there were dozens of zombies at the park. Apparently there was a zombie crawl (not a walk, but crawl) in Williamsburg. I guess zombies are hip this summer.

We came home late from the park, and didn’t have the time to do a full how-to today. So I decided to show how I store leftover veggies. Sometimes, I use radish for my kyaraben. The candle on the cake for Portal bento, a cigarette for Mechazawa in Cromartie High bento, mushrooms for the Totoro parade bento, etc… Radish is a good ingredient for solid white things in kyaraben, like the snowflake I’ve made before. I usually just eat leftover radish raw, but if there’s a lot leftover I make sweet pickled radish.

[Basic measurement for this recipe for sweet n’ sour radish pickle]
Rice vinegar – 4 TBS
Sugar – 1 and 1/2 TBS
Salt – a pinch
Lemon juice (if you have any) – 1/2 TS

You can just double, triple, quadruple the measurements according to how much radish you have.

1. Don’t peel the skin of the radish, and cut it in four pieces. *Its shape doesn’t really change the taste of pickled radish, but I was told it’s crunchier this way.

2. Sprinkle salt (not in the measurements) over the radish, put it in a ziploc bag and try to remove as much air as possible from the bag, let it sit for 30 minutes in the fridge. (if you don’t have a ziploc bag, you can put in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap) *This process will remove water from the radish.

3. Mix all ingredients in a glass bowl or jar. If the sugar doesn’t dissolve, you can simmer or microwave the mixture until the sugar dissolves, but don’t over cook it! The vinegar will lose its acidity if you cook it too much.

4. Take the radish out of ziploc bag, wrap it with paper towel and squeeze it to remove excess water.

5. Put it in a jar, and your sweet n’ sour pickled radish will be ready in about an hour at the earliest, but I let it sit in the fridge at least over night. As you can see, radish’s skin will dye everything inside the jar, and it’s very pink and cute. I also put daikon (Asian radish) in there. The sweet and sour taste is soooooo good.

I probably tripled the ingredients to fill up the jar, but I don’t think you need to stick to the exact measurements. 😛 You can add more or put less sugar if you want. Radish stays crunchy for a really long time. I made this jar of pickle about a month ago, and it’s still yummy.

How to make sweet n’ sour pickled radish on my flickr

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.

If you have any questions about any of my how-to’s, please feel free to leave a comment or email me!