SWEET ASIAN PICKLED VEGETABLES

I love these sweet sharp pickles in a banh mi style baguette, maybe with slices of leftover roast pork belly (see here) or barbecued meat (see bun thit nuong, here); tossed with boring vegetables to add zing to a salad; maybe rolled with rice into bastardized sushi; or really, just eaten straight out of the jar with a (clean) pair of chopsticks. Once you’ve got the base recipe down, you can pretty much sweet-Asian-pickle whatever crunchy seasonal vegetable you fancy, with whatever flavours your creativity can conjure.

Makes 2 x 350g jars

• 300g crunchy vegetables, e.g. cucumber, radishes, kohlrabi, carrot, daikon
• a pinch of sea salt

For the pickling liquid 

• 125–175g sugar
• 250ml white rice vinegar

Extra flavourings

• spices / herbs / aromatics like garlic, ginger or lemongrass
• chopped chillies

1. Slice the vegetables into rounds, batons, or whatever bite-size shapes you fancy. Massage the vegetables with a sprinkling of salt and leave for 10 minutes or so to sweat. Drain, pressing them gently to squeeze out any salty water.
2. Meanwhile, bring the sugar and rice vinegar to a simmer and stir until the sugar dissolves. Let the mixture cool completely.
3. Place the vegetables in clean glass containers or jars. Pour the pickling liquid over the vegetables, cover, and let chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.*
4. These pickles should keep for a few days, or even up to 2 weeks, if submerged properly in the liquid.