Sweet Pickled Radishes

 

Mrs and I have the house to ourselves again and we also have two community garden plots to grow in!

So far this year, there have been a few small harvests. Due to distance and illness and such the garden has not received as much care as I'd like, but we are enjoying what IS coming out of it. 

11 lbs 8 oz of washed and trimmed radishes

On top of the chive flowers, we had two small and one HUGE haul of radishes. The large haul was sorted and the larger ones(some as big as our budgie) were sliced for pickles and the rest were blanched and frozen for future roast-root side dishes.

The picked radishes are a favourite here. The process steals almost all the heat and leaves behind a nice crunchy sweet and sour pickle.

These are the ingredients PER 500mL JAR so you can easily whip some up from grocery radishes to give them a try. These are the instructions as I found them. I'll put my changes at the bottom:

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Ingredients:

• 1 bunch radishes about a 1/2 pound, stem and root ends removed and cut into 1/8 inch slices
• 1/2 cup white or apple cider vinegar 5% acidity
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper optional

Instructions:

Place radishes in a hot, sterilised 1-pint jar. Bring vinegar, sugar, water, salt, spices and bay leaf to a boil in an enamelled saucepan

Ladle hot pickling liquid over radishes. Wipe jar rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band, and adjust to fingertip-tight. Let cool on a wire rack ( about 1 hour). Chill 6 hours before serving. Store in refrigerator up to 4 months.

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I followed these directions the first time, but I've found that a week in the fridge is required for the full flavour to develop. 

Also, if you're doing multiple jars, it's much easier and more reliable flavour-wise if you place the dry seasonings in the bottom of the jar, then the radishes, topping it off with the hot sugar/vinegar/water mix. This ensures every jar gets the same amount of each seasoning and you don't wind up with some that are more mustardy or peppery.

We also water-bath can most of the pickles so they can be shelf stable through the winter. There would be no room for milk if all the pickles had to live in the fridge.

So after all that work we now have radishes out the wazzoo and won't need to buy any at the grocer store right?....... right?