Chinese Pickled Cherry Radish Flower

Asian people pickle a great variety of food. This recipe is one of my favorite Chinese pickles, as it's easy to make, take short time to pickle, and look super pretty.

You will need:

--Cherry Radish 400g

--Sugar 45g

--Chinese rice vinegar (or you can use white vinegar) 30g

--Salt 1tsp

--Lime 2ea (optional)

Wash the radish and dry it properly. Cut off both ends.

Put a pair of old chopsticks under the radish (to prevent cut through the radish), and cut fine slices.

Turn the radish 90 degree, cut fine slices from the other side.

Then your radish is ready to use.

Sprinkle salt on the radish, and leave it in the bowl for about 30 min. Make sure all the radish has some salt on it.

After 30 min or so, there will be some water come out from the radish. Squeeze the radish and get rid of excess moisture inside, then arrange them in a container that has been sanitized before.

The reason to get rid of water first is that when you start to pickle it, the flavor would go into the radish more easily.

Dissolve the sugar with about 300ml boiling water, set aside and wait till it cools down.

Squeeze in the lime juice and add vinegar, mix everything together.

Pour the liquid into the radish that has been squeezed before. The liquid should cover at least 2/3 of the radish.

Now you have two choices on how your pickled radish would look like:

1. You can pickle it for as short as 30 to get a clear contrast of red and white color, the "flower" would be open up a bit, and you can still taste the crunchy and refreshing radish taste within the sweet and sour juice.

2. Or, you can pickle it overnight to a few days (but in this case, you have to cover the whole radish with pickling liquid in the previous step), and you will get a completely pink, soft, and tasty radish flower. The radish is softer after pickling and the "flower" will open up more. You cannot taste the radish anymore, but there is still a bit crunchiness in it!

Hope you enjoy this instructable, and leave a comment if you have any questions. You can also follow my instagram [YuesFoodStory] for my daily food pics.

If you like it, please vote for me in the canning and pickling contest as well, thanks a lot and enjoy!