Pickled moo - Korean pickled radish

Sweet and Sour Pickled Moo

These pickled radish cubes go great with fried chicken.  Most Korean fried chicken joints, such as Bon Chon Chicken, give you this as a side dish.


Ingredients
Korean radish (about 1.5 lbs.), peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 tsp. salt
1/3 c. rice vinegar
1/3 c. sugar

Directions
1. Find a Korean radish that's about 1.5 lbs.  If you are a small duck like me, it will probably be a little bigger than you.

2. I weighed my radish, just to show you.  You don't have to do this.  My radish was 27.22 ounces before peeling.

3. Now peel the radish.  Sorry, I couldn't get the lighting right.  Trust me, it's white.

4. Cut the radish into 1/2 inch cubes.  Be careful not to cut yourself.

5. I ended up with about 5 cups of radish cubes.

6. Add the salt to the radish cubes and toss to combine.  I used sea salt, but you can use plain old Morton's salt if you want.

7. After about 1 hour, drain off the liquid.  The salt draws out some of the water in the radish, softening it.  It also draws out some of the bitterness.  Rinse the radish cubes thoroughly with clean water, drain, and return to your bowl.

8. Add the sugar and rice vinegar to the radish cubes.  I have found that a 1:1 ratio works well.  If you use white vinegar instead of rice vinegar, then you should adjust the amount of sugar, since white vinegar is more acidic than rice vinegar.

9. Stir to combine.  Make sure the sugar is well dissolved.  If you want, you can separately dissolve the sugar in the vinegar and then add it to the radish cubes.

10. I stored mine in a plastic soup container from a Chinese takeout.  The pickled radish will be ready to eat in about 30 minutes or so, but the flavor will improve after a day in the refrigerator.