I had all but given up on trying to grow daikon radishes until I discovered pop-up nets. These keep flies from laying eggs on the radish patch soil, so this year I do not have spoiled radishes riddled with tunnels. In fact they are beautiful, if I do say so myself. With everything else that’s happening, I probably won’t have time to make khakdugi, but fermented radishes are quick and uncomplicated.
This is one of the simplest ferments, and in our house, not intended to be stored for long because they are such great snacks. For this reason, I was comfortable with testing out a couple of crude but effective modifications to my own preferred practices.
If you want to replicate this, you will need:
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- A 1 litre / quart wide-mouth canning jar
- A 118ml / 4-oz jar
- A coffee filter and an elastic band
To fill the jar, you’ll need:
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- 4 young daikon radishes 600 g
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
- 1 tsp dill seed (or spice of your choice), optional
- 350 ml filtered water, not tap water
- 7 g salt pickling salt, not table salt
Method
Heat half of the water and stir in the salt until it is dissolved. Add the remaining water, stir, then let it return to room temperature. This is your 2% brine.
Trim and peel the radishes. Instead of rinsing, wipe them off with a paper towel or clean, dry cloth. Slice them into coins or sticks. Pack them into the jar, adding garlic slices as you go. Sticks are easier to load if you turn the jar on its side. Leave at least two inches of headspace.
Sprinkle on the dill seed, then gently pour in the brine. It is essential that the brine covers everything. If it doesn’t, make some more brine or remove a few pieces of radish.
This is where I had to improvise because all of my pickle pebbles and pickle pipes were in use. I filled the wide-mouth quart jar to 2” headspace, added the brine, then placed a 4-ounce canning jar into the mouth of the container jar as a weight. I could see air below the curved bottom of the weight jar so I gently tipped the container jar until brine filled the small space. To close the jar, I covered it with a coffee filter and an elastic. I wouldn’t risk that closure for ferments that I want to store long-term, but in this case I am okay with a less than fully air-locked system. The pickles will ferment for a week, more or less, and be eaten within the month.
I hope you find time to give this a try. Happy harvest season, everyone!
If you want to dive deeper into preserving food using lacto-fermentation, click over to Putting Food By - The Art of Fermentation.
This page covers the basics of fermentation best practices and collects the posts I have written about my personal fermentation projects. You will also be able to download this free printable Brine Ratio chart to stick on the inside of a kitchen cupboard door for quick reference.
