EXTRA

Quick Pickles

Vinegar, sugar, salt and whatever crunchy vegetable is nearby. Half an hour later you have something sharp and crunchy to throw beside a rich dinner.

BASE RECIPEServes 6

Scale the ingredients to suit how much you're making.

Jars of quick pickled carrot and red onion

Ingredients

BATCH

250gcrunchy vegetablesred onion, carrot, cucumber, radish, daikon or a mixture
200mlrice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
120mlwater
4tbspsugaradjust later if you prefer them sharper
2tspsalt

OPTIONAL

1tspsoy saucefor a slightly more savoury pickle

What should I pickle?

Red onion is probably the easiest place to start. Carrot, cucumber, radish and daikon are all excellent too. Mixing a couple together is completely reasonable.

For Japanese curry, carrot with a little red onion works particularly well. Cucumber adds good crunch too if you've got some.

Why is there so much liquid?

Because vegetables are deceptive once you slice them and put them in a jar. One carrot or one onion can occupy considerably more space than it looked capable of five minutes earlier.

This recipe deliberately makes enough brine to comfortably cover a useful batch. If you have some left over, that's better than staring at a jar with three centimetres of dry onion sticking out of the top.

Want to change the flavour?

The vinegar, water, sugar and salt are the useful base. From there you can add peppercorns, chilli, garlic, mustard seeds or whatever else seems appropriate.

A little soy sauce works nicely when the pickles are heading beside Japanese curry, but it will darken the brine and pale vegetables a little. Leave it out if you want the colours to stay bright.

This is not preserving

These are fridge pickles. Warming the vinegar helps dissolve the sugar and salt and gets the pickling moving quickly; it does not turn this into a tested long-term preserving recipe.

Keep them refrigerated and eat them while they're fresh and crunchy.

Method

Cut the vegetables
Slice the vegetables thinly, cut them into matchsticks or chop them into small pieces. Smaller and thinner pieces pickle faster.
Pack the jars
Put the vegetables into clean jars or a heatproof bowl. Pack them reasonably firmly without trying to compress them into vegetable masonry.
Warm the pickling liquid
Put the vinegar, water, sugar and salt into a small saucepan. Add the soy sauce if using. Warm gently while stirring until the sugar and salt have completely dissolved. It doesn't need to boil.
Pour it over
Pour enough warm pickling liquid over the vegetables to cover them. The exact amount you need depends heavily on the vegetable, how you've cut it and the shape of the jar, so having a little brine left over is much better than discovering you've only pickled the bottom half.
Give them some time
Leave the vegetables in the brine for at least 20–30 minutes. Thinly sliced onion can change surprisingly quickly. Firmer vegetables like carrot will continue improving as they sit.
Taste
Try one. If the pickle is sharper than you want, add a little more sugar to the brine. If it tastes flat, add a small pinch of salt. You're looking for something sweet, sharp, salty and crunchy.
Put them in the fridge
Once cool, cover and refrigerate. These are quick fridge pickles, not shelf-stable preserves, so make them to eat rather than to discover behind the flour in six months.

EAT ME WITH

Make a meal of it.

Japanese Curry

A useful stand-in when you can't find the proper Japanese curry pickles.

Mince Tacos

Red onion, carrot or radish all work nicely here.

Quick Pickles

Method

Cut the vegetables

Pack the jars

Warm the pickling liquid

Pour it over

Give them some time

Taste

Put them in the fridge

Make a meal of it.

Japanese Curry

Mince Tacos