'Pickled veggies' according to Mom and Mai

For English scroll down

Ik herinner me nog goed. Elke keer als mijn moeder zoetzuur maakte dan rook de hele keuken naar azijn, toen vond ik het altijd verschikkelijk misselijkmakend. Alsof dat niet erg genoeg was, het moest volgens mijn moeder zeker een dag intrekken in de koelkast. Dus als je de koelkast open deed kwam er een walm van deze verschikking je tegenmoet. Eraan terugdenkend heeft het te maken met een slechte combinatie van geur en herinnering, die in relatie tot een foodblog niet erg smakelijk is, dus deze jullie maar bespaar.

Sinds de afgelopen maanden maak ik steeds vaker zelf zoetzuur. De eerste keer nog braaf mijn, volgens mijn moeders recept. Al snel smaakte het naar meer en kwam ik achter de eindeloze mogelijkheden van het maken van zoetzuur. 

 Toen ik nog op de kunstacademie zat deed ik veel beeldend onderzoek naar het verschil tussen de westerse en oosterse keuken. Ik kwam erachter dat bijvoorbeeld een rasp, een ander uiterlijk had aan de andere kant van de wereld. Al bleef de gebruiksfunctie hetzelfde. Deze spread is afkomstig uit een zelfgemaakt boek over de keuken, waarin ingredienten en gereedschappen van oost en west naast elkaar gezet worden, gekoppelt aan een recept en aandacht wordt besteed aan de herkomst en gebruik van deze aan beide kanten van de wereld.

Note: vergroot de afbeelding en lees het Nederlandse recept.

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When I was still in art school I did a visible research about the differences between the western and eastern kitchen. I discovered that for example a grater has a different appearance on the other side of the world. Although the function remained the same. This spread is from a selfmade book about the kitchen, in this book I place ingredients en tools from east and west next to each other, try to pair it up with a recipe and researching the origin of these on both sides of the world.

I remember it well. Every time my mom made pickled veggies the whole kitchen would smell like vinegar. I always thought the smell was disgustingly noxious. To make matters worse, my mom always said it needed to age in the fridge. So every time when you opened the fridge the stench will come floating ate you. Now looking back, it was a bad combination of smell and memory, a memory that is relation to a foodblog is not really pleasant, so I will spare you all.

At home we would eat the sweet sour pickled vegetables with mostly vietnamese meals. In south east Asia this pickled veggies are a big part of the meal. Always as a little freshness and crispness to go along with your meal. During my workdays in Chongqing I would go to the canteen to eat lunch with my colleagues. We would go to the second floor, where they serve food that was a bit more expansive than downstairs, but will make up for it in taste. I was hooked on this one dish and every friday (or sometimes also on tuesday, wednesday or thursday) I let my Chinese colleague order it for me. When When it was ready my order would me called out. Picking up the tray with food, the cook on the other side of the counter would point at a big bowl. The bowl was always filled with a diced white vegetable, covered in red chillipowder and seeds. After asking my colleagues and trying the little dices, I found out this was the Chongqing way of making a spicy pickle. For me the taste wasn't all that. To much spice, not enough pickle.

Since a few months I've been making pickled veggies more and more. First just following my moms recipe. but very quickly I wanted more and discovered endless possibilities for making pickled veggies.

Moms pickled veggies
1 big carrot
1 daikon, also known as white radish
Sugar
Vinegar

Clean the veggies and grate them with a big grater. Make sure you have around the same amount of carrot versus daikon. Make a mixture of the same amount of sugar and vinegar (1 cup of sugar for 1 cup of vinager) and mix until the sugar is dissolved. If you think the mixture taste to strong, you can add water. Pour the mixture over the grated vegetables and leave it to soak for a few hours in the fridge. Drain and taste, you can rinse the vegetables to make the taste less out there.

Mai pickled veggies
The biggest difference is that the options are almost limitless! The use of more different vegetables is an option, there are different ways of cutting the vegetables, the tastes can be more complex and layered. I will give you my most basic recipe and show all the possible add-ons.

1 carrot
1 cucumber
optional veggies; cabbage, daikon, radishes,
green beans, chinese cabbage, fennel
a tumb size piece of fresh ginger
sugar
vinegar
water
optional seasoning; chilli, whole peppercorns, fennel seeds, mustard seeds

Peel the ginger and cut the ginger julliene. In a small saucepan, put together same amounts water and vinegar and half the amount of sugar with the julliened ginger. So the water vinegar sugar ratio is 2:2:1. Slowly heat and mix untill the sugar is dissolved, never letting it get to a boil and let it cool down a bit.

So here comes your first option, for some of the veggies it's better to blanch them. Veggies like the green beans, chinese cabbage and fennel are way more tastier if they're just not really raw anymore. If you use any of these veggies, clean them. Take the caps of the green beans, cut the chinese cabbage and fennel into thin straps and just put them in with the mixture. Let it warm for around 5 minutes.

In the meanwhile you can clean you other veggies and choose how to cut them. Do you want everything julliened, or maybe grated, or in bigger chunks. I suggest to stay with one kind of cutting, otherwise the end product can look confusing.

Getting to the assembly, make sure you have a container that can hold all the veggies and pickle mixture. Now layer up the different veggies. If you want you can add seasonings, like sliced and maybe deseeded chilli, whole peppercorns or fennel or mustard seeds. Pour over the slightly cooled down mixture. Let it come to room temperature, then cover and put in the fridge till use. I would say at least an hour, but the longer it sits, the stronger the flavors get.

Mai cucumber pickle from Chongqing
In Chongqing I would go to this small dumpling place. As a contrast to the soft and warm dumplings I would order this cucumber. 

1 cucumber
2 gloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 a cup of vinegar
3 table spoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
Optional: 1/2 a chili, chopped or a teaspoon of Szechuan pepper.

Clean and cut the cucumber in to 2cm long strips.  Dissolve the sugar and salt in the vinegar and add the garlic and chilli. Mix well and add the cucumber. Let it pickle for at least an hour.

Serve some up, on a sandwich, in a banh trang, to spice up the boring old green salad and enjoy!