We’re going to be diving in this week to one of my go-to accoutrements for any quick fix,fancy dish or family style. We’ve been working through bowl theory the past few weeks, so you should be familiar with the “taste breaker” as an essential pillar of bowls. Taste breakers are meant to connect the other parts of the dish together while maintaining their independent integrity as their own part of the dish. Taste breakers can be all flavor profiles, but I am prone to include heat, tang, and funk in my taste breakers. Quick pickles do an incredible job capturing heat, tang, and funk. Let’s get into it.

Pickling, generally, is a method of food preservation which involves a brine of salt, water, and vinegar. Pickling brines are usually flavored with aromatics, herbs, or spices, and in long-term storage, are boiled and hermetically sealed into vessels to preserve the perishable food item. We are in the business of quick pickling, so while we’ll pull on the flavors and techniques of pickling as a preservation method, we won’t need to truly worry about the safety and sealing components of true pickling.

We want the tang and briny qualities of pickles with the robust texture of fresh produce. I love a Vlassic dill, but I’m usually left missing something from their squishy spears. Since we’re not going to pour a hot brine over our veggies and include a healthy amount of water in our brine, our quick pickles should keep their crunch when refrigerated and treated with love.

Let’s pick our veggies. We want something with their own punch and crunch to stand out. Carrots, cucumbers, radishes, turnips, and onions are all a great option. I love the peppery bite of globe radish, and I was amazed by how similarly zesty a happy carrot tastes. I like to have a few veggies in each batch of quick pickles. It’s nice to have a variety of textures, and we can pair the veggies we use in the pickles with other veggies throughout the dish. Roasted onions in the main connect very well with pickled other in the taste breaker. Prepping the veggies is important too. As a rule of thumb, the thinner the veggie is cut, the more brine you’ll taste. The converse is also true; thicker cut wedges or cubes will retain more taste and texture of the original veggie. We need a good way of getting our brine into the veggies, especially the thicker ones. Lightly salting and gently massaging thicker cut veggies will draw their water out of their cells, allowing for our (tastier) liquid to enter. That’s osmosis baby. Varying textures and playing to the strengths of each veggie are up to the chef to decided, but your pickles will taste great (probably).

The brine is the all important ichor of the quick pickles, even across pickle generations. Yes, I save my brines between batches (if I don’t drink or use it on some other part of the dish). It’s usually that good, I swear. I use a 2-1, vinegar to other ratio. I love rice wine vinegar for its clean palate and snap, and I value apple cider vinegar for its greater depth of flavor. Distilled, malt, white, and red wine vinegars are also great options, and might be the best option for some chefs and their dishes. The only vinegar I have yet to succeed with are dark vinegars like balsamic or aochencu, Chinese black vinegar. They impart too woody and tannic a flavor I feel overwhelms the rest of the dish. But, give em a shot if you think you can include them. (And let me know how you did it too!).

Two parts of your vinegar to one part of another liquid. Water is a great option as well as citrus juice like lemon, orange, or lime juice. We want to thin and extend the flavor of the vinegar, because sometimes its a bit overwhelming, plus we often need more volume of liquid to properly submerge our veggies. These can all be added to taste, so readjust, especially after salting and sugar. Some liquids we add will contain salt and sugar, like soy sauce or lime juice. Sweetness is an important component, but I hardly find myself adding a sweetner like honey. I usually get it from a juice or mirin. Salt, on the otherhand, is an intentional addition. 3-5% salinity are my sweet spot, but if you’re not a cool guy dork like me with an electronic scale, 1 tablespoon of kosher salt will appropriately brine 1 cup of vinegar and half a cup of another liquid.

Aromatics are an important consideration. I like to lean on herbs and peppers, but some spices really do the trick. I think peppers and spices are best meant to impart their flavor over heat in the brine. Bringing our brine to a boil properly homogenizes our salts and liquids, and gives our aromatics a chance to to bloom. I’ll simmer the brine for a few minutes, then let it cool to the touch before dousing our veggies. Don’t add herbs to the boil, chop and toss them fresh in with the veggies at the end; they’ll lose their robustness otherwise.

Alright, enough theory. Here’s a pretty weeknight recipe for quick pickles perfect on a squash taco or bean sandwhich.

Radical Radishes:

• 1 bunch radishes
• 1/4 red cabbage (a good handful when thinly sliced)
• Half an onion
• A few sprigs of parsley and cilantro
• 1 cup of apple cider vinegar
• 1 lime, zested
• Two whatever peppers, maybe serano or jalepeno, diced
• clove of garlic, smashed
• Whole cumin seeds

SET 1 cup vinegar, the juice of the lime, half a cup of water, 1 tablespoon of salt, diced peppers, clove of garlic, and cumin seeds to boil. After liquid boils, reduce to simmer and let bubble for 3 minutes. Strain out garlic and cumin, remove from heat to cool.

PREP onion, cabbage, and radishes. Slice radishes into thin coins, about the thickness of, wait for it, a coin. Should thin enough to be flexible, but thick enough were they will snap! when bent. Slice onions in strips thinner than the radishes. Chop cabbage into short strips about as wide as a pencil. Toss all into a colander with a healthy pinch of salt, and give a gentle massage. As your pickling liquid boils and cool, you should see liquid drain from the colander. Feel free to re toss and re massage to your liking, but be sure to keep a good bite in the veggies. Finely chop herbs.

ASSEMBLE it all in a bowl! Yup that’s it. Toss all drained veggies, cooled brine, and chopped herbs and pop in the fridge to chill out. Give it a good 30 mins to get to know each other, which is plenty of time to prep and plate your main course. Quick pickles will last I don’t even know how long, a while I presume, but they hardly make it more than two days in my fridge.