About a week before Thanksgiving, we had turned on the Food Network and caught the end of a Tyler Florence special. He was helping solve someone’s kitchen dilemma about Thanksgiving, and I don’t entirely remember, but I think he was making appetizers. Ah yes, he made a hot crab dip of some kind with crostini to dunk in, and then made these rather spectacular looking radish pickles. The radish pickles were crazy quick, and they looked fantastic through the tv screen. Andy kind of looked at me with that look… that one that says, “can you make that? I’d eat it…” So I decided I needed to make it. I wanted another kind of pickle for Thanksgiving anyways, and that looked like just the thing.
I made them the day before I was to serve them. They did come together quickly. My biggest change was to use white wine vinegar instead of the champagne vinegar called for. I had a tough time finding the champagne vinegar, so I decided white wine would be fine- and Tyler did say to use an on-hand vinegar if you didn’t have champagne vinegar. While my mixture came to a boil, I prepared the radishes, and then it was a simple matter of pouring the hot liquid over the radishes, covering with plastic, and letting them do their thing. It was an interesting chemistry experiment, because as they sat in the pickling solution, they changed color. The pink on the outside of the radishes leached out into the liquid and gave everything a vibrant pink color. I popped them in a mason jar to chill overnight before serving them at the dinner table.
I think they were an excellent quick pickle. They were a touch too much vinegary for my taste, and I think I could combat that by swapping out a small portion of the vinegar for water- maybe 1/4 cup or so. Not much, but just a small bit. Overall, I thought they were stunning to look at and they really looked nice on the table with the cucumber pickles, black olives, and pickled baby carrots. It was a perfect pickle plate, actually. We still have some of the radish pickles in the fridge, and they seem to be faring okay in there too- so they will keep for some time after being made, I’m going to suspect a month or so, they are in a highly acidic solution after all. But try them if you need something a little different for a party this holiday season. Since they are so easy, they just seem the perfect solution for when you need something just a little different- and I bet they’d be good in the right salad as well.
Quick Pickled Radishes
adapted from a Tyler Florence recipe
1 package of radishes, large ones cut into quarters, small ones cut in half Pickling mix: 1 cup white wine vinegar 1/4 cup white sugar 1 Tablespoon pickling spices 1 small clove smashed garlic 2 stems fresh fennel (optional if you don’t have it, or use 1 tablespoons dried fennel seed)Directions:
Take a large deep dish and lay the radishes out in it. In a large pot combine the pickling mix ingredients and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour the boiling mix over the radishes in each dish. Cover tightly with plastic wrap immediately and set aside. Once cooled, serve immediately, or refirgerate until ready to serve.