Easy, Vietnamese-Style Pickles

Anyway, as part of my prep for getting things ready for my blog-pal-house-guest, I made a big batch of these easy, Vietnamese-Style pickles. They’re a super simple ratio of 1:1 rice vinegar and water with a little salt and sugar. You could pretty much pickle any vegetable, but I’ve even been thinking some summer stone fruits would be interesting as well. I opted for red onion–which turns pink!–in addition to jalapeños & shallots, and classic carrots.  I figured between all the donuts that we’d be consuming…and pie, pizza, and ice cream…we might want to have a fresh, homemade dinner in there somewhere. We used these pickles in grilled pork summer rolls packed with green leaf lettuce, fresh herbs, chopped peanuts, and ripe avocado. I also threw together my favorite peanut sauce–which I will try to remember to share, soon! These pickles are so easy and good–it’s my goal to have them on hand all summer long for summer rolling and bahn mi making. #priorities.

[recipe]

Easy Vietnamese-Style Pickles

Makes 4 cups pickling liquid.  About enough for 3, 24 ounce, jars of pickles.

You can pretty much pickle any vegetable in this brine–the classic carrots and daikon are obviously great, but cucumber, any sort of onion, and peppers are also excellent.

2 cups natural (unseasoned) rice wine vinegar

2 cups water

2 tablespoons kosher salt

6-8 tablespoons granulated sugar

approximately 6 cups finely sliced or julienned vegetables–I used jalapeños & shallots, red onion, and carrots

Heat the rice wine vinegar, water, salt, and sugar (adjust to your taste) in a saucepan over high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and stir to dissolve the salt and sugar. Turn off the heat. Pack the jars with the respective vegetables and pour the hot liquid over the top to cover–leaving about 1/2 inch head-room at the top of each jar. Fit with a lid and allow to cool before storing in the refrigerator. You can eat these pickles after a few hours, but I think they are best after at least 2 days.

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