To make the overnight refrigerator pickles more appetizing, we can carve the radish into a cute snowman⛄, and cut the cucumber into lovely little Christmas trees🎄.
Soaked in the sweet and sour brine overnight, these no-cook refrigerator pickles are so crunchy and loaded with flavors.
Isn’t this snowman pickle a perfect Christmas side dish that’ll outshine any main on the table?
Refrigerator pickles vs Fermented pickles
This overnight refrigerator pickles recipe doesn’t involve any fermenting process. The salt dehydrated vegetables are soaked in the sweet and sour solution only overnight to be flavorful.
That’s why refrigerator pickles are also called as “shower pickles, 洗澡水泡菜” in Chinese. The vegetables are soaked in the brine for such as short time, just like that they took a shower in the pickling brine.
To make these easy overnight pickles, you don’t need to boil the can, add a huge amount of salt to the brine, or wait for weeks until the vegetables get fermented.
However, at the same time, that means these refrigerator pickles won’t last as long as fermented pickles or canned pickles. You will have to finish your homemade refrigerator pickles within 1 week.
Sichuan Pao Cai, which is a typical fermented pickle, looks very similar to refrigerator pickles, but can last for more than 30 years!
To make Sichuan Pao Cai, we need to carefully sanitize and dry the fresh vegetables and the pickling jar, and soak the vegetables in pickle brine until they are fermented.
A great amount of salt (6% – 8%) is added into pao cai’s pickle brine, in order to create a suitable environment for lactic acid bacteria to grow.
Let’s say, if we are making fermented pickle today, we would need to add 26g salt to the brine, which is 3 times of the salt that’s needed for refrigerator pickles.
EQUIPMENT
- glass jar with lid (You can use a 16-oz mason jar)
INGREDIENTS
- 1 daikon radish (washed and peeled; Or 8 red radishes, washed. )
- 1 carrot (washed and peeled)
- 2 celery sticks (cut into 3-inch pieces)
- 1 cucumber (washed)
- 3 cloves garlic (peeled)
- 2 slices ginger (peeled, and cut into coin-size slices)
- 2 stems cilantro (cilantro is sold in bunches of several stems, we will use about 2 stems of cilantro with all the side branches,.)
- 2 dried or fresh chili peppers (optional if you don’t like spicy food)
- 1 tbsp salt (for marinating)
For Pickle Brine
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns (or black peppercorns)
- 2 star anises (optional)
- ⅓ cup distilled white vinegar
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tsp salt
Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS
1. Cut the daikon radish crosswise into 4-inch pieces. (Optionally, take a small knife to carve 2 balls, so that we can use them to make a snowman shape.) Or you can simply cut the radish into some ½-inch wide strips. Cut the carrot into ⅛-inch round slices. (Optionally use a vegetable cutter to cut out some flower-shape carrot slices.)
2. Cut the cucumber into 3-inch pieces, then cut each piece of cucumber lengthwise into halves. (Optionally, take a small knife to each half of cucumber into a Christmas tree.) Or you can simply cut each half lengthwise down the center to get some cucumber quarters.
3. Place the daikon radish, carrot, cucumber, and celery sticks to a large bowl, sprinkle 1 tbsp of salt over the vegetables, rub the salt evenly on radish. Set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.
4. 30 minutes later, drain and rinse the vegetables with clean water. Optionally, use toothpick to make the daikon radish into a snowman. I used 2 black beans as the snowman’s eyes. You can also use sesame seeds.
5. Place 2 stems of cilantros in the bottom of a 16 oz glass jar. Place the radish snowman, garlic cloves, ginger slices, chili peppers, and salt marinated vegetables in the jar.
6. Add all the ingredients for for pickle brine (see ingredients list above) into a bowl, stir with a spoon until the sugar is dissolved.
7. Pour the pickle brine into the glass jar until all the vegetables are completed covered in the brine. Close the lid.
8. Refrigerate the pickles overnight then enjoy. Finish within 1 week.
Note:
1. Shaving a daikon radish into a ball is actually easier than I thought! You just use a small knife or peeler to keep peeling of the edges of the cube until it forms a ball.
An even easier method is using red radishes to substitute the daikon radish. A red radish can turn into a white ball immediately after you peel off it’s skin. You will just make a smaller snowman with that.
2. I used 5 black beans for making eyes and buttons for the snowman. You can also use black peppercorns. Use a small carving knife to carve a hole on the radish before inserting the eyes and buttons. The hole should be half the size of a black bean, and it should take you some pressure to press the black bean into the hole, otherwise the black bean might fall out later.
My other vegetarian recipes you will also like:
Snowman Overnight Refrigerator Pickles – Pickled radish and cucumbers
Equipment
- glass jar with lid (You can use a 16-oz mason jar)
Ingredients
- 1 daikon radish (washed and peeled; Or 8 red radishes, washed. )
- 1 carrot (washed and peeled)
- 2 celery sticks (cut into 3-inch pieces)
- 1 cucumber (washed)
- 3 cloves garlic (peeled)
- 2 slices ginger (peeled, and cut into coin-size slices)
- 2 stems cilantro (cilantro is sold in bunches of several stems, we will use about 2 stems of cilantro with all the side branches,.)
- 2 dried or fresh chili peppers (optional if you don't like spicy food)
- 5 black beans (optional; For making eyes for the snow man)
- 1 tbsp salt (for marinating)
Instructions
- Cut the daikon radish crosswise into 4-inch pieces. (Optionally, take a small knife to carve 2 balls, so that we can use them to make a snowman shape.) Or you can simply cut the radish into some ½-inch wide strips. Cut the carrot into ⅛-inch round slices. (Optionally use a vegetable cutter to cut out some flower-shape carrot slices.)
- Cut the cucumber into 3-inch pieces, then cut each piece of cucumber lengthwise into halves. (Optionally, take a small knife to each half of cucumber into a Christmas tree.) Or you can simply cut each half lengthwise down the center to get some cucumber quarters.
- Place the daikon radish, carrot, cucumber, and celery sticks to a large bowl, sprinkle 1 tbsp of salt over the vegetables, rub the salt evenly on radish. Set aside to marinate for 30 minutes.
- 30 minutes later, drain and rinse the vegetables with clean water. Optionally, use toothpick to make the daikon radish into a snowman. I used 2 black beans as the snowman's eyes. You can also use sesame seeds.
- Place 2 stems of cilantros in the bottom of a 16 oz glass jar. Place the radish snowman, garlic cloves, ginger slices, chili peppers, and salt marinated vegetables in the jar.
- Add all the ingredients for for pickle brine (see ingredients list above) into a bowl, stir with a spoon until the sugar is dissolved.
- Pour the pickle brine into the glass jar until all the vegetables are completed covered in the brine. Close the lid.
- Refrigerate the pickles overnight then enjoy. Finish within 1 week.
Video
Notes
