Guizhou Pink Pickled Daikon (酸萝卜)
A quick pickled version of the classic fermented vegetable.
This is Guizhou Suan Luobo, sour pickled daikon.
In Guizhou, you'll often see big jars or big boxes of this pretty pink pickled daikon at pickle shops at the market, and that's where people'd usually buy their Suan Luobo from. It's so widely used in Guizhou food… you will see it from their famous chili rice bowl, to noodle soups, or even as a topping for French fries.
It’s such an ubiquitous ingredient in Guizhou cuisine, but… we're 100% sure that you can't get it outside of China. So let's show you how to make it.
The pretty pink color is characteristic to Suan Luobo daikon pickles, and the secret? Red skin daikon. So it basically tastes like white, regular daikon… but it's just a little bit firmer and got this beautiful red peel:
But it seems like it's not widely available outside of China, so we'll show you how to achieve the same color, using regular white daikon, and some red radishes.
Ingredient
Daikon (白萝卜), 400g.
Red radishes (樱桃萝卜), 100g. Note that this ingredient isn't available everywhere in China. Only peels needed.
Salt, 1 tsp.
Ginger (姜), ~1.5 inches or a couple pieces.
White rice vinegar (白米醋), ~½ cup. I.e. 4 parts.
Sugar, ~2 tbsp. I.e. 1 part.
Note: Our recommendation for vinegar/sugar quantity is to first layer everything in your pickling jar, then using a measuring cup pour in enough vinegar to cover it. Depending on your jar, this might be more or less than the half cup we used, so adjust your sugar accordingly - you're looking for a ratio of four parts vinegar to one part sugar. For example, if you use ¾ cup of rice vinegar, add 3 tbsp of sugar instead of two.
Process
Cut 400g of daikon into roughly 1cm x 1cm x 2 inch sticks. Peel 100g of red radishes.
Add 1 tsp salt to the daikon sticks & radish peels. Toss to combine well. Let it sit for 20 minutes.
Squeeze some more of the liquid from the Daikon out, and give it a couple more tosses.
Layer your pickles: add ~1.5 inches of ginger at the bottom of the jar, then press down a layer of daikon sticks, then add a layer of radish skin. Repeat layering the daikon and the radish skin until the jar is filled.
Pour in your vinegar - take note of how much vinegar you added. We're working off a ratio of four parts vinegar to one part sugar. For our jar, we added a half cup vinegar, so then we sprinkled in two tablespoons sugar.
The pickle will be ready in two days.
Note: We just used the peeled radish for something else, but if you don't have any plans for them, feel free to just slice them in half and toss them in your pickling jar with everything else.