Radishes.....

I had a lot of them waiting to be eaten, so I thought I'd be adventerous and try pickling the cute little red roots.

I mixed a couple of recipes that I found online because I didn't want to add sugar like some suggested, and I thought they should be able to be pickled like any other pickle.

**Sidenote: Cory does 99.8% of all the cooking/baking in our house. This was very ambitious of me to attempt this on my own. If he was home, I would have been content to let him handle it.**

The recipe I ended up with went like this:

I made a brine with the vinegar I had on hand (seasoned rice vinegar), water and pickling salt. I sanitized the jars while the brine was boiling and put in the bottom of each jar: a couple chopped cloves of garlic, peppercorn, and herbs de provence. I chopped the radishes in half and filled two large jars, poured the hot brine over the top and sealed them up. All the recipies said I had to wait at least 10 hours before trying them. All the recipies also mentioned that they would be "stinky".

This is what I thought....popping open the bottle brought me a smell that immediately reminded me of my childhood. In my desire to use the produce from my garden, I had brought back a memory...and a comfort food. Yes, pickled radishes...a comfort food. Stinky? Well, I would describe the smell as potent and vinegary...not stinky to me, but I can see how some people might describe it that way. One bite of the now pink swimming radish halves told me I would need to make some rice and plan to plant more radishes in the garden.

What makes a comfort food? For me, I think it's a food that brings you back to a happy place....wether that be childhood or some other place where you can close your eyes, take a deep breath, and smile to yourself. Ahhhh....I'm home and everything is ok. And you savor the taste and smell and experience of the bite you've taken and remember all the times you've tasted this in your life.

This bite took me back to dinners at my Obaachan's house in Missouri. Blue tablecloth with little flowers and ducks arranged in a diamond pattern. Ojiichan at the head of the table, drinking his buttermilk. Obaachan dishing out bowls of rice from the huge rice pot.

I am definitely making these again.

If you are curious, radishes happen to be a "super food", meaning they are super good for you in lots of ways. Radishes and their greens are an excellent source of vitamin C. Radish leaves contain almost six times the vitamin C content of their root and are also a good source of calcium. (You can eat them in a salad) Red radishes are a good source of potassium and folic acid. Daikons are a very good source of potassium and copper. Radishes, like other members of the cruciferous family (cabbage, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts), contain cancer-protective properties. Throughout history radishes have been effective when used as a medicinal food for liver disorders. They contain a variety of sulfur-based chemicals that increase the flow of bile. Therefore, they help to maintain a healthy gallbladder and liver, and improve digestion.

Namaste and love