Pickled Turnip

Turnip salted and then dried until leathery, so it keeps its chew instead of softening.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 1 kg turnips, peeled
• 25 g salt
• 2 teaspoons chilli flakes
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon five spice powder
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce

Method

1. Cut the turnips into strips about a centimetre thick. Even thickness matters here more than usual, because they are going to be dried and a thin strip will be leather while a thick one is still damp.
2. Toss with the salt and leave in a colander for four hours, turning once.
3. Spread the strips out on a rack somewhere warm and airy and leave them a full day, until they have lost perhaps a third of their bulk and bend like leather without breaking.
4. This drying is the whole difference between this and a brined pickle. There is little water left to dilute the seasoning, and what is left stays chewy rather than going soft.
5. Rub the dried strips with the chilli flakes, sugar, five spice and soy sauce until every piece is coated.
6. Pack them into a jar, press down, seal, and leave in the fridge for three days before eating.
7. They keep a couple of months in the fridge and get chewier as they go.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes