I’ve had a life long love affair with carrots, but my relationship with kohlrabi only goes back 13 years. My first taste of kohlrabi was either at Mordoch, a small Kurdish lunch joint near Machane Yehuda, Jerusalem’s open air market or possibly at the now defunct Korea House in Jerusalem’s city center. What was this small white incredibly crunchy vegetable before me? Is it a radish? Can’t be, it tastes sort of like cabbage. I asked what it was and was told kohlrabi. I assumed that kohlrabi was a Hebrew word since it sounded silly and had never heard of it. I was further confused when I couldn’t find it in my English-Hebrew dictionary. I don’t recall how I finally figured everything out but soon after kohlrabi became a household winter staple.
Both restaurants served their kohlrabi pickled. The Kurdish joint had sliced it thin and dressed it with lemon juice, a little olive oil, a liberal dose of cilantro and a smidgen of salt and a whole lot of crushed black pepper. It was just lightly pickled. The Korea House pickles were sweet. Very sweet. They were cubed it (along with carrot) and were clearly pickled for several days. The difference between the two were extraordinary but both were a revelation. My love affair with pickling had begun. Years later when traveling in Vietnam I had my first banh mi sandwich (before they were trendy). Banh mi is all about the toppings, one of the essentials being pickled carrots and daikon radish. Since that visit, I always try to have a jar of shredded pickled carrots in the fridge to use as a condiment for sandwiches. I’ve been using the same recipe for making shredded carrots as I do for the finger sized carrots below. It works well for both, though the shredded carrots only need a few hours before they can be eaten.
These ratios work well for my taste. I don’t like my pickles overly sweet. You should feel free to adjust to your liking. I usually make mine in bulk so I scaled down the recipe for a small jar. We have a very short lime season here in Israel, so if I manage to hunt them down in September or October (which shouldn’t be a problem for me anymore now that I have my own tree – yay! ) I’ll add a generous squeeze of lime juice.
Vietnamese inspired pickled carrots and kolrabi
Ingredients:
2 medium Carrots
1 medium sized kohlrabi
1/4 cup vinegar (I use regular vinegar, but rice vinegar works well and its not as sharp)
2 TB salt
2 TB sugar
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 fresh lime
one small lime
1) Peel your carrots and kohlrabi and cut them into any shape you wish. Grate, julienne, cube or do what I do, cut them into strips – like french fries or carrot sticks. However, a word of warning. I have a habit of noshing while making these, so you might want to do what I do and prepare an extra carrot to enjoy during the prep.
2) Place a colander over a large bowl, add the vegetables to the colander and liberally sprinkle course salt on them. Get your hands in there and make sure the salt is integrated nicely. For an extra crunchy pickle this step is key as the salt with draw out a lot of the moisture. Wait approximately twenty minutes (go to step 3 and be productive while you wait). You’ll now notice a large amount of water now at the bottom of the bowl. What did I tell you about all that moisture? Rinse the salt off the vegetables and squeeze the crap out of them over the colander to remove excess moisture.
3) Make the brine. Mix the vinegar, salt and sugar in a small pot on the stove on a very low flame, just to get it warm enough so the the sugar and salt crystals disintegrate. This should take less than a minute. There is no need to boil. I like to add one or two kaffir lime leaves at this point. Put on the side and wait for it to cool.
4) I hope you’ve rinsed off the carrots and kohlrabi by this point. Slice up half of the lime and place the slices on the bottom of your mason jar. Take the carrot and kohlrabi sticks start patiently placing them in the jar, one by one. Patience is a virtue.
5) Pour your brine over the carrots and kohlrabi and make sure they are all equally covered. Don’t forget to make sure the kaffir lime leaves end up in the jar. You should have half a lime left. Don’t let it go to waste. Give it a little squeeze and let the pickles enjoy the juice.
6) Close the mason jar and be patient. The smaller you cut the vegetables, the shorter the pickling time. If I grate or julienne I’ll wait just a few hours before enjoying, but when I cut them as seen in the above photographs, I usually wait 4-5 days. The longer you wait, the more pickle goodness ye shall receive. That’s all there is to it.
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