The Beginning of the Beginning

Greetings, compatriots!

I am Julianna, ruler of Recipe Ranch, or www.recipescramble.com

Creating that particular website is a class project that I'm suffering through. It's been difficult, but thanks to the help of a wonderful person, I've finally managed to get it working properly.

It doesn't have much at the moment. Just a recipe for pancakes, a few interesting images. I managed to create a pretty sweet navigation bar. But I'm incredibly jealous of the things my classmates have accomplished. Their websites look so professional!

I used to think I was a creative person, until I started attending college.

But let's dance more to the tune of recipes!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pickled-Daikon-and-Red-Radishes-with-Ginger-240614

Okay, so I'm not a very experimental person when it comes to food. I like very particular tastes, and exotic foods do not make me happy. If it's weird, I generally can't stand it. But then I saw this recipe! I'm a big fan of manga, so I see a lot of awesome foods when I read them. I always wanted to make radish roses out of daikon, but I couldn't find a design. So I search the interwebz, as I am wont to do. I couldn't find anything about shaping a daikon in foliage, but I found this recipe for pickled radishes.

I hate pickles.

But for some reason the idea seemed so appealing! When my roommate suggested we hit the store, I jumped at the opportunity. Perhaps I envisioned harvesting daikon and red radish from the field itself, brewing the rice vinegar from scratch, and wiping the sweat of the day from my brow. Maybe I saw a happy Asian family sitting around the kotatsu, eating hotpot and sampling my pickled radishes. Perchance I'm slightly screwy.

But they had all the ingredients at the store, down to the rice vinegar. (I really love the Asian section <3) So I had some fun chopping vegetables.

For the Asia-ignorant, Daikon are those giant white root vegetables you might see in the produce section. They're really a huge white radish! They're not as sharp at the little round red ones, but they're quite tasty when peeled and cut into slices.'

Rice vinegar is brewed from rice, so I'm guessing it's an alcohol of some sort. It's really strong.

Ginger is a funky-shaped, sweet-smelling, spicy root. It's delicious when used in moderation.

So, I cut the daikon into disks instead of the recommended half-moons, because my knife kept sliding off when I tried to cut the daikon lengthwise.
They recommend cutting the red radish into wedges, but I felt it looked a lot prettier cut into disks, so I did that as well.
Now, after you put the salt on, they say to leave it for an hour at room temperature, stirring occassionally. Then, to my surprise, they said to drain it after that hour?! I don't remember putting any liquids in!

But hey, I'll humor crazy people any day (as long as they promise not to shank me), so I added the salt, mixed it evenly, and went to surf the interwebz. When I came back to stir occassionally, I was suprised to see the daikon juices draining into the bottom of the mixing bowl! I had forgotten that salt draws out water! So when my hour was up, I definitely had something to drain.

The other steps are really easy. Don't forget to peel the ginger, tho', and cut off the extra nubbins. Spread the sugar evenly over the drained radishes. Don't forget to put in your ginger! A fourth cup of rice vinegar, and then stick it into a covered container. Chill for about five million years, or twelve hours alternatively. Don't forget to stir it up whenever you have the opportunity, so the taste evens out.

Q: Phew! That smells really bad. D: Doesn't it taste terrible?

A: It's all a matter of opinion! I think refried beans smell like roadkill, and the taste makes me want to rip out my tastebuds (Unless it's Miguel Jr.). You might think that pickled radishes smell like gas, excrement, or a deceased gopher. My roommates certainly do. But in my personal, subjective opinion, pickled radish tastes amazing.


In closing, I feel like pickled radish is a metaphor for certain kinds of people. Their outer personality (or smell) is so offensive that nobody wants to be friends with them (or eat it). Their inner personality is wonderful and amazing (or delicious), but not everyone is going to like their unique qualities (or taste), and some people have to get used to it (or gain the acquired taste). And who knows? They might be really good for you.