Daikon Tsukemono

The daikon kon kon is finally pau!! Here's how it went.

I was at Don Quijote one day and the turnips were on sale for $.99 a pound. I figured this would be my next kon kon project. I put them in my basket and walked to the tsukemono section. I grabbed some already made daikon to look at the ingredients, and they all said "radish" not turnip. What I had in my basket weren't radishes but they sure looked like what I needed. Puzzled, I walked back to the vegetable section and looked for radish, all the while thinking, I thought radishes were small, round and red. I couldn't find any. So, totally confused I put my turnips back and walked out without um.

Me and CQ googled "radish", "turnip" and "daikon" and figured that they're all in the same family. I returned to Don Quijote the next day and picked up these four turnips. Most of the recipes I looked at said that I needed to dry the turnips for at least 2 weeks.
After only 1 week they already looked shriveled up enough to start pickling. I soon realized that I should've peeled the turnips BEFORE drying cause it was impossible to use a potato peeler on them after.

I ended up cutting off the outside layer with a knife which resulted in a lot of wastage.

For my pickling liquid I heated up 1/8 c. salt, 3/4 c. sugar, 1/4 c. rice vinegar and 1 c. Lincoln's Chili Pepper Water until the salt dissolved.

After the liquid cooled off I added it to what was left of my turnips. I put it in my tsukemono press, but in retrospect I think no need put um in the press. They're all shriveled up anyway, so what for need to press um? I think next time I'll just slice um and let um pickle in an airtight container instead so it doesn't stink up the whole room. Landon said he went fishing the other day and when he opened up his cooler to grab a coke that he had taken from the fridge, the can reeked of daikon odor. His friend said, "WhatDaHell is that smell?" So yeah, just put um in a covered container to soak for a few days.

I think it was a success. Both Wendell's dad and Landon said that they really like it.

I only ended up with this much though . . . so um . . . peel the turnip BEFORE drying.