Tsukemono – Quick Pickled Cucumbers

An easy recipe for refrigerator pickles. This recipe works best if you can find smaller cucumbers. These are the kind sold at farmers markets and grocery stores for making dill pickles.

Ingredients

cucumbers – smaller, young cucumbers are best
salt

Pickling Sauce
Chili garlic sauce….. 1/4 teaspoon
Sesame Oil……. 2 tablespoons
Soy Sauce ….. 3 tablespoons
Sugar ….. 1/2 teaspoon
Sake …… 3 tablespoons

cucumbers for pickling

1. Wash cucumbers.

cutting cucumbers

2. Cut cucumbers. In this recipe, the pickles are quickly cut into small wedge shapes by cutting the cucumber at angle and then straight across  and then repeat.

3. Lightly sprinkle with salt and then apply pressure for several hours to draw water out of the cucumbers.  I used a plastic pickling container with a screw top that will apply pressure to your vegetables. If you don’t have that, place the pickles in a plastic bag, lightly salt and then place a weight, like a heavy plate,  on the bag.

make sauce

4. Mix together ingredients for the sauce.  You can find Chinese  chili garlic, tobanjiang,  sauce in any Asian food stores. This is what I used in this recipe to add a little heat.

5. Rinse cucumbers with water to remove excess salt and then gently squeeze your cut cucumber to remove excess water.

6. Add sauce to pickles and let sit for a few hours before serving. Quick pickles like these are best eaten withing a week.