Radish and Marsh samphire pickle

Radish and Samphire Pickle

Nature and growing your food can lead to abundance that presents a challenge to use. I have a glut of lovely white radishes and the marsh samphire from the salt marshes near my home is coming to an end. Not to waste this bounty and thinking that well I have done kimchi, what can do to give preserved radish that sea like flavour of fish sauce with using fish sauce. So a roll the two flavours into one dish.

 I picked about a kilo of radishes from the back garden. Of all vegetables radishes are the easiest to grow. In fact they easier to grow than eat. What I generally do is when I am planting the seed of a slow to germinate crop like parsnip or carrot I will plant a row of radish seed next to them. The radishes provide a bit of shade to the other plants seeds and seedlings reducing drought stress, and if I am pulling radishes before the other seed has made a show I know to replant.

This is a salt marsh in Llanelli. We gathered half a kilo of samphire in less than twenty minutes. It is gathered by snapping the tops off, cutting works earlier in the year but by now the lower part of the stems are becoming woody , and snapping stops you collecting woody bits.  I also gathered a sackful of plastic from the high tide line. Well it is one sacksful less out of the ocean.  We had come only two hours before high tide, the marshes quickly become liquid as water comes in, so we had to very mindful what we stepped on was solid and we only kept to edge of the marsh. I take people out foraging I time it so we are low water, but I didn't today. .

Recipe

1 kilo of radish, topped washed and finely sliced
1/2 kilo marsh samphire
1 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon sugar
60ml 1/2 cup white pickling vinegar
120ml 1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon hot smoked paprika or Korean chilli if available.

Wash, top, and finely slice the radish. I used a mandolin. Wash, check for critters in the samphire add to bowl with radish. Add salt and paprika and rub in. Meanwhile heat saucepan with the vinegars and the sugar until boiling. Pack the samphire and the radish into clean sterilized jars and pour the vinegar over until covered. Put the lids and screw down immediately. Should keep unopened for several months.

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