Soy Pickled – A Delight To Your Taste Buds

Does anyone want to taste some salty, sweet, spicy, and crunchy Korean pickles? Pickling is a food preservation method with variations in methods and flavourings among civilizations. Thus, pickled vegetables in soy sauce are quite famous in Korea. Thus, you can quickly pickle any vegetable with this three-ingredient brine made of soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar!

Any Korean meal tastes better with these pickles, but they pair particularly nicely with grilled meat meals. Thus, they will pique your interest and add colour to your food.

Pickles, collectively known as jangajji, are abundant in Korea. We can pickle some in gochujang (Korean red chilli pepper paste) or doenjang (fermented soybean paste), while others in soy sauce.

In the past, pickling required a very high salt content to have a lengthy shelf life. We do not need that anymore with the development of refrigeration and the year-round availability of veggies. These days, we just appreciate pickles for their deliciously savoury flavour.

In America, “quick pickling” or “refrigerator pickling” is similar to this gentle soy sauce pickle. Canning is not necessary! But, it needs to be refrigerated. They will improve after a few days in the brine, but you can start eating them the following day or so.

Brine for Korean Pickles

We make pickles from vegetables using just three simple ingredients: sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce! These Korean pickles are crunchy, tasty, and ready in no time!
Chop or clean the vegetables. Then, cut them into bite-sized pieces. Place them inside jars.
Fill a pot with water, soy sauce, and sugar; bring to a boil.
Include vinegar.
Cover the vegetables with the hot brine.
After letting it cool and covering it, store in the fridge for a day or two.
The hot brine will not cook the vegetables, but the exterior crunch will be amazing by shocking them with hot water.
It is up to you how much vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, and water you want to use. I’ve been using this ratio for many years, and I really like it that way. Not very sweet, not overly vinegary, and not overly salty! This is my golden ratio, then:

Water	Soy Sauce	Sugar	Vinegar
2 cups	1 cup	½ cup	½ cup

Simply taste the pickles and modify any of the three ingredients—salted, sweet, or vinegary—while maintaining the same amount of water. We will need more vegetables because the extra liquids will also produce more brine.
Depending on how tightly your veggies are there in the jars, this recipe will make enough brine to pickle the contents of two 32-oz jars, maybe even a little bit more. Forget about tracking down 32-ounce jars. Smaller jars or even Pyrex jars will do the work. Recall that these rapid pickles are not in need of canning.
Before boiling, toss in a tiny piece of dashima, or dried kelp, to enhance the flavour. Or substitute veggie broth for the water.

Which Vegetables to Pick

You can use the brine to pickle a variety of soy pickled veggies. The only item I would suggest changing is the pickled garlic, which I make in two steps.

You need cucumbers, onions, and jalapenos in this dish, but those are just suggestions. You can choose to pickle only one of these veggies, or you can use other veggies altogether.

My other favourites, depending on the season, are kkaennip (perilla leaves), maneuljjong (garlic scapes), ramps, and Korean radish. Ramps bear a striking resemblance to myungi, the wild garlic and mountain garlic common in Korea that we pickle.

How to Keep the Pickles

Once more, these soy pickled veggies are meant to be there in the refrigerator. If you didn’t remember to put it in the refrigerator right away, don’t worry. For two or three days, they are good at room temperature. During that time, the amount of salt, vinegar, and even sugar prevents any hazardous bacteria from growing.

Store these pickles in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.

Pour the brine into a pot and boil it for a few minutes to preserve it longer. After you store the delicious pickle for three or four days, when its water content has left and the brine has diluted, you can proceed with this. Cool it down this time, then cover the pickles again and put it back in the refrigerator.

Ingredients

Two cups (about 250 mL) of cut veggies, particularly Korean radish
Water, half a cup (125 mL)
1/4 cup (66g) soy sauce, or shoyu
One-fourth cup (68g) rice vinegar
30g/2 Tbsp sweets

I’m aware that some of you are unsure of how much vinegar or sugar to use. Any clear vinegar and any sugar will do. But keep in mind that vinegar’s acidity varies greatly depending on the kind.

Directions

Combine vinegar, soy sauce, fish sauce, maple syrup, onion, and garlic in a small stainless steel pot. Raise the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to make sure the brine is thoroughly mixed with the maple syrup. Take off the heat.

Then, fill a heatproof, non-reactive, 2-quart container (such as a glass canning jar or Cambro container) with hot, mild, and chayote chillies. Cover the vegetables with a hot brine. To keep the vegetables inside the jar, cover the brine’s surface with a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Then, keep a weight on top of it. Next, make sure to cool for one hour or until it reaches room temperature. Before serving, place a tight-fitting cover on it and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. You can keep pickles for up to a month in the fridge.

The Recipe for Soy Pickled Cucumber

The slices should first be sauteed with about a tablespoon of salt, and then left for an hour or two to marinate. If you have pickling salt, use it. After the slices have softened well, give them a thorough rinse and gently squeeze to extract as much liquid as you can without crushing them. Next, add about a tablespoon of each of the finely slivered fresh ginger and freshly toasted sesame seeds. Allow to marinade for a further hour.
Lastly, place the marinated slices, ginger, and seeds in an appropriate jar and cover with rice wine and vinegar. Before using, shake to combine, and let the jar sit in a cold area for at least three days.
You can adjust the liquid-to-solid ratio in the pickling medium and, if you’d like, taste and add a little sugar. A dried chilli or two can also be to your taste.

Soy Pickled Celery

In a big bowl, mix together celery, cucumber, radish, onion, green chilli, and red chilli peppers. Using both hands, combine.
Then, add the combined vegetables to an airtight container or a glass jar. Put aside.
In a skillet, combine soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and water; mix thoroughly. Over medium-high heat, cover and bring to a boil. If it boils over, slightly crack the cover.
Then, for two minutes, boil without a cover.
Transfer the heated brine straight onto the veggies inside the container. Allow it to cool completely before going forward.
Once the lid is closed, chill.
After letting it sit for a few hours, serve it as a side dish with rice.
You can keep it for up to a month in the refrigerator.

How to Make Soy Pickled Radish

Boil two cups of brewed soy sauce, half a cup of sugar, and half a cup of anchovy kelp stock. Once it starts boiling, remove it and allow it to cool.
Using a brush, remove the foreign materials from the outside (leave the skin unpeeled). Slice it on a regular basis. It’s steady at first, then the thickness keeps increasing thicker. To make things easier, use a chopping knife.
Then, add all the soy sauce that has been cooked and cooled to the shredded radishes.
Adjust the radish’s location. Give the radish time to absorb the soy sauce.
The radish starts to release its moisture and the pickles start to multiply. To let the radish soak up the soy sauce, stir it once or twice more in the middle. Give it a three-hour soak.
Then, hand-squeeze the pickled radish and add the soy sauce on the side.
After the pickled radish has been pressed, mix it with sesame oil and seeds.
Alternatively, you can add oligosaccharide or red pepper powder, or both, if you want something sweet. Even with simple seasoning, the radish still tastes great.

Soy Pickled Green Chilli Pepper

Remove the pepper stems, leaving about ½ inch of stem remaining.
Then, use a toothpick or fork, and pierce each pepper just below the stem. The pepper will be able to take in the brine because of these openings.
Transfer the peppers to a glass jar with a minimum capacity of 8 cups.
In a pot, mix the sugar, vinegar, salt, soy sauce, and water. To mix the sugar, stir. Then, boil this mixture. Pour the brine into the jar of green chilli peppers after it boils and begins to bubble a lot on the surface.
Weigh the peppers with your bag of pebbles (or anything else you have on hand) to keep them buried in the brine.
Then, for a whole day, leave it covered and at room temperature.
After a full day, crack open the jar, remove the pebbles, and transfer the brine into a pot.
The brine should be briskly boiled for 15 mins.
Take off the heat and allow it to cool completely. Place the pot in an ice bath to speed up the cooling process, but take care not to splash any cold water into the brine.
Return the chilled brine to the jar. Before consuming, cover and keep chilled for at least one week.

Soy Pickled Eggs

Bring enough water to cover 6–8 eggs to a boil in a kettle, then stir in the vinegar.
To taste, bring your eggs to a boil. I soft-boil my eggs for precisely six minutes after bringing them to room temperature because I prefer runny yolks. Not a rolling boil, though. The eggs can crack and leak if there is so much heat and movement. A small crack is acceptable, but the heat is too intense if your egg begins to leak.
Hard-boiled eggs should be boiled for 12 minutes.
Then, to stop the cooking process and allow the eggs to cool fully, immediately place them in an ice bath.
Combine all of the marinade’s components.
Then, bring enough water to cover 6–8 eggs to a boil in a kettle, then stir in the vinegar.
To taste, bring your eggs to a boil. I soft-boil my eggs for precisely six minutes after bringing them to room temperature because I prefer runny yolks. Not a rolling boil, though. The eggs can crack and leak if there is so much heat and movement. A small crack is acceptable, but the heat is too intense if your egg begins to leak.
Hard-boiled eggs should be boiled for 12 minutes.
To stop the cooking process and allow the eggs to cool fully, immediately place them in an ice bath.
Finally, combine all of the marinade’s components.

Soy Pickled FAQs

1. What to Do with the Leftover Brine?

The soy brine with added vegetables tastes great. It can be marinated or used in cooking, as well as used as a dipping sauce. Just keep in mind that it contains vinegar and has been diluted. Even better, increase the amount of soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar, boil it, and then make more pickles.

2. Can You Ferment Jangajji?

No, Korean pickles in a brine of soy sauce, or jangajji, are not fermented and should only be kept in the refrigerator for a maximum of two weeks. The veggies are soaked in an acidic brine to give them a sour taste; but, during the fermentation process, the vegetables naturally develop a sour taste on their own. Korean fermented vegetable side dishes are also among the most widely consumed in the globe. This is Korean kimchi. The fermentation process used to make kimchi involves using Lactobacillus bacteria to ferment napa cabbage.