SIDE DISH: Some Pickles

It's often said that cooking is science in the kitchen.  In this recipe, we'll be cultivating Lactobacillus, which is a genus that's present in fermentation.  I understand bacteria are seen as harbingers of death and food poisoning, but there is no need to sterilize Lactobacillus.  They're in cheese, yogurt, wine, beer--KEEP THAT CLOROX AWAY, PSYCHO.

Ingredients

salt

water

cucumbers and/or peeled daikon

Optional

soy sauce

Equipment
container(s) - bowl, Tupperware, jar... something to hold the pickles
cover

Optional

pH strips for testing the brine
baking soda to kill the smell while fermenting

The How-To

1. Rinse the cucumbers.  You can choose to cut them so they're like little circles now, or you could do it afterwards.
2. If you are using daikon, chop it.  You can use whatever shapes or kind of cutting, but I usually cut them into strands or cubes.
3. Coat the cucumbers/daikon with salt.
4. Pour water into the container.
5. Stir salt and/or soy sauce into the water until the water is briny/very-salty-and-therefore-not-very-drinkable.  You can use the pH strips here to test the water's pH - your aim should be about pH level 4.5
6. Put the salt-coated cucumbers/daikon in the container(s).  You can put both cucumbers and daikon in the same container, or have segregated containers.
7. Cover the container(s) so oxygen doesn't get in.
8. Keep container(s) at room temperature for at least 6 hours.  More time = more sour.  It may also get smelly so you can keep some baking soda nearby (an opened box, a bowl of baking soda, etc.) if you don't like the smell.

You can also refrigerate the container, but it's best to do that after it's pickled.

Heck, you could just toss daikon cubes and cucumber slices with some vinegar/salt, but who wants to do that?

I like to garnish the pickled daikon with some shredded bell pepper, and serve it on a leaf of lettuce/spinach on a white side dish bowl.  Or serve pickled cucumber slices with a little toasted sesame seed as a garnish.