It’s Time to Start Pickling Your Potatoes
Pickled potatoes go with everything. Yes, really.
A sun speckled green pumpkin weighing heavily at the bottom of my co-op vegetable bag was the beginning of my pickling obsession. It was a kabocha, a Fanta orange Japanese variety of winter squash, and although my instincts told me to make a creamy soup, the internet informed me otherwise.
This isn’t an article about Kabocha no Nimono, the popular Japanese side dish made of generous chunks of squash delicately simmered in sake and soy sauce, but it was my gateway to drowning everything with vinegar and salt nearly a decade ago. The dish itself could hardly be considered a pickle but overtime I began adding more stuff from my pantry to give it extra punches of color and flavor in absence of the bonito-spiked dashi of the original recipe. I might toss in some togarashi for spice, grated ginger for loud nuance, fresh lemon for a pucker of citrus, mirin for extra sweetness and always, without fail, a generous pour of vinegar and pinch of salt to let all the flavors meld together.
That little discovery was just the beginning. Coming from a household where pickles always meant Vlasic deli spears, or the occasional carrots and jalapeños served on the side of a burrito, there was a lot to learn. I’ve since tried pickling just about every fruit and…
