Good Taste: Vinegar Pickles

I’m trying to clean up my act—at least for this week anyway—and so instead of grazing on cookies and peppermint bark as I’ve been doing the past month, I made a batch of chef David Chang’s vinegar pickles for snacking or dolling up a midweek sandwich. You won’t believe how easy these are. You can try this method with any vegetable you want to pickle, like sliced fennel or cauliflower florets. And ideally you want to really pack the jar with vegetables. But what you really, really want to do is to buy Chang’s Momofuku cookbook for more inspired recipes like this one.

Momofuku Vinegar Pickles, Master Recipe

1 cup water, piping hot from tap

1/2 rice wine vinegar

6 tablespoons sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt

2 large cucumbers, thinly sliced

Combine water, vinegar, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves. Pack the cucumbers into a quart container. Pour brine over vegetables, cover and refrigerate. Allow to sit 3-4 days at a minimum, a week for optimum flavor. Pickles will keep for at least a month.