Fermented Radish and Carrots Slaw [Vietnamese Style]
FERMENTATION LENGTH: 5-7 daysSALT PERCENT: 2%Vietnamese-Style Fermented Radish and Carrots Slaw has an amazing set of flavors that will shine with any dish. The classic combination of basil, mint, cilantro, and lime is added to shredded carrots and radishes and fermented for 5-7 days.
Course Condiment, Side Dish, Snack
Keyword Banh Mi, Carrot, Fermented, Ginger
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Servings 281-ounce
Author Holly Howe
Equipment
Kitchen scale, ideally digital
1-quart (1 L) wide-mouth canning jar or similar sized jar
4-ounce (125 ml) canning jar (jelly jar) or other fermentation weight
Wide-mouth plastic storage cap, canning jar rim, and lid, or airlock lid of your choosing
Cutting board and chef’s knife
Large mixing bowl
Vegetable peeler and measuring spoons
Ingredients
¼cup (60 ml) fresh mint, thinly sliced
¼cup (60 ml) fresh cilantro, thinly sliced
¼cup (60 ml) fresh basil, thinly sliced
1teaspoon (5 ml) coriander seeds, gently crushed (see Recipe Notes) or, ½ teaspoon (2 ml) coriander powder
1pound (450 g) approx.radish, grated or sliced (see Recipe Notes)
1pound (450 g) approx. carrots, peeled and grated
1tablespoon (15 ml) fine-grain iodine-free salt
Instructions
Place your bowl on the scale. Either zero out your scale or write down the tare (weight) of your bowl.
Prep your mint, cilantro, basil, and lime (zest and juice) and add to your bowl along with coriander (seeds or powder) and optional fish sauce. See embedded video above to learn how to cut the herbs using the chiffonade technique. It's fun and the results are worth it. :-)
Grate the carrots. Slice or grate the radish, depending on the type of radish you’re using. A nice touch is to julienne or spiralizer the carrots (and daikon, is using). See embedded video above to learn how to julienne. Just be sure not to end up with too fine a cut. You need just under a pound (400 grams) of each. The smaller radishes could also be thinly sliced.
Add radish and carrots to your bowl until the weight of all your ingredients is 1 ¾ pound (28 oz or 800 g).
Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of salt. Mix thoroughly until salt is well dispersed.
Pack into a 1-quart (liter) jar leaving 1-2 inches of headspace. Clean up any loose bits from around the rim and press the mixture down into your jar to remove any air pockets.
Seal the jar using a fermentation weight and airlock lid of your choosing. If you don’t have a specialty weight, find a slightly smaller jar that will fit inside the neck of the jar you packed your ferment into. Fill it with water, cap it, and place it inside the jar. It will keep your ferment below the brine and safe from airborne molds and yeasts.
Label your jar with the recipe name and the day you started fermenting. Place your jar in a small bowl to catch any brine that may overflow. Ferment away from direct sunlight for 5-7 days.
Start tasting on day 5, stopping fermentation when the desired flavor and acidity is achieved. I keep the fermentation length short for this ferment because I find with sweet carrots, it’s easy for this ferment to switch to an alcohol ferment with notes of yeast. Not what we want.
When fermented to your liking, clean up the jar, removing the fermentation weight and airlock lid. Add how long you fermented your Fermented Radish and Carrots Slawto your label. Seal your jar with a regular lid and transfer to the fridge where your ferment will keep for 6-12 months.
Notes
Toss, or cut out, any woody or brown bits you may find in your radishes.
If using watermelon or daikon radishes, first peel them. Due to their size, you might want to grate them. You do not need to peel the small, spring radishes. Since they are so small, it works better to thinly slice them.
To release the flavor of the coriander seeds, first gently crush them with the back of a spoon.
Fish sauce is rich in flavor-enhancing compounds that add complex notes to any dish. If the smell turns you off, hold your nose while pouring. The fishy odor is greatly diminished during the fermentation process leaving behind remarkable flavors.
Red Boat is my preferred brand of fish sauce. When shopping for fish sauce, carefully read the label. The best quality of fish sauce will be made with just anchovies and salt.
If you are comfortable with weighing your ingredients and calculating salt by weight, this recipe uses 2% salt. To determine how many grams of salt to add, multiply the weight of your ingredients by 0.02 and add that many grams of salt. For example, an 800 gram batch of ingredients would call for 16 grams of salt. (800 x 0.02 = 16)