Pickled Garlic Scapes (마늘종 장아찌)

This is just a simple post of pickling garlic scapes with soy sauce and rice vinegar. Pickling in Korea often means using soy sauce as a main pickling liquid. The main vegetable getting pickled will do its part to make each pickle a special one, and it will last crunchy for a while... As for the pickled garlic scapes pictured above, it's been a week and they're crunchy and salty-sweet as ever.

Since I made only a small amount, barely 1 1/2 cups, it's more for the flavor than long preservation. It doesn't veer much from my usual soy sauce-based pickles, with aromatic vegetables adding their natural sweetness and depth of flavors. I find that adding onion slices help getting vegetable pickles naturally sweet without additional sugar. Then of course, onion slices themselves become pickled too, with their own pleasant crunchiness.

If you want to make it last a little longer, strain the soy sauce liquid after a couple of days, boil it again, then pour it over on the garlic scapes that have already been pickled along with other vegetables. This will help reduce the amount of water extracted from the vegetables in the initial pickling process and reintroduce the salty soy sauce pickling liquid to the vegetables. I did it this time, but I don't think I'll have any left by the end of this week anyway.

Pickled garlic scapes is one of the basic side dishes to accompany a bowl of rice for your anytime meal, but then again, it can also be that one bite that brightens up your meal, as a complement to a meat dish or an addition to your homemade bibimbap or kimbap. The flavored soy sauce liquid is good for a dipping sauce, say, for savory pancakes (seafood scallion pancake anyone? See below for the link) or dumplings.

Once I have soy sauce and rice vinegar enough to immerse all the vegetable content, then I let my mood and vegetables in the fridge at the time take me to the next stage of pickling.

Soy Sauce-Pickled Garlic Scapes
(마늘종 장아찌 - ma neul jong jang ah jji)

Yields: 1 1/2 Cup

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cup Garlic scapes, ends-trimmed and cut to 2-inch length

1 cup          Soy sauce
1/4 cup          Rice vinegar
1/4 cup Lukewarm water
1                  Dried shitake mushroom
1 piece      Dried kelp, about the size of 2 fingers
1/4              Onion, medium-sized, peeled and cut to slices
3 cloves      Garlic, peeled and cut to slices
1 piece          Ginger, peeled and cut to slices

DIRECTIONS:
1. Soak dried shitake mushroom and dried kelp in 1/4 cup of lukewarm water until soft, about 10~20 minutes. Set aside.

2. Combine soy sauce, rice vinegar, onion, garlic and ginger along with the soaked shitake, kelp and its soaking water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

3. Pour over the garlic scapes. Cool to room temperature. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

RELATED RECIPES