I fell in love with SC's grandma's pickled vegetables when I visited Guang Zhou during the Chinese New Year. We asked for her recipe and decided to make some at home. These aren't as good as hers...but pretty close.
We were greedy, so we chose lots of different vegetables to pickle :)
We just used the inner part of the mustard greens, and boiled them for a bit. The rest of the veggies didn't need boiling. I think we can get away with not boiling them, but I just followed SC's mom and granny's instructions. These are drained after boiling to be joined by the other veggies.
All the veggies were mixed in the wok, we scattered some sea salt on them and let them be for about an hour. The salt helps draw the water from the veggies so they'll absorb the pickling liquid better.
After an hour, we squeezed the veggies dry. Lots of water came out!
Placed the veggies in a pot, ready for pickling.
During the salting time, you could prepare the pickling liquid. We started with about a cup of vinegar and a cup of sugar...continue adding sugar and vinegar bit by bit until you achieve the perfect balance of sweet and sour. Once done, let cool. Once cooled, pour the pickling liquid into the pot with veggies and let them pickle away. They'd taste fantastic the next day. I love them chilled in the fridge.
In Guang Zhou, we had these with almost any dish...or even eat them as snack.
I gotta make more soon!