Pao Cai - Sichuan Pickles

Pao Cai - Sichuan Style Pickles

Are you a pickle fan?  If not, you may still enjoy these.  If so, you will LOVE them.  In Sichuanese cooking pickles are always on hand and almost every family has one of these large clay pots filled with a variety of seasonal vegetables pickling away in brine in their kitchen.  Pickles aid the digestion and their sour flavor facilitates liver function in the break down of fatty foods.  Sichuan pickles differ to other styles of pickling in that you 'pickle' in a simple solution of water, pickling salt, and seasonal vegetables (+ old pickling brine from the last batch if you've already made it before - ALWAYS save your brine when working with this style) in a big, ideally ceramic, pao cai container with a rim along the top that you keep filled with water to maintain the seal from the top.