Nicholas Gavin is the Culinary Creative Director of ChefSteps, where he develops recipes and is responsible for making all the food look beautiful. Nick has worked at ChefSteps for over a decade; he and ChefSteps co-founder Grant Crilly worked together at Modernist Cuisine. Nick has worked in professional kitchens both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain.

Nicholas Gavin

Quick-pickled carrots and daikon are a staple of the Vietnamese table. The combination of the sweet, crunchy carrots, the slightly bitter and sulfurous daikon, and the sweet and tart brine is as versatile as it is delicious. They’re stuffed in <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/how-to-make-banh-mi">bánh mì</a> and bánh xèo, served alongside grilled meats, or submerged in nước chấm to add a little extra character to the dipping sauce. To get a uniform julienne, we use a [link https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/tips-tricks-how-to-quickly-julienne-lots-of-veggies-at-once mandoline] fitted with a julienne blade attachment, slicing on a bias to get short matchsticks, which creates less waste than slicing planks and then cutting those planks into batons with a knife. And instead of a hot brine, we use a cold one to preserve the veggies’ crunchy texture. These pickles are all about that crunch, which gradually dissipates the longer the vegetables sit in their brine. Since they’re super easy to make, we prefer to make small batches regularly, rather than one giant batch that&#39;ll go limp before you have a chance to finish them off; this recipe is scaled accordingly.

Đồ Chua (Vietnamese Pickled Daikon and Carrots)