Sorry, you’re not allowed to access this page. Contact Yelp if you keep experiencing issues. Fresh and crunchy green papaya pickles in a garlicky, sweet brine—this atchara recipe is a fast and easy pickling process that anyone can spam musubi calories at home. Over the years, my tita Grace always had a handful of jars available at any given time in her second fridge just in case there was a party or for Sunday bbq at home.
And she was always so generous in offering me and my parents jars of this stuff when we visit! This recipe is similar to Tita’s easy to follow recipe, which focuses on a simple and sweet brine. You can find many Filipino restaurants, like Grill City that will give you a side of atchara with your bbq orders too. But I like making this at home since it’s super easy to make!
My favorites that I included in this recipe are carrots, green bell peppers, and garlic. You can add some chile peppers to give it spice too. Tita Grace loves to add jicama and onions. Note that if you want to add red onions, there’s a high chance that your brine will turn red! You can also use a food processor with a shredding attachment or a knife if you want to do this manually, but you save soo much time using a mandolin. I used a knife for the green bell peppers because they had a tendency to lose their shape with the shredder attachment.
This process is called degorging, and it uses salt to remove excess water from the vegetables. It’s also the same process for making Chinese cucumber salad, sunomono, and đồ chua. I give them a quick rinse over the sink and them wring them out with a cheese cloth. Each ingredient is then ready to soak up all the brine and all that tangy and sweet flavor. This recipe only uses cane vinegar, sugar, salt, and garlic slices because atchara has a less tangy and sweeter flavor. After pouring the brine into the vegetable jars, I like to use a chopstick to move the liquid brine around the jars.