The basis of the sweet and spicy pickle I used is from an Asian style pickled carrots/dikon.
Pickle liquid - combine ingredients and bring to a quick boil.
1 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup turbinado sugar (can use ganulated sugar)
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon fresh minced ginger
3 cloves garlic minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
a couple squirts of siracha sauce.
2 whole star anise (i omitted this as I didn't think the anise flavor would go well with the beef short ribs)
This will cover approximately 2lbs of julienned carrots, so you kind of approximate how much cucumber it can cover all the way. Typically you want to give it a couple days of soak time before eating, but this was a last minute thing for me, so I had it in the liquid for approx 6 hours. I use my roommates tupperware to store the veggies in the fridge and so I am not sure how many canning jars it will fill.
I have more cucumbers sitting in the pickling liquid to soak up the goodness since I have a couple more short ribs left to eat.
Carrots, Dikon, and onions do really well with this pickling liquid and pair really well with items like bibimbap, bulgogi, anything that you can think of that could use a nice bright acidity to cut through sweetness or richness of dishes.