Pickles--Cook-Off 32

[SheenaGreena]

live it up, your fingernails are pretty they match your pickled onions very well (:

what kind of kimchi are you going to make? cabbage?

[SheenaGreena]

alright, heres some pics of oi muchim that I made. Like the radish version, I took most of the ingredients and measurements from zenkimchi's recipe.

I guess this is what you would call a "quick pickle"

I used: gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, sesame seeds, and rice wine vinegar

here's a photo of the ingredients I used. The gochujang looks scary, but at least its homemade

here's a pic of all the ingredients minus the cukes all mixed up and ready to go

salted cukes

end product

[Varmint]

I also made some pickled red onions last night. I combined a cup of white vinegar, a cup of water, and a cup of sugar. Brought it to a boil, added mustard seed, celery seed, fennel seed, bay leaf, some red peppercorns, and some salt. I then poured this over the sliced red onions and have let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. Sweet and sour! These will go with a simple goat cheese, bacon and beet salad on Saturday.

[Chris Amirault]

Dean, how thick are those onion slices?

[snowangel]

I also made some pickled red onions last night.  I combined a cup of white vinegar, a cup of water, and a cup of sugar.  Brought it to a boil, added mustard seed, celery seed, fennel seed, bay leaf, some red peppercorns, and some salt.  I then poured this over the sliced red onions and have let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.  Sweet and sour!  These will go with a simple goat cheese, bacon and beet salad on Saturday.

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These things are also really good on smoked butt.

[Varmint]

The slices are about 1/4". I had some on a burger last night, and they were great.

[annecros]

I started green tomato pickles and chow chow last night. Two very different pickles, but the same method. We are culling a couple of tomato plants this weekend, and I had a lot of greenies.

Here are the green tomatoes (4 cups quartered), vidalia onion (1 cup chopped), green bell pepper (1/2 cup chopped), and celery (1/2 cup chopped) salted down to drain overnight.

Here are the vegetables for the chow chow - cabbage (4 cups), red onion (1 cup), red bell pepper (1 cup), and green tomatoes (4 cups) also salted down to drain overnight.

Now that they have drained, today I will blanch, can and process both batches. I hope I can keep that color in the jar. Will report back.

[Hiroyuki]

My thinned melons look like this today.

It seems that fermentation is not yet complete, and the melons are quite salty.

It's not the right time of the year to start a sagohachi bed because the room temprature is too high for the fermentation and the temperature inside the fridge is too low.

[Shelby]

In a few weeks I'll be pickling baby corn, so I'll try to take pictures!

I've enjoyed seeing all of your different items!!

[Live It Up]

live it up, your fingernails are pretty they match your pickled onions very well (:

what kind of kimchi are you going to make?  cabbage?

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Thanks! I'm going to make whole cabbage kimchi when I run out of the stuff I just bought. Those cucumbers you made look really good.

[weinoo]

I went to the farmer's market this morning and got these veggies to try and turn into a middle-eastern pickle thing:

And they look like this in the jar after prepping; the beets turn everything red, I'm not using red-wine vinegar here, though it looks like I am!!

The jar on the right isn't all the way full, so I did the plastic bag thing with that one, and I'll be testing them starting Monday.

[annecros]

That looks like a great mix of veg, weinoo. What makes them Middle Eastern? Did you use any particular seasonings? Beets will do it to you every time, but they really are good.

Did the pickled green tomatoes and the chow chow (aka piccalilli, sometimes called India Relish) today.

Rinsed the excess salt off of the tomato/veg mixture, 2 cups of white vinegar, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 tbsp of mustard seed. Brought it all up to a boil, immediately packed in hot sterilized jars, and processed in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Yielded three pints.

For the chow chow, I also rinsed the excess salt, added two minced garlic cloves, 2 1/2 cups of malt vinegar, 1 tbs ground ginger, 1 tbs turmeric, 1 tbs dry mustard, 1/2 cup of sugar. Brought it up to a boil, simmered 5 minutes, immediately packed in hot sterilized jars, and processed in a boiling water bath for 8 minutes.

Yielded seven half pints.

I am looking forward to peeking in my pantry the next few months! And burgers and dogs for sure on the 4th of July.

[weinoo]

That looks like a great mix of veg, weinoo. What makes them Middle Eastern? Did you use any particular seasonings? Beets will do it to you every time, but they really are good.

Did the pickled green tomatoes and the chow chow (aka piccalilli, sometimes called India Relish) today.

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Those pickled green tomatoes, a staple of our lower east side pickle vendors, look wonderful.

The middle-eastern pickle I'm trying is called torshi meshakel - or mixed pickles; I don't really know what makes them middle-eastern, per se, but it's a pickle without sugar; it contains both salt and vinegar. Seasonings are simple - dried chili peppers, garlic, and dill seed.

One of the most popular middle-eastern pickles, according to Claudia Roden in her Book of Middle Eastern Food, is torshi left, or pickled turnips...(and I get the feeling that torshi means pickle!). They are also packed with beets, which turns the turnips pink...I'm expecting my radishes and cucumbers and maybe even the little carrots in my pickle mix will turn pink as well.

[bloviatrix]

One of the most popular middle-eastern pickles, according to Claudia Roden in her Book of Middle Eastern Food, is torshi left, or pickled turnips...(and I get the feeling that torshi means pickle!).  They are also packed with beets, which turns the turnips pink...

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I have 4 quarts of these curing in my pantry as I type. We go through them in massive quantites.

Several years ago someone here suggested this recipe for spicy dills. I make them often, and we're currently finishing the first batch of the season.

Later today I will make some "instant gratification" pickles. They're bread & butter pickles that only need about 4 hours of curing before they're ready to eat - hence, their name.

[annecros]

Did some more pickles for Fourth of July over the weekend. A lot of quick, small things:

Garlic Dill Spears, Bread and Butter Chips, Hot Pickled Okra, and the red stuff is Salsa that I went ahead and put up while I had my canning stuff going. Salsa recipe here.

The wide mouth pints are great for pickles. Easier to pack the spears tight, and you can just flip the jar over every day while they are pickling in order to make sure the cukes infuse properly.

[annecros]

One of the most popular middle-eastern pickles, according to Claudia Roden in her Book of Middle Eastern Food, is torshi left, or pickled turnips...(and I get the feeling that torshi means pickle!).  They are also packed with beets, which turns the turnips pink...

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I have 4 quarts of these curing in my pantry as I type. We go through them in massive quantites.

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Pickled turnips sound really good. I am putting in some turnips and mustard in the garden in the early Fall, so will put some up then.

[annecros]

And, just for SheenaGreena, Sweet Pickled Eggs and Beets:

I got lucky and found a bunch of baby beets, so did a little larger quantity as I had a dozen to use.

Whew! I'm done with pickles for a while now. Am checking them every day, and looking foward to cooking out on the 4th.

[Meridian]

I would like to know if anyone out there has ever pickled garlic. Can you give me your technique or point me in the right direction. Thanks

[annecros]

I would like to know if anyone out there has ever pickled garlic.  Can you give me your technique or point me in the right direction.  Thanks

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I've never tried it, but am intrigued by the idea. My hubby does eat the whole garlic out of my other pickles, so I don't see why not.

Would be interested in hearing of other's experience.

[Bueno]

I pickle garlic all the time. I buy it in those big supermarket econo-tubs and pickle it just as I would my favourite dill pickle recipe. It's bloody delicious.

A recent quick-pickle a la minute concoction recently made it to the top of my all-time favourite pickle preps:

Seedless white grapes, organic grape tomatoes, thinly sliced shallot, one crushed glove of garlic (removed later) and thinly sliced lemongrass. Quick pickled with white balsamic.

[annecros]

I pickle garlic all the time.  I buy it in those big supermarket econo-tubs and pickle it just as I would my favourite dill pickle recipe.  It's bloody delicious.

A recent quick-pickle a la minute concoction recently made it to the top of my all-time favourite pickle preps:

Seedless white grapes, organic grape tomatoes, thinly sliced shallot, one crushed glove of garlic (removed later) and thinly sliced lemongrass.  Quick pickled with white balsamic.

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Fill to overflowing and straight into the fridge, or does it need some room temp shelf time? Those pickled grapes sound really neat.

I am food safety ultra-paranoid. I can see the dill mix working for garlic, in fact hubby fishes them out. I always sort of thought of it as an aside, and garbage.

I was wrong.

[Pam R]

These books just arrived this morning:

Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes with Big Flavor, Chris Schlesinger, John Willoughby, Dan George

Ball Blue Book of Preserving

The New Preserves : Pickles, Jams, and Jellies, Anne V. Nelson

I'm going to take at least one of them to thumb through with post-it notes on my road trip this weekend.

I've quickly flipped through the Quick Pickles book, and the pictures are gorgeous.

[weinoo]

These books just arrived this morning:

Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes with Big Flavor, Chris Schlesinger, John Willoughby, Dan George

Ball Blue Book of Preserving

The New Preserves : Pickles, Jams, and Jellies, Anne V. Nelson

I'm going to take at least one of them to thumb through with  post-it notes on my road trip this weekend.

I've quickly flipped through the Quick Pickles book, and the pictures are gorgeous.

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That's my favorite one...have made the back eddy house pickles, bread and butters, midwest garden and they're all quite tasty.

[Bueno]

Ordered.

[Chris Amirault]

In the last two days, I've made two batches of quick pickles.

Red onions sliced into thin wedges, kosher salt, and lime juice to cover in the fridge for two hours. Served as as topping for burritos.

Yellow onion and cucumber (I used english, but kirby or persian would work; those industrial behemoths don't) in 1/4" slices, salted for an hour, rinsed, drained, and squeezed, then in a 1:1 water/cider vinegar with about 1 T sugar and some dill from out back. Served with some fried chicken and hushpuppies.

One question for the experts. I've noticed that I like the squeaky, crisp texture of pickles that result from a very strong squeezing in a dish towel, as opposed to a simple drain or gentle squeeze. It also seems that the flavors absorb more quickly when I do this, which seems to make sense at a cellular level (squeeze out the liquid and the cukes absorb more to recover). But most of the directions that I've seen say to squeeze very gently. Is this just a taste/texture thing, or am I committing the kind of horrible crime that would get me tossed out of a state fair?