Small Batch Pickled Vegetables

[heidih]

Since Borders is next to Penzys I will be buzzing over that way tomorrow to pick up the Saveur. I am looking at the grapes that are really close to the ground and may be accessible to more bugs. If I see any damage perhaps I could do a quick pickle on them? They are raisin sized and light green at the moment. Will report back.

[Anna N]

Anna, what's in the "Back-eddy" pickles? Just mixed veg? They look great!

Has anyone tried any of the quick pickles from this month's Saveur? I'm thinking about the pickled tomatoes as I've never had anything like that before.

Yes, just mixed vegetables, pickling cukes, onions, red pepper, carrots and garlic. The recipe called for a green pepper also but I did not have one on hand. The "Back Eddy" was a restaurant where these pickles were served prior to a meal.

[Kouign Aman]

Anyone have a recipe for spicy pickled brussels sprouts ?

Its a family joke, whenever our daughter complains about the meal, that we're gonna feed her those instead.

She's caught on this week, and its calling our bluff.

I need to make some and regain cred. Plus she'll laugh her head off.

[Kerry Beal]

Anyone have a recipe for spicy pickled brussels sprouts ?

Its a family joke, whenever our daughter complains about the meal, that we're gonna feed her those instead.

She's caught on this week, and its calling our bluff.

I need to make some and regain cred. Plus she'll laugh her head off.

Here's a dilled brussel sprout from Stocking Up 3rd edition

2lbs trimmed sprouts

2 cups water

2 cups vinegar

1 cup lemon juice

1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne

9 sprigs fresh dill

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp mustard seed

Steam until just tender. Boil water, vinegar, lemon juice and 5 sprigs of dill for 5 minutes in non reactive pan. Split garlic cloves, 1 sprig dill, and 1/4 tsp mustard seed into each of 4 pint jars, add spouts, pour over boiling solution. Seal, process 15 minutes in boiling water bath.

[heidih]

Anyone have a recipe for spicy pickled brussels sprouts ?

Its a family joke, whenever our daughter complains about the meal, that we're gonna feed her those instead.

She's caught on this week, and its calling our bluff.

I need to make some and regain cred. Plus she'll laugh her head off.

For a quick pickle, I would just blanch them until you can insert a knife with resistance. If they are hazelnut sized- leave whole, otherwise maybe half them. I would make a standard brine for a small batch with 2 cups water, 1/4 cup vinegar and 2T salt. Adding pepper, red pepper flakes and or mustard seeds for spice. If you enjoy them a little sweeter just add a bit of sugar to the brine when you heat it. The beauty of quick pickles is that you do not have to have the acid or even salt balance just right. You can adjust it and you are only making a small batch so view them as experiments. Personally I would enjoy some lemon or orange zest with brussel sprouts.

[Anna N]

.....

Then I must share Harumi's recipe:

[MollyB]

My favorite quick pickle is the Tangy Mixed Vegetable Pickle from Andrea Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. (I was actually eating some of it when I came across this thread!) It's cauliflower, red bell pepper, and carrots, cut into small florets and slices. You soak them in a simple salt/water brine for 4-6 hrs., drain them, then pour over a half water/half white vinegar brine that has some sugar. I think the brine was 2 c. vinegar, 2 c. water, and 3/4 c. sugar.) It makes wonderfully crisp, tangy pickles that are great to snack on or have as a side with grilled meats.

Incidentally, I discovered with this last batch I made that red carrots bleed into a brine and turn everything pink. I got a mixed bunch of orange, red, and yellow carrots from the farmers market that I thought would make a really pretty pickle, but now I have a very pink pickle. It still tastes great, but it's a little strange to eat pastel pink cauliflower.

-Molly

[nakji]

My favorite quick pickle is the Tangy Mixed Vegetable Pickle from Andrea Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. (I was actually eating some of it when I came across this thread!) It's cauliflower, red bell pepper, and carrots, cut into small florets and slices. You soak them in a simple salt/water brine for 4-6 hrs., drain them, then pour over a half water/half white vinegar brine that has some sugar. I think the brine was 2 c. vinegar, 2 c. water, and 3/4 c. sugar.) It makes wonderfully crisp, tangy pickles that are great to snack on or have as a side with grilled meats.

Nice! Pink cauliflower would be somewhat disconcerting, though.

WOW! This is an awesome pickle. Love that it is not sweet. I didn't have any small peppers so had to sub 1/2 teaspoon of pepper flakes but otherwise followed the recipe. That's why cooking is so fascinating - it's alchemy when you put a few simple ingredients together and come up with something so delicious. Thank you for sharing.

I love Harumi's recipes for this reason - she rarely has recipes with many ingredients; she often puts together really common things in combinations you'd never thought of before. Glad you enjoyed them - now I think I need to make another batch.

I tried pickling the tomatoes from the Saveur recipe as I mentioned up-topic. I used some local cherry tomatoes, garlic, dried bay, pepper corns, and since I didn't have any peperoncini or fresh dill, I substituted fresh red chilies and fennel seed. I'll try them tomorrow to see how they've come out.

[nakji]

Update: the tomatoes are incredibly good; I'm having some with eggs for breakfast. Very garlicky, and the fennel adds a nice note. Definitely worth making if you have some cherry tomatoes on hand.

[Anna N]

Over on this I discuss a Korean-style pickled cucumber which is really growing on me. I am just finished up the last few bites and will have to get more cucumber to make more.

[Mottmott]

I find that my winter meals cry, whimper, scream for PICKLES! So I've read this thread with interest.

I often make my mother's old standby for a quick cucumber plckle to serve with roasts or other "fat" meals. These are meant to be eatten in 1-2 days as te texture wont hold up too much longer. Make enough brine to cover te thinly sliced peeled cucumbers using the following ratio:

In a measuring cup: 1 part sugar, fill cup to 3 part mark with boiling water, then fill to 4 part mark with vinegar. I usually pour the warm/hot mixture over the cucs.

But my favorite pickle is the Zuni Cafe Ckbk recipe for pickled sliced red onions. She has more than one; I use the one with star anise. It's lots of work, but well worth it.

[Chris Amirault]

Can't believe I missed this one the first time through. I always have pickled beets in the fridge, and I usually have red onions pickled with lime, salt, and water as a simple Mexican condiment.

[nakji]

I'm doing a lot of quick-pickled cucumbers with fresh ginger and chingkiang vinegar recently. I also did a bottle of the pickled cauliflower I mentioned earlier for my Christmas dinner, and I was surprised to see it fly off the table. People really enjoy non-sweet pickles.

[gfweb]

I do a lot of sort-of pickles.

I have roasted red peppers with balsamic (kind of a pickle, no?) in a ziploc bag in the fridge at all times. I add it to sandwiches and "Italian" quesadillas (along with mozzarella or provolone and italian sausage or salumi)..or serve it atop cheap cuts of meat as a quick low carb flavor improver...or just eat it along with a glass of wine.

Pickled mushrooms are also often in another ziploc. Balsamic + lite soy + tabasco for a few days makes a great snack as well as an accompaniment to appetizers.

Quick pickled onions in sugar/vinegar (+ a bit of red food coloring) are a quick salad additive that perks up a hum drum plate of greens and is almost a salad dressing in itself(OMG I sound like Rachel Ray).

Edited January 16, 2011 by gfweb (log)

[heidih]

Whenever I have a leftover bit of vegetable I consider whether there is a soup that will be made within a day or so or if a quick pickle is in order. The most recent incident involved onions. I needed only a bit of the big onion and was not sure when I would use the rest as I had roasted onions in the fridge. I grabbed a jar, thin sliced the rest of the onion, added a bit of salt, sugar and black pepper, and topped off with rice vinegar. It has been a nice extra taste alongside a number of dishes.

[nakji]

Quick pickled onions in sugar/vinegar (+ a bit of red food coloring) are a quick salad additive that perks up a hum drum plate of greens and is almost a salad dressing in itself(OMG I sound like Rachel Ray).

I never thought of putting pickled onions into a salad. huh. Sounds good. But why the red food colouring?

[gfweb]

Pickled red onions look fine, but if you pickle yellow or white onions they look decayed. So I put in some food coloring to the yellow onions. A drop or two makes them pink. At first it seems too pink, but mixed in the salad its just right.

Pickled onions and candied/salty pecans are nice foils in a salad. Add a small poached salmon filet and a honey/lime vinaigrette...nice lunch that prepares fast.

Edited January 16, 2011 by gfweb (log)

[Will]

Haven't made them in a while, but this beet recipe (from Mark Bittman) is fantastic.

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/beets-mexican-style/

When bitter oranges are in season, I'll use them if I can get 'em, but works fine with a mixture of other citrus to approximate the taste of bitter orange.

[Kouign Aman]

I finally got around to pickling some brussels sprouts.

Thanks for the recipe ideas!

We were pressed for time, which meant no shopping for ingredients.

First try = cooked, add to white vinegar and tobasco.

Not bad, but a bit 'flat' - needs some warmth/roundedness in the flavor.

With time to shop, will use apple cider vinegar, perhaps fresh chilis instead of tobasco,

and split them into with and without garlic.

And for grins, may actually try Kerry's recipe as written.

[christine007]

Well,this is a "cheat like hell" recipe, but I buy a jar of pickled onions, usually from world market, and eat them. I make sure to save every drop of the brine.

When the onions are all gone, I buy a sweet onion, peel, and chop it to about one by one inch squares, and drop those into boiling salted water for about two minutes.

Shock them in ice water, drain, then put them in the jar,then into the fridge. I shake them everytime I remember to, and they're usually nice and pickled by day three.

[FrogPrincesse]

I've been making a lot of pickled fennel recently. I use the recipe from Babbo - fennel cut into thin slices and boiled in white vinegar (diluted with water), salt, sugar, peppercorns, and fennel seeds for 5 minutes.

It's wonderful on its own or as an accompaniment to charcuterie.

[janeer]

I've been making a lot of pickled fennel recently. I use the recipe from Babbo - fennel cut into thin slices and boiled in white vinegar (diluted with water), salt, sugar, peppercorns, and fennel seeds for 5 minutes.

It's wonderful on its own or as an accompaniment to charcuterie.

Now that sounds nice. I bet it would be nice alongside frito misto, too.

[heidih]

Inspired by nakji's daikon pickles here, and facing some extra large radishes from the garden that I was really growing for the greens, plus a desire to try to use every bit of things, I made a quick radish pickle today. The image is 2 radishes that were about golf ball size and they were sliced on the super cheap slicer in the photo (from the Marukai 98 cent store when it was all really 98 cents years ago - the holes are for grating ginger). I wanted to taste the radish so I just used a diluted white vinegar with a bit of sugar and salt. I tasted some today after a few hours and it was good. Will see how it matures.

[Jaymes]

Sorta surprised that no one has yet mentioned the classic Mexican pickled jalapenos. They are ubiquitous on the Mexican table.

There are as many recipes as there are Mexican cooks, but here's a good place to start:

Pickled Jalapenos (Jalapenos en Escabeche)

And pickled jicama is also a popular staple.

[OliverB]

Ah, pickled things! If I'd ever start a food business of some kind, it would be pickles!

I love the zucchini from the Zuni Cafe book, easy and outstanding! The red onions are mentioned above already, more work but simply fantastic!

I often also make some kind of super quick pickle thing with either onions or daikon, sliced thin and then I pour some vinegar over (kind depends on the rest of dinner, red wine for some, rice v (seasoned or not) for a more asian twist, salt, pepper and sugar. I make that right along with dinner prep, so it does not soak more than a hour, often only 30 min or so, but still great. Red onions done that way go into a green bean salad, daikon just served with the meat (like last night's 48 hour short ribs).

Ideas in food also has some interesting pickle ideas quick pickle book mentioned above is suddenly on my amazon wish list :-)

I also want to recommend a pickle from the store I recently discovered: Wickles! A wonderful sweet and spicy cucumber pickle my local Safeway started to carry. I have a hard time not eating the whole glass, and yes, I do eat the red peppers in there, most of the spiciness has leached out and they are delicious!