Condi-mental

I love pickles, relishes, chutneys and sauces. What I don't love is the bottled, canned, preserved taste that a lot of commercially prepared condiments have. It's funny, I'll cook or home make just about anything from cheese, to beer and wine, to bread fresh noodles and even my own soap, but I usually don't think twice about purchasing commercially prepared pickles. I've been making my own ketchup for a couple years now. This weekend, I decided to branch out a bit and have a go at pickle making.  I bought a lovely book last week called Quick Pickles, by Dan George, Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby, and discovered that, unlike many of the recipes in my collection of 1900's through 1950's traditional cookery books, these pickles are easy to make and don't require an engineering degree to get through the canning process. I cook for fun, not for a mental challenge!

So Cakes and I headed off to the farmers market to get a few pounds of tiny pickling cucumbers, carrots, fresh dill, asparagus and a few more odds and ends. I really wasn't sure what I was going to be making. My plan (inasmuch as I ever have a plan) was to get something of everything and see what comes out of it! Maybe that's why our house is always full of food and I am forever saying "I really should make something with that before it goes off..." This time I made something out of everything I bought! Which is why I ended up with 2 nifty pickles and one relish-y-chutney-thingy.

I also learnt a handy fact about the science of making pickles: Salt will help make your pickles crunchy. I would have assumed the opposite. Given that salt extracts water from cucumbers (and other vegetables), I would have thought that salt would make pickles limp. But it doesn't. Give it a try. The pickle recipe below is a great way to test the theory. These pickles are fresh and crisp tasting owing to the minimal processing which involves very little heat. They will keep in the fridge for about a month. But I bet they'll be gone before then...

Black Eddy House Pickles (from Quick Pickles by Dan George) - I've made a few adaptations....

Makes 6 litres

• 1 kg (2 pounds) small cucumbers (no longer than 15 centimetres or 5 inches)
• 3 tablespoons kosher salt
• 7 cloves garlic, peeled and bruised, but still whole
• 1/2 kilogram carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/2 centimetre coins
• 1 red capsicum (bell pepper) chopped into 2 centimetre (1 inch) chunks
• 1 yellow capsicum (bell pepper) chopped into 2 centimetre (1 inch) chunks
• 1 large vidalia onion, sliced (about 2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 tablespoon brown mustard seed
• 2 teaspoons coriander seed
• 2 tablespoons prepared hot mustard
• 1 teaspoon whole allspice berries
• 5 cloves
• 2 bay leaves, roughly crumbled
• 3 cups cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup golden sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar

Pre-chill your cucumbers for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator.Trim ends of cucumber and slice each into thick coins (about 1/2 - 1 cm thick). In a glass bowl, combine cucumbers and salt. Mix them thoroughly with your hands. Refrigerate cucumbers and salt for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, in a large (8 litre/quart) stainless steel saucepan, cook the carrots, onions and capsicum at medium heat with the lid on, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to sweat and soften very slightly - about 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large Teflon or stainless steel stir-fry or frying pan, saute mustard seeds, coriander seeds and fennel seeds over medium high heat just until you hear the seeds begin to pop. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the remaining ingredients. Simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

When the cucumbers are finished chilling, drain and rinse them twice under cold running water. Add the cucumbers to the vegetables in the large saucepan. Bring the vinegar mixture to a boil. Pack three large, clean sealers with the vegetables. Pour over the boiling vinegar and screw the lids on loosely. Set the jars aside to cool. Once cool, tighten the lids and refrigerate.

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't. And these pickles make a great addition to a pre-dinner bread and cheese plate.

Check out Lex Culinaria later this week for the remaining pickle recipes:

Garlicky lemon-dill asparagus

Spicy onion relish

Comments

[Tanna]

The pickles look wonderful and the process looks very doable. I'm really looking forward to the garlicky lemon-dill asparagus and onion relish sounds good too. My grandmother always did watermelon rind pickles. I did them once and they were incredible.

[Ellie]

Just a question - is this recipe for sweet or sour pickles? I adore the former and can't really stand the latter, it'd be great to be able to make my own sweet pickles!

[Lyn]

Ellie,

These are more sour than sweet, although they are sweetish....

[Pam]

I have a recommendation for those days when you're simply shopping for The Pickle. Full sour kosher dill pickles (shake until cloudy; the brand: http://www.strubpickles.com/) are near the cold cuts in Safeway. They are made without vinegar, and the brined cucumbers ferment naturally. Nothing is crunchier than kosher, and these are like the old country (where they come from wooden vats, like wine).

[lyn]

Thanks for the tip Pam. Funny about the timing as, the next on my list of pickles to make is a fermented dill!