Photo: pickling cucumbers and fresh dill awaiting the vinegar mixture.
We try to avoid using processed foods as much as possible and make our own pantry items when we can.
We've been seeing a lot of fresh herbs at the farmer's markets, and at the Crocker Galleria farmer's market, we saw a farmer with pickling cucumbers, so we snatched them up along with fresh dill and made homemade dill pickles.
The finished pickles.
The recipe we use is taken from The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two by Anna Thomas. It is easy to make and produces a wonderfully crisp, clean-tasting pickle that goes great in our lunchboxes.
Ah, pickles. There's nothing like a cold, crunchy dill pickle accompanying a sandwich or garnishing a pickletini.
(Images: Kathryn Hill)
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do you process the jars to seal them?
a pickletini? recipe, please!
I have no problems with buying Rick's Picks pickled goods. Or the ones from Guss' Pickles in NYC. Vlasic, on the other hand...I'll pass.
raspberry eggplant
Pickled okra--yes please.
Any suggested recipes for a quick pickle that's NOT dill? I look forward to showing my boyfriend the joy of pickled veggies grown in our garden- but the crazy boy hates dill. I'm thinking some garlic and hot chile would appeal to him, but have never made actual pickles before
Will definitely try this.
Zucchini also works well as a cuke substitute. I tried them with a kosher dill recipe (which I'm totally addicted to... I think I originally got it from How To Cook Everything), and they were great.
PDX: The actual principle of pickles in general is pretty easy; you take the vegetables and either soak them in a salt water brine for several days, or you boil vinegar and spices, pour them over the vegetables, and soak them for a few days. Since it's the salt water or the vinegar that does the actual "pickling" part, the types of spices you can put in is very flexible. The classic "bread and butter" pickles don't call for dill, for example -- and there are scores of different types of pickle recipes.
This web site may be a good start:
http://www.pickleking.com/pps/0pickling.shtml
Oh, duh, forgot to add -- I've had great success with the simple salt-water-brine method for dill pickles (I also used the How To Cook Everything recipe), and this summer I may try a recipe for pickled green beans I stumbled across in another cookbook.
@kat98, it's like a dirty martini but w/ pickle juice instead, and a pickle spear garnish. Num!
@snickitysnack: I only process the jars if they're being kept in the pantry. If the jar is going straight to the fridge and staying there, I don't bother.
@pdx-r: http://txpoppet.blogspot.com/2008/03/no-dill-icicle-pickles.html
Hi! is there a recipe for these? I tried the link and it didn't work :(
Would you process these for about 8 minutes?
We're trying to get away from processing and doing more fermenting, but I have to admit, its scary!