Pickle for your thoughts?

I have to say... I love pickles

And even more then eating them I like making them, it was something I learnt while working in a restaurant with a emphasis on making everything we possibly could so when it came to our plough mans we made as much as conceivable, pickles, bresaola, fresh cheese, pickles eggs and our extremely special ciabatta.

Pickles are something that are so simple that the idea of buying them just seems strange to me now, although I am known to buy the odd jar of pickled jalapeños as a tv snack.

 

I make 2 different pickles that I totally love, zucchini and onion, and the recipes for both is relatively similare. To begin with prep your veg so that they are even sizes. This will make sure that all of it will pickle at the same time and you won't have some that are finished and some that are still going. I then put all my veg into sterilised jars and make sure it is in there nice and tight.

The second part is the pickle liquor, and this is where you can have some fun! For the zucchini I like to give it a picalily style pickle with coriander seeds, turmeric and cardamom. For the onion I spice the pickle up with a bit of star anise, chilli and more coriander seeds. The anise with the onions is really amazing and the slight aniseed flavour gives it a really full mouth feel.

To make the pickle base I simple heat a litre of white wine vinegar and as it gets to a simmer I add sugar until it is slightly sweet but still has a lot of bit from the vinegar. You can interchange white and red wine vinegar depending on what you want to do, in fact any vinegar will be good depending on what you want to pickle. Pickled eggs in a raspberry wine vinegar is a revelation!

With the pickle made and all your ingredients in your jars simple top the jars up with the pickling liquor and store in the fridge, allow at least a week for the pickle to impart all its flavour and then enjoy with cold meats or on their own with a couple of beers!

 

Please remember to tell everyone if you like my posts and please leave me a comment if you try and like the recipes!

 

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