Purple Pickles!!!

Attention: The purple pickles have returned.

I repeat: The purple pickles have returned.

And it's about damned time.

I finally got my hands on some non-imaginary red pearl onions and have once again transformed them into the best thing ever. Because not only are they pickled nibbules of yumminess, they are also, as I think I've mentioned, PURPLE.

... really purple.

While I concede that there might be some creative labeling here (I would call these closer to the size of small elephants than the size of pearls), they are still deliciously gorgeous, so I'll allow it.

It's like eating amethysts.

The onions are blanched for three minutes, then shocked and peeled. The pickling recipe is the same one I use for pickled carrots, but without the garlic, and replacing the dill seed with 2 tablespoons of pickling spice. The purple color comes from the reaction of the vinegar with the pigment in the onions.

Result: Slightly soft, slightly crunchy, slightly sweet, slightly spicy. Plays well with others. A+

(BTW - I'd like to point out that I made everything on that plate up there, and you can, too.)

baby peaches

This is the first spring we are privileged to spend in our house. The previous owner was a Professor of Agriculture, as well as an avid gardener. Thus, we find we have who-knows-what in our yard, including some weeds that could probably eat you alive if they were permitted to thrive somewhere in South America.

In the mix, however, are a large number of fruit-producing things, like a peach tree which most neighbors had declared dead, or long-since cut down. It is neither, and we are excited! (I hope you can see the small green fruit in the pic above. It's like a Hidden Object picture. How may baby peaches can you find?)

I don't even like peaches, particularly, but I am excited to pickle them! I mean, eat them. Fresh. Off the tree, with no vinegar involved...

Also rushing to the finish line: baby raspberries!!!

untitled.

"These pickled onions are the best things ever!"

"You're just saying that because they're pickled. You're biased towards anything pickled."

"-No, they're delicious!"

"You'd probably like pickled dirt."

The Great Pickle Experiment.

Last Friday, a friend mentioned this rogue pickle concoction she'd experienced while working at a restaurant in her younger days: cucumber slices and blackened jalapenos (stripped of their skin), mixed with standard-issue white vinegar and ground black pepper, and left to marinate a few days.

She said it was outstanding.

We decided to each do a version with slightly upgraded ingredients and report the results. Photos are mandatory. Here we go:

I start with two cucumbers, cut for pretty.


Then blacken a (HUGE) jalapeno under a broiler (or on your grill, or on top of your gas stove), and wrap it in a dish towel for several minutes to help ease the skin off. I've never been entirely sure why you should remove the skin, but I suspect it's because it tastes like burning.


Peel off that skin and discard the top stem. Slice, if you want (I did).

The idea struck me to build on the smokey flavor, so I toasted 2 tablespoons of tellicherry black peppercorns over a medium heat until they were glistening and fragrant. Then I crushed them to death.


I layered everything in a jar - four layers (cucumbers, black pepper, jalapeno, repeat) - and topped with a simmered brine made from 1 cup rice vinegar, 3 tablespoons of miran, a crushed garlic clove, and 1 cup water to dilute. (let the jar cool to room temp before refrigerating)

I have to say, these pickles need to sit for two full days, at least. They are exciting right out of the pot, but very strong. When trying them the first time, I had to cut the acidity with other pickles. After two days, however, they have mellowed to a nice even heat and the miran has blended with the rice wine and other flavors to bring it all down a peg.

Nice.

To Pickle a Carrot.

Some people [see photo at right] would have the world think that I called in sick to work yesterday because I was out of pickles. This is not true. I called in sleepy to work because I was sleepy. I didn't remedy the pickle situation until after I woke up.

To pickle a carrot, you first need carrots. Peel them and cut them up into sticks, about 3 inches long by 1/3 inch thick. In addition to having a quick blanching time and being a good size for a pickled snack, they also make excellent practice Wolverine claws.

Blanch these carrot sticks in boiling, salted water for pretty much exactly one minute, then immediately drain and rinse very thoroughly with cold water (or put them in an ice bath) to stop the cooking.

Then you make the brine. (This is the most important part, obviously, because otherwise you'd just have blanched carrots.) You start by combining 1 and 1/4 cups of water with 1 cup of cider vinegar, which according to my measuring cup is equal to the volume of 1,000 kernels of sweet corn.

To that, you add 1/4 cup sugar, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of kosher salt, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of dill seed, and two lightly crushed cloves of garlic. Bring to a boil then simmer for 2 minutes.

When that's done, pour the brine over the carrot sticks (which should now be in a heat-proof container, by the way), and let them cool completely on the counter before fridging them in an air-tight container for at least 24 hours before enjoying.

Or, in my case, enjoy them straight out of the warm brine twenty minutes later.

Thanks for the tried and true recipe Gourmet Magazine!
I am happy. :-)

"Don't make pickles at midnight; it's creepy."

My pickle juice is sad. :-(

Where are my carrot sticks? Where have they gone?? Why aren't I full of yummy goodness?

And yet my cruel, vinegar-hating husband refuses to let me make more pickles with the carrots I just discovered in the refrigerator.

You know, we have five kinds of vinegar in the pantry; I'm not sure how heating it up and filling the house with fumes at ten-thirty at night is any different. Suck it up and suffer for the greater good.

Ooh! That brine has garlic cloves in it!

brb.

[edit: It turns out that barely-cooked garlic that has been used to flavor a pickling brine kinda sucks. Try at home if you want, but I would say don't bother. And now I'm gonna get off this machine before the next round of thunderstorms moves in for the kill.]

absent.

Right off, you'll probably notice that this entry has no pictures.
That's because I have nothing to show you.

Yesterday, after hemming and hawing about it for most of the evening, I decided to make some pickled onions. I went into the pantry to retrieve the sack of red pearl onions (which make perfect purple pickles) that I'd purchased specifically for that purpose.

And I found -

Nothing!

No onions!

Even though I distinctly remember getting them, even though I can't remember at what store!

Did I dream that?
Did I put them back after I'd already put them in my cart?
Why would I do that?
Am I losing my mind??

End Result: NO ONIONS!!

NO ONIONS = NO PICKLES!!!

How could this happen? This is a travesty!! And now I've finished my pickled carrots and have nothing to take their place!! What am I supposed to eat for my afternoon snack?? I can't just sit around eating cheese by itself!!!!

Actually, come to think of it, I guess I could...