Pickles

This is how to make Dill Pickles using the Short Method. The recipe is from Ball's Blue Book.

Start with 30-40 pickling cucumbers. Wash them well. 

While the cukes are soaking (or the tub of water is filling), sterilize clean lids and rings. I did it the lazy way by covering them with boiling water. Remember, you can only use the lids once. Once you open a sealed lid, the seal is broken forevermore. Rings and jars can be reused until they get broken, chipped, rusted, bent out of shape, or lost to the garbage disposal.

Fill the clean jars with boiling water. Leave the boiling water in there. (It helps preheat the jars.)

Cutting the cucumbers into spears that will fit in the jars. The recipe suggests halves, but I prefer spears. 

The pickling spice. I didn't have cheesecloth, but I did have unfilled teabags, which worked great. Put 3 T. of pickling spice into one of them. I picked out as much cinnamon as I could, as I don't like cinnamon in my pickles. 

Make the brine. Put 3/4 c. of sugar, 1/2 c. salt (I used kosher), 1 quart water, and 1 quart vinegar (I used white, but apple cider is also good). Bring the brine to a boil, then remove the spice packet. Stir so the sugar and salt dissolves, and keep at a low boil.

Use your biggest pot for the processing. Make sure you have a rack that fits inside of it. Put an inch or two of water into the pot and bring it to a boil. Empty the sterilized jars into the pot and put the hot jars in as well. Try to fit them in snugly so they don't rattle too much (or flip over because they are empty and floating). 

While the broth is coming to a boil, put a head of dill into each jar. If you want some spicy garlic dills, add a clove of peeled garlic, a piece of dried red chili, a bay leaf, and half a teaspoon of mustard seed into those jars as well. Pack in the cucumbers on top of that. Then, pour in the hot brine, leaving a quarter inch of head room. Put the lids on top, then screw on the rings gently. (You can tighten them later. . . you just want them on enough that you can lift the jars by holding the rings.) 

The filled jars in their water bath. Add more water. Jars are better now, so you don't need to totally immerse them. Make sure the boiling water goes about halfway up, cover them, and let boil for fifteen minutes. Take them out of the water and set on a cooling rack. I topped mine with a towel to catch the drips. 

Gently tighten any rings that are loose. Let cool. You'll probably hear some loud pops as some of them self-seal. After a couple of hours, test the seals by gently pressing down in the middle of each jar lid. They should all be "down," but if one is up, push it down harder. If it stays down, good. If it pops back up, you didn't get the lid on straight and it isn't going to seal. Store that jar in the fridge. 

That's it! Pickles will be ready to eat in a few weeks. 

Belated Watermelon and Tomato Gazpacho

A couple of weeks ago, it was too hot to cook. I hit up my local produce market (Yakima Fruit Stand on 522. . . you all should go there!) for provisions.

I bought a cucumber, a watermelon, a chili pepper, a red bell pepper, some garlic, a couple of shallots, some parsley, some basil, and a few scallions.

Before you start in on the gazpacho, you should pickle your shallots. Peel one of the shallots and slice thinly. You can divide it into rings now or later. Cover with cider vinegar and agave nectar. Add some salt and dill if you’d like. You can leave it at room temperature for now, or pop it in the fridge.

After testing the watermelon to make sure it was okay (it was), I did my prep. Quarter four tomatoes, reserving one for garnish. Peel half of the cucumber and cut it into chunks. Cut a thick slice of watermelon, remove the rind and any black seeds, and cut it into chunks. Remove the roots, outer papery layer, and green part of four scallions, then cut into 2-inch lengths. Remove the root, tip, and papery layer from one small shallot. Take the skin and end off two cloves of garlic. Cut both peppers in half and remove the seeds, membrane, and stem. 

Reserve two halves for later (pop ‘em in the fridge with the extra tomato, cucumber, etc). Put it all into the blender until it’s mostly smooth, season with salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil, then whir again. It should taste refreshing: a little tart, a little sweet, and with a bit of heat. Put it into the fridge.

Now it’s time for the pretty garnish. Cut a few slices of cucumber, leaving the peel on. You’ll want about 2 T. of finely diced cucumber. Dice up some of the bell pepper and chili pepper as well. (You’ll probably want about a teaspoon of the bell pepper and half a teaspoon of the chili.) Mince up a bit of parsley as well. Toss that all together.

Cut a thin slice of tomato and julienne two basil leaves.

Get your shallot pickles out of the fridge. 

Put a tomato slice in the bottom of the bowl and top with a  few of the pickled shallot rings.

Top with a scoop of the cucumber mixture, then arrange some basil on top. Gently pour in the soup around the edges.

(Obviously, if you don’t need it to be pretty, you can just cut the garnishes into chunks and stir into the soup.)