Quick Pickles - Need to do these again!

These quick pickles were so simple to do that it was ridiculous.  And you can start eating them 2 hours after they have gone into the fridge.  That's my sort of food.

I did start with a bit of a recipe from the newspaper but typically of me I didn't have quite all the ingredients available so I tweaked it and it worked out fine.

I took ½ a cucumber, halved it lengthways and then deseeded it by scooping the seeds out with a spoon and then sliced it up across ways.  A small carrot was cut up into sticks (reasonably chunky ones).  And ½ a zucchini was sliced as well.  If I had had radishes I would have put them in as well.

Put your cut up veges into a bowl and put 4 teaspoons of salt with them and mix it up and set it aside for half an hour.

While this is sitting cut a one inchish piece of ginger into matchsticks (peel it first – they say you should do this with a teaspoon but I use a knife).

I also cut up a little fresh dill – which is entirely optional.

Once your veges have been sitting in the salt for 30 minutes then put them into a sieve so the juices will run out.  Don't rinse them.  Then pat them dry with some kitchen paper – I didn't get too picky about this.

Then add your ginger and dill and give it a mix.

Now you need to dissolve 8 tablespoons of caster sugar by heating it slowly with 150mls of white balsamic vinegar (which I used instead of rice wine vinegar). Pop a dozen or so whole black peppercorns and whole coriander seeds in while it is heating.

Once the sugar is dissolved, pop your veges into a clear jar and cover them with the hot liquid.  Let it cool for a little while then put the lid on and into the fridge it goes.

In two hours you have some delicious crunchy pickles to go with your bread, pate or a bit of whatever you fancy