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

Rhubarb Pickle

I got the idea for this Rhubarb Pickle from Happier than a Pig in Mud who posted about it here.  I decided to try it because it was intriguing and also because unlike many other pickles it didn't involve either onion or garlic.

As you will by now expect I did change it up a bit as a result of availability of some ingredients.

What I used:

Enough rhubarb to fill a jar and a half with rhubarb pieces. 

1 star anise

½ dried red chilli – roughly chopped

Half a cinnamon stick

A bay leaf

5 or so whole cloves

5-10 whole pepper corns

You just put all that lot into your jar/s.  Then heat 1 ½ cups of white vinegar, ¾ cup of sugar and ½ teaspoon of salt (I used pink Himalayan). You don't need to boil this – just heat it until all the sugar and salt has dissolved and the liquid looks clear.

Pour the liquid over your rhubarb – wait a few minutes before putting the lids on – and then chill in the fridge for a couple of days before digging in.  Keep the jars in the fridge – it is probably best to eat them up reasonably quickly – which shouldn't be a problem if you like your pickles!

PS  Having waited a few days, I found that the pickles are puckeringly sour - I suggest you up the amount of sugar a bit.

Smoked salmon salad platter, potato wedges and corn

Smoked Salmon  Platter

The smoked salmon platter was easy but looked great.  Just choose a nice plate, plonk your piece of smoked salmon in the middle, surround it with little piles of red onion, pickled cucumber (could be any sort of pickle), tomato wedges, slices of cucumber, lemon wedges.  Sprinkle some capers and thinly sliced red onion over the top.

Other things you could put on the platter if you had them handy include, chopped boiled eggs (see here for my way of doing them), blinis (you could make your own but there are perfectly good frozen ones in the supermarket), finely chopped red chilli, salmon caviar etc etc.

Sauce with mayo, horseradish and mustard

The sauce I did with it was made of mayo, horseradish sauce and Dijon mustard – with white pepper and a teensy bit of salt.

Corn drizzled with butter, salt and pepper and parsley

To make a meal, I added one corn cob – boiled for 15 minutes in unsalted water.  I put butter, pepper, salt and chilli flakes onto it.  Yum.

My best potato wedges yet

For the first time I made potato wedges that came out perfectly.  I parboiled the potatoes (baking potatoes (Agria) cut up into wedges) for 5 minutes, shook them up in the pot a bit after draining, then coated them in a little vegetable oil, salt and white pepper.  20-25 minutes in a hot fan forced oven and they came out crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.


You might also be interested in a post I did on an asparagus and bacon salad.  If so, click here


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