Recipe: Pickle Time!

From beets to okras, summer is the time to pickle your vegetables. Simply slice the vegetables paper thin, in shoe string sizes or in wedges which works well with cucumbers. Just add kosher salt, spices to any of these abundant vegetables – caraway to beets; and to carrots, chili; and cumin to cauliflower marries well. Within a few hours, the pickling process benefited from time in the brine - especially vegetables such as radishes, cucumbers and daikons. 

These pickled vegetables are a great treat on a hot summer after noon or served as hors d’oeuvres. They are delicious on a porchetta sandwich or with a sardine salad; it's a quick and easy way to make vegetables part of your lunch.  Not to mentioned bringing summer to your table on a cold winter day.

Calvin's Mustard Green Pickle

On a Burmese Lacquer Tray

One of my all time favorite is the easy green mango chutney recipe that my friend the late Copeland Marks wrote from his book on the Himalayan Rim. 

One of my childhood pickled recipes hail from Shan State in Myanmar is the Mustard Green Pickle that my cousin Calvin recently posted it on Facebook.  It is common in that part of the country to use pickle mustard greens to enhance hot noodle soup with pork broth and stir fry dishes. 

First, wash the mustard greens, approximately 2 lbs (the one with yellow flowers). Drain then chop to about 2-inch pieces. Then add half a cup of coarse sea salt. Mix well and let it sit for an hour. Then squeeze all the liquid out. Then mix half a cup of vinegar, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, fennel seeds and chili peppers. Stored in a glass jar or airtight container, it's good for a few months.

My good friend Eugenia Bone has a great recipe below from her new book, The Kitchen Ecosystem (Clarkson Potter 2014) coming soon!

Pickled Radishes

Makes 1 half-pint

Ingredients:

• 6 radishes, sliced very thin (1 heaping cup)
• 1 large shallot cut into eighths
• ½ cup vinegar
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Place the vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small pot and heat over a medium low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
2. Add the radishes and shallots.
3. Heat until the vinegar just begins to boil, and then remove from heat to cool.
4. Pack the radishes into the jar and refrigerate.
5. Allow the radishes to cure one week before serving. They hold for a few months in the fridge.

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What's your favorite pickling recipe? Send us some of your favorites!