Howdy all
Time for a real low carb crunchy treat......
A friend taught me how to do this, they are "Hungarian style" or so she
told me. Anyway, the first experimental batch has just been used up and
I have to say they were darned good!
So I made two more batches today, in these nice big jars I bought. One
I'll keep and the other I'll take to work and put in the fridge for
colleagues to enjoy. If you like pickles, you'll love these. No
vinegar needed, just salt, and some other stuff.
It's so easy:
---get a bunch of small cukes, give each a couple slices on their sides,
but don't cut all the way through them....rub non-iodized salt on their
wounds and let them set in a dry bowl for about 20 minutes or so.
---Prepare whatever spice you want in your pickle jars, I chose dill,
sage, rosemary, garlic and ginger (a little bit, thinly sliced) for the
spice...I garlic pressed about 4 cloves into each jar, and then put
several whole cloves in along with that.
---pickle other stuff along with the cukes. I got about 8 kinds of
peppers, some asparagus, and some green beans.
---Arrange the cukes and other pickle-ables into the jars. I figured
out how to kind of tightly pack the jars, they look really pretty now.
Evenly distribute your spices!
---Heat some water to hot enough that you can keep your hand in it for a
few seconds. Add a bunch of salt to it. Add a tiny amount of sugar,
like less than a teaspoon, to the water.
---Pour the salt water (brine) into the jars, covering the veggies by
about two inches.
---Get a piece of crusty bread, or rye bread, and put in on the top of
the pickles....the water will soak into it but it should stay at the
top. This will be discarded later. I guess this aids in the
fermentation process. Buy a small crusty dinner roll, and throw the
rest of the roll to the birds when you got what you need for the pickle
"crust".
---Close the jars up tight, put in the the sun all day, for two days.
You might want to take them in at night. by the end of the first day
they should be bubbling a bit here and there. When you are finished,
they should have lots of bubbly action going on.
---Let them "cook" for two full days, then take them inside, take the
bread out and put them in the fridge for a day to get nice and cold.
---Oila! You now have the best pickle you will have ever eaten.
I found they were better on about the second-third day of
refrigeration....I assume they will last in the fridge for a
while...some of my friends who had some of them said they were the best
they had ever had. They really are good, and so simple to make.
I only put whole cloves in last time, and some of its flavor got
thorough, but I really love garlic, so that's why I garlic pressed some
into the brine. The ginger and rosemary is an experiment....
The weather in Thailand is highly conducive to this sort of thing. I
know a lot of you might have to wait a few months to be able to try this.
Try it!
🙂