Homemade Spicy Dill Pickles

Every time my husband opens up the refrigerator, he moans the word “pickles”.  With a large abundance of wonderful persian cucumbers this summer, I decided to try my hand at homemade dill pickles. I have always been a bit intimidated with those “Ball Jars”, and really only used them to store dry things such as homemade granola, rice etc. After canning my first batch ever of Italian Prune Plum Jam ( that’s another blog to follow) I found myself wanting to can more,more,more!!! With all of the cucumbers that we had, the thought crossed my mind to try to make my own pickles!

I wondered if I could make pickles that tasted like the deli pickles you get – you know, the best kind of pickle ever? Well, they passed the taste test of my pickle lovin’ husband and now we have added pickles to the growing list of things we won’t ever buy from the store again! Once you made something as good or better than store-bought, you really can’t go back..!

I did research on both methods of making pickles: heat canning in a water bath or the much easier refrigerator method. Although by heating you can preserve the shelf life for a really long time, this method causes the pickles to become limp and not nearly as crunchy, just like the dreaded supermarket brands…..

We used Persian cucumbers which made all the difference in terms of crunchiness.  The hardest part of the entire process was waiting for about a week or so for the pickling process to happen!

Crunchy Dill Pickles Recipe

Prep Time: 15 mins  Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:
8 cloves garlic peeled
Fresh dill – I used about 20 stems
8 cups water
3/4 cups white vinegar
1/4 to 1/3 cup kosher salt (most pickling recipes call for even more!)
1-2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you like them)
1 tablespoon peppercorns      1 teaspoon of dill seed (if you have on hand)

We used Persian cucumbers which made all the difference in terms of crunchiness. You must use a low moisture cucumber to achieve that “crunch”.

10 to 12 Persian cucumbers (quartered , sliced in rounds, long sandwich slices – we did all three)

Place peeled garlic cloves, red pepper flakes, peppercorn and 1/2 of the dill on the bottom of a 1 gallon jar or a large glass bowl.  Place  cucumbers in bowl  on top of spices. Bring water, vinegar and salt to a boil and cook until the salt dissolves. Pour brine in large glass bowl , gently stir everything together and loosely cover with wrap.  Leave  at room temperature for about 2 days in a cool dry place, then divide the cucumber evenly in jars along with some fresh dill (about 1-2 stems per jar.)Ladle the brine along with garlic and spices to fill the jars and seal tightly. Place in the refrigerator. Pickles taste great by day two, but after a week they are fully pickled.

RIP-Turkey Leftovers!

Hooray! The last of the Turkey…. Being a vegetarian myself, I prepare this lovely bird once a year for my turkey loving husband, John.  He literally walks around the house for a month prior to the big day, chanting “turkey,stuffing,turkey,stuffing” until I can’t take it anymore. Anyway, I do enjoy making him happy, but like most men, they think that “leftovers” last until they are actually eaten, ignoring the fact that the expiration date has long passed on that stuffing!

So, I decided to try and make Chilaquiles with Turkey and Roasted Tomatilla Salsa. Recipe posted above.

So we ventured out on Saturday to pick up some ingredients for this modern spin on a classic Mexican dish which creates a bold dish from leftovers which becomes a much greater sum of it’s parts. We drove down Federal Blvd, which is John’s  favorite street in metro Denver, with a melding of both hispanic and asian restaurants, grocers and a mind boggling amount of food vendor carts, of which each has a different specialty. We settled on Awanza, the hispanic version of King Soopers, picking up fresh tomatillos, peppers, cheeses and some Tamarind paste(for Pad Thai on Wednesday). The larger grocers in the metro arrea could really learn a few things from this gem of a store, fresh and lovingly cared for produce- from baseball sized tomatillos to exotic fruits, car sized bags of pinto beans, freshly made cojito cheese and bolillo rolls, not to mention the huge variety of canned foods. It’s worth a trip to Awanza to see that there are other shopping options besides the overpriced and understocked large retail grocers. After leaving the store, a lady in her van was selling pine nuts (pinons) for 13 bucks a pound. Wow- excited because I am planning to make pignoli cookies for my upcoming cookie swap at work, I quickly checked my wallet – enough cash to score at least a pound! But much to my disappointment, when she revealed the large bag of nuts, they were brown-not- the buttery white that this gringo women was used to seeing all over the place. She kindly explained to me that the pinons that are usually sold roadside along with Hatch Chilis are in the unshelled form- and not easily removed- alot like the dreaded hazelnut-of which I have had the displeasure of de-skinning on many occasions. So, no sale-but a lesson learned for sure.

So heading home- John immediately began his all important scope of which  vendor cart we were going to stop at for his “snack”.  We pulled over and I gave him $5 and said “go crazy”! Standing in line and checking the menu- will it be the tacos, torta??? A pork burrito was chosen, with the meat being freshly grilled and made to order. He of course sat in the car and ate the thing along with his choice of salsa and condiments, all laid out on the counter of this mini trailer makeshift food court. In the course of the 20 minutes or so we spent at this roadside place, no fewer than 20 cars pulled in and out for their dinner on the run, with plates piled high of  some good looking food! It’s a wild scene, and I enjoyed every minute of it!

For a more in depth story of the cart cruising, follow the story at http://coolsvillecolorado.blogspot.com