Pickling gods have arrived in the Van de Elzen house.
Pickling, being different to preserving as you are adding a sweet and sour element. With the gardens producing a huge amount of produce at the moment, there’s no better time than now, to set aside some time to pickle some vegetables.
Even if you don’t have a vegetable garden, your local vegetable shop is bound to have some bargains.
Tried of those carrot sticks? Pickle those suckers and they will have a worthy place on any platter.
I’m keen to get people pickling everything, that way you will have a pantry full of pickles.
So here’s Mike’s basic pickling brine that’s going to be your base
Mike’s Basic Pickling Brine
Makes 1.25 litres
- 700 ml water
- 500 ml cider vinegar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp sea salt
- 5 cloves garlic
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 Tbspn each peppercorn, coriander seeds, fennel seed, mustard seed
Roast the seeds and combine them with the other ingredients.
Place all ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil, stirring until the salt and sugar has dissolved.
Prepare vegetables and drop them into either a cold or hot pickle.
Use a cold pickle for things like
- Shredded cabbage for a pickled slaw for your pork sliders
- Hard boil eggs, peel and marinate for 2 weeks
- A great one for this time of the year, sliced tomatoes, baby yellow, Roma and beefy reds. Pop them into the pickle and store them for weeks in the fridge
- Cucumbers, cut into wedges. Stuff into jars and pour the pickle over the top
- Pretty much any vegetable that you want a raw crunch
Hot Pickle
Boil the pickle and pour it hot over things like
- Carrots, mushrooms, kumara, beetroot and Pumpkin
Another couple pickle recipe’s
Base recipe with 5 Tbspn soya sauce for a dark pickle
- Mushrooms and baby onions
Base recipe a good glug of gin and 10 juniper berries
- Cucumbers, perfect for when the adults arrive
- Summer cherries, sweet and sour at their best