Can you pick a peck of pickled veggie recipes to share?

I have been pickling like crazy!

My favorite so far- curried Armenian cucumbers. Standard brine with about 1 TB of curry powder and 1 or 2 TB of sugar per half-pint jar.

I’ll have to give recipes when I get home because I am at work, but some other favorites are pickled red cabbage with whole aromatic spices, radish relish, and several kinds of salsa.

Best tip I learned lately- you can pick up pH testing strips at any brewery or winemaker’s supply so you can test that your homemade recipe is sufficiently acidic to be safe to can.

Pickled beets:

This recipe is about as easy as it gets:

Slice (or cube) and boil your beets until fork tender.
Make a brine consisting of half apple cider vinegar and half the liquid from boiling the beets.
Add a bit of salt (sorry, don’t have a recipe book handy, but since these go in the fridge rather than on a shelf it’s not really that critical) and about a tablespoon of sugar.

Put your beets in a tall container and pour the brine over the top. Let sit in the fridge for a couple of days for full flavor.

Enjoy!

Mmmm…keep ‘em coming! ;-)

OK, now that I am home here are the recipes!

Radish Relish
3 cups stemmed radishes
2 large ribs celery
1 large red onion
2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 tbls mustard seed
2 tsp dill seed
½ tsp celery seed
1 cup vinegar
2 tbls prepared horseradish

Put the radishes, celery and onion through the coarse blade of a grinder, or chop them finely. Mix with remaining ingredients and allow to stand three hours. Bring to a boil in a large pan and cook ten minutes. Pour into hot jars, leaving half-inch head space. Adjust lids and process ½ pints and pints in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

Bread and Butter Pickles
1 pound cucumbers, sliced ¼-inch thick
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup kosher salt
¾ sugar
½ cup distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoons mixed pickling spices

In a medium bowl, combine the cucumbers, onion and salt. Mix well. Cover the mixture with ice. Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours.

In a pot, bring sugar, vinegar and spices to a boil.

Drain cucumbers and onions. Add to vinegar mixture. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Cool.

Store in the refrigerator up to 3 weeks.

Tomato/Green Chile Salsa
3 cups peeled, cored, chopped tomatoes 3 cups seeded, chopped long green chiles 3⁄4 cup chopped onions 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded, finely chopped 6 cloves garlic, finely chopped 11⁄2 cups vinegar 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cumin* 2 teaspoons oregano leaves* 11⁄2 teaspoons salt
Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and heat, stirring frequently, until mixture boils. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle hot into pint jars, leaving 1⁄2 inch headspace. Adjust lids and process in a boiling water canner 15 minutes at 0–1,000 feet altitude; 20 minutes at 1,001–6,000 feet; or 25 minutes above 6,000 feet.
Yield: 3 pints

I cut up fresh vegetables from the farmers market into bite size pieces and put them in pickle juice that I pour out of commercial pickle jars. Then I microwave them for a few minutes and put them back in the pickle jar and into the refrigerator. They don’t stay there long, because everyone loves them and eats them up.

Wow!

Good stuff everyone!

Oooh, what do I want to try first?

My dad used a kosher pickle recipe for every vegetable you can think of. He had an old ceramic barrel/crock container and he would put in water, salt and tons of garlic. Then he would add onions, brussel sprouts, cucumbers, whatever the garden was producing. Everyone who came into the house would dip into the barrel and come up with some sort of gas/heartburn producing but delicious tasting snack. (I can’t remember if he added a little bit of apple cider vinegar too, not sure)

I have dilled green beans and zucchini pickle recipes at home. However, I just got this one from a friend when I told her that I am being zucchini’ed to death:

Zucchini Relish (a relish in a mustard sauce that is good on hot dogs, brats, or any kind of sausage)

10 cups grated zucchini
1 cup pickling salt
1 cup grated celery
5 sweet red peppers, chopped

Put the above ingredients in a stockpot and let stand overnight. Put in collander and rinse and drain twice. Press as much liquid out as possible. I lined a collander with a cheesecloth to do this. It worked well.

Add 1 tablespoon dry mustard, 6 cups of sugar, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 3 tablespoons dried onion, 2 teaspoons tumeric, 3 tablespoons celery seed, and 5 cups white vinegar. Bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and boil for 20 minutes, uncovered.

Put in pint or half pint jars and hot-water-bath process for 15 minutes.