Pickle-y Goodness

Dave & I visited family in Ottawa a couple of years back, and while we were there, we went to the Canada Agriculture Museum. While we were there, one of the demonstrators was canning up pickled carrot sticks. Before I started preserving the harvest, I wasn't that huge of a pickle fanatic; I mean, I like some pickles, but I know that some people like all kinds of pickled things. These pickled carrots were absolutely marvellous. So I knew I had to have the recipe, and lo! they had the recipe right there for us to take away.

Pickled Carrot Sticks

4 lbs carrots, peeled & cut into 4" sticks
6 fresh dill sprigs or 3 tsp dill seed
18 peppercorns
6 cloves garlic, peeled & thickly sliced
3 1/2 cups cider vinegar
2 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup honey

• Boil water, vinegar & honey
• Raw pack carrots with 1 clove garlic, 3 peppercorns and one sprig of fresh dill or 1/2 tsp dill seed per scalded pint jar.
• Pour hot liquid over carrots to 1/4" headspace, and use non-reactive utensil to remove air bubbles.
• Process for 15 minutes in boil water bath canner (or whatever is appropriate for your altitude).

And of course, if you're pickling, why not do pickled cucumbers?

Dill Slices

4 lbs medium cucumbers
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup pickling salt
4 cups cider vinegar (see *Note below)
4 cups water
3 tbsp pickling spices in tea ball or spice bag
5 bay leaves
5 garlic cloves, peeled & thickly sliced
5 heads fresh dill or 5 tsp dried dill seed
2 1/2 tsp mustard seed

• Wash cucumbers, scrubbing lightly with soft vegetable brush to remove spines. Cut 1/8" off blossom end and discard. Cut into 1/4" slices or rounds
• Combine water, vinegar and salt, and place tea ball or spice bag of spices in, bring to a boil & simmer 15 minutes.
• Add honey, dissolve, and bring back to boil.
• Into each scalded pint jar, place 1 bay leaf, 1 garlic clove, 1/2 tsp mustard seed and 1 head of fresh dill or 1 tsp dill seed.
• Pack cucumber slices into hot jar with 3/4" headspace. Add hot pickling liquid and cover to within 1/2" headspace, and use non-reactive utensil to remove air bubbles.
• Process in boil water bath canner for 15 minutes (or whatever is appropriate for your altitude).

Note: When I do this recipe, I always get about 1 L of liquid left over from 6 pint jars. As a result, I've got pickling liquid left for another batch.

We have usually an over-abundance of lovely French filet green beans (we grow Maxibel), and while we freeze a lot, we thought it'd be nice to try some kind of pickle recipe. This one is a winner, and is fantastic with dumplings like pot-stickers.

Dilled Green Beans

4 lbs green beans, tipped & snapped into pieces (of course, if you want to have competition worthy beans, then Blue Lake is apparently king, and you want them cut exactly to fit your pint jars. Meh, I say; I just wanna eat them!)
4 cups cider vinegar
4 cups water
1/2 cup pickling salt
1/3 cup honey
3 tbsp pickling spices into tea ball or spice bag
7 cloves garlic, peeled and cut thickly
3 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
3 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
7 heads fresh dill heads or 7 tsp dried dill seeds

• Bring to boil vinegar, water, salt & spices; reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Add honey, dissolve, & bring back to boil.
• Into scalded pint jars, place one clove garlic, 1/2 tsp mustard seed, 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes, 1 head fresh dill or 1 tsp dill seed.
• Pack bean pieces into hot jars.
• Ladle hot pickling liquid into jars, leaving 1/2" headspace, and use non-reactive utensil to remove air bubbles.
• Process in boiling water bath canner for 10 mintues (or whatever is appropriate for your altitude).

Cucumber Relish

We had an overabundance of cucumbers this year (they went a little nuts in our greenhouse), so aside from doing pickled cucumbers (we had a bit of a glut left over from last year as I couldn't bear eating them during pregnancy - I know, go figure!), I had to find something else to do with them. Along came this great cucumber relish recipe, which worked really well for us.

Cucumber Relish

6 lbs (about 10 cups chopped) cucumbers (we used a mix of Cool Breeze, Lemon and Suyo Long)
1 cup chopped white onion
4 cups chopped red bell peppers
3 cups chopped green bell peppers
1 cup chopped celery (about 4 ribs)
1/2 cup pickling or Kosher salt
3 1/2 cups pickling or cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 tbsp mustard seed
2 tbsp celery seed
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground turmeric

Place all vegetables into an enamel lined or stainless steel pot and stir in salt. Cover & let stand 4 hours at room temperature.
Put vegetables into large colander and drain. Rinse with cold water, using hands to squeeze out excess liquids. Repeat rinse & squeeze.

Combine vinegar & spices & sugar and bring to boil. Cook for 10 minutes. Add drained vegetables and stir to blend. Bring back to full boil, reduce heat & simmer 10 minutes. Fill hot, scalded half-pint or pint jars to 1/2" headspace and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes (up to 1000 feet altitude).

Creative Uses for Green Tomatoes

Like anyone who grows their own tomatoes, I had a significant harvest of green tomatoes left over from all our cherry-type tomato plants this past summer. What to do? Well, I love green tomato pie. I slice & freeze the larger green tomatoes to make this recipe during the rest of the year.

Green Tomato Pie

2 pastry shells
1 1/2 lbs green tomatoes, sliced
2/3 cups honey (or less, if too sweet)
1 1/2 cup water
1 lemon zest
1 scant tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup currants or cranberries or raisins

Cook tomatoes in honey & water in heavy-bottomed saucepan. Boil for 5 minutes then add zest and cinnamon. Cook until transparent.
Add dried fruit and cook another five minutes.
Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes between two pie shells, until brown.

I also decided to try making pickled green tomatoes using the cherry-type green tomatoes left over. I haven't yet tried green tomato mincemeat, but that'll be on next year's list!

Pickled Green Tomatoes

4 lbs small whole green tomatoes (peeled, if possible - make x cut in one end very shallowly and place in boiling water at least 30 seconds or until peel starts to curl back, transfer immediately to ice cold water bath and remove skins)
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups cider vinegar
2 sticks cinnamon
1 tbsp whole cloves
1 tbsp mustard seed
1 tbsp celery seed
2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp pickling salt

Heat sugar, vinegar, spices & salt in heavy saucepan, and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer, stirring, until syrup thickens slightly.
Add tomatoes and boil until become translucent. Remove cinnamon sticks.
Ladle hot into clean, hot pint jars, packing tomatoes into jars tightly, and pouring syrup over them, leaving ½-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened, clean paper towel; apply two-piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner according to the recommendations in Table 1.

Table 1. Recommended process time for Salsa in a boiling-water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Pints	15 min	20	25

I'm not much of a pickle of any kind fanatic, unlike some, so I got Dave to swear he'd eat them, even if I didn't. Well, that hasn't happened yet. So I brought a pint with us to Cobble Hill to try, given that there were three of us to finish the jar, if needs be. I made one of my green tomato recipes using the pickled green tomatoes and I will forever more make this loaf with the pickled variety rather than just straight green tomatoes. Wow. I've included both recipe options so that if you have just green tomatoes you can still make this quick bread.

Green Tomato Bread

8 - 10 green tomatoes, peeled, cored & diced or 1 pint (500 mL) pickled green tomatoes
2/3 cup raisins or currants
2/3 cup boiling water
2/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup honey
4 eggs (or 3 duck eggs)
3 1/2 cups flour (or 3 1/8 cups rice flour)
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
If you're using the pickled tomatoes, that's it. If you're using just tomatoes, continue with:
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two loaf tins, and line with parchment paper.
Place raisins or currants in boiled water and set aside (preferably up to 1 hour before).
Puree tomatoes in food processor.
Add oil and honey to food processor and blend well.
Add eggs and blend well.
Decant the water into the food processor and blend well.
Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Add half the dry ingredients into food processor and blend well. Add rest of dry ingredients and final blend. Stir in raisins (and lemon zest if using).
Divide batter evenly between the greased loaf tins.
Bake at 350F for 70 minutes or until done (toothpick comes away clean when inserted into centre, and outside is golden brown).