Just reading a bit on FB about making refrigerator pickles. We've made several batches, and this summer is the first I haven't made conventional pickles. My mother gave me a recipe and they were never crisp. Tasty, yes.
So it's great to have a method from MS's Everyday Food, which I'll give here because there is really no reason NOT to make these with cucumbers in such abundance (at least around here):
Slice cucumbers about 1/8 in thick (about 2 large cookie sheets' worth). place on paper towels on said sheets, sprinkle with salt, and cover with paper towels. Leave for about 15 min while you prepare the brine:
In med. saucepan, combine 3 c. white vinegar, 1-1/2 c. sugar. 2 tsp. coarse salt, 1/2 tsp. mustard seed, 1/2 tsp celery seed, 2-4 small red chiles (optional, but I included), and 1/8 tsp. ground turmeric.
Bring to boil.
Put your cucumbers and some fresh dill fronds in jars and pour the brine over. You can really pack those slices in there tight, btw.
Stick a knife in to release the air bubbles and screw the lid on. *Put jars in the refrigerator!!
Tomorrow you will have pickles.
• • •
I'm champing at the bit to buy yet another cookbook, but restraint is in order, especially with business being so slow for D, college for L approaching faster than a speeding bullet, and insurance costs seeming to rise like mercury in a thermometer, but never dropping.
The library solves some book lust issues, but its budget is hacked yearly, and county commissioners here are anti-intellectual cretins who actually wondered why someone who wanted to read a book didn't just go to the bookstore and get one. Mother of god. Really.
13 comments:
tut-tut, this sounds great! Let's see...I've got the jars, sugar salt and fridge, just need everything else-LOL! This would hit the spot, about now( the stifling humidity is back )!
And sorry to hear about your library woes...
I've copied the recipe and will have to try this :) Are the cukes from your garden?
A former county supervisor here came into the library when I was volunteering there one day and actually asked whether there was still a need for books "since now we have the internet." I didn't know who he was and gave him a (polite) earful.
Now I am a county supervisor myself and find myself in the unenviable position of having to accede to budget cuts because we are having to choose between, say, library services and public health nurses. And roads. Sheesh.
"Stanford no longer requires parents earning less than $100,000 to pay tuition, and students from families earning below $60,000 get a free ride on all expenses, including room and board."
Harvard and Yale have a similar thing going too.
subby, cukes ARE from my garden. What a crop. Renee's Garden seeds rule.
mmm, they look delicious :)
@Kurt, considering "Ha-vad" has a 20+BILLION$$$ endowment....ya think? 'Course with all those investments gone sour, it could be a bit smaller...
tut-tut, huzzah! And the scanner worked better on my hands...er...
T, I don't have a lot of counter space in my little kitchen, but I am giving this recipe to my sister-in-law and bet your bottom dollar she'll make it. Yay!
@ Subs - Good point on the endowment. That's what I was gonna say, too...
Wow that sounds so easy and cucumbers are always cheap here, I swear they grow all year round.
Oh, this recipe came at the right time,Tut - zoikes have I got cukes! What to do about the dill, tho? Mine has up and died on me.
Great recipe and summery atmosphere! I love recipe books, too, but hardly ever make any of the things.. i now harvest recipes off the internet, and can spend hours getting lost in cyber food space! :)
Yum!!
And YES YES YES to purple haze vid. I watched it tonight as well. Wow.
Jimi was as cool as it gets, wasn't he?
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