The easy way to make sweet, sour quick-pickled cherries and punchy quick-pickled cucumbers.
Quick-Pickled Red Onions
A recipe for punchy and vibrant quick-pickled red onions that lend pop and crunch to everything from sandwiches to salads.
pickled carrots
We are finally having a perfect spring day. As I write this the guy who drives around Williamsburg in a red Subaru singing is outside the window belting out a joyful tune. The breeze drifts through the house and all is right with the world. I think I’ll have a pickle.
Quick pickles are simple to make and totally delicious. A perfect snack for me or the baby, just right for company, a thoughtful gift–these pickles have it all. And, because they’re quick pickles, you barely have to wait.
I have made quick pickled beets, carrots, grapes, and onions, all with great success. In this case, I have cut back on the salt and sugar a bit to preserve the flavor of the carrots. Adjust the herbs and spices to fit the fruit or vegetable. Experimentation is essential to the pickling process.
Quick Pickled Carrots
4 pint jars, cleaned and dried with lids
4 cups carrots, sliced into sticks 3-4″ long and 1/4″ wide
1 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar (white vinegar is fine too)
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons salt
4 cinnamon sticks
8 bay leaves
1 1/2 tablespoons coriander
1 1/2 tablespoons peppercorns
10 whole cloves
1 preserved lemon rind cut into strips
Blanch the carrots for two minutes and set aside. In a separate pot combine the pickling liquid and all of the spices except the cinnamon; cook over medium heat until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Pack the carrots sticks upright into jars and add a cinnamon stick in each. Pour the pickling liquid over the carrots until they are covered. Make sure to include a few bay leaves, coriander, peppercorns, and lemon in each jar. Seal immediately and allow jars to cool. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours (overnight would be ideal) before serving.
pickle pints
This time of the year I like to have the oven on as much as possible. It fills in for the coziness of a fireplace. Recently I fired up the oven to make roasted and pickled beets. This simple recipe makes some delicious quick pickles. Though there is not as much roasting flavor as I would like, these are really tasty and have just a bit of bite. Tweak the flavors as you like — some fresh ginger, dried cherries, or dried chilies would be wonderful I’m sure.
Pickled Beets (adapted from the Diner Journal)
2-3 bunches of beets (10 or so medium), trimmed and thoroughly washed*
2 cups vinegar
2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup salt
3 tablespoons whole peppercorns
2 tablespoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons coriander seed
1/2 tablespoon fennel seed
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and wipe a small amount of oil onto a cookie sheet. Place the cleaned and trimmed beets onto the sheet and cover tightly with foil. Checking every so often, roast the beets for roughly 1 to 1 1/2 hours. You will know the beets are done when you can easily pierce them with a fork. Once roasted, cool slightly and remove the skins. They should come off easily under cold running water.
Combine the rest of the ingredients in a sauce pan and heat until sugar and salt completely dissolve.
Cut the beets into 1/4 to 1/2 inch rounds and stack tightly into pint ball jars.* When the jars are relatively full, add the hot pickling liquid and seal the jar. Allow the jars to cool and then store them in the refrigerator. Pickles will be ready the next day and should keep at least a week.
* I used two varieties of beets, red beets and chioggia, a variety with red and white striped flesh. To highlight the contrast I staggered the beets colors in various orders. Because of the color of the beet infused pickling juice, the contrast is only faint now, but I think it gives the jars a polished look.