Refrigerator Pickles
Summer Veggies are coming in slowly
Last week, my summer veggies started coming in slowly—particularly the peppers and cucumbers. I don’t often harvest enough at one time to do large batch canning, so one of my favorite ways to “save” them is to create Refrigerator Pickles.
Monday, I made pickled jalapeños (image above) and cucumbers. I’ve adapted a recipe I found from Ted Allen on a Food Network site. Here’s what I do.
Ingredients:
4-5 quart jars, or the equivalent (since not “canning” they can be recycled like the little one pictured above)
8 cups water
3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon minced garlic (if using fresh, sauté it for about 30 seconds on high heat)
4 cups white vinegar
4 tablespoons sea salt
2 tablespoons dried dill
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 tablespoons of pickling spice (or 2 teaspoons mustard seeds, 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, and 2 teaspoons of celery seeds)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
fresh veggies (I only use peppers, onions, and cucumbers, but I know folks who do cauliflower and green beans!)
Directions:
Soak veggies in an ice bath for 4 hours.
Divide the minced garlic, dill, peppercorns, pickling spice, and pepper flakes if using between the jars.
Slice veggies how you like them. Then pack them into the jars as full as possible, leaving about half an inch empty space at top.
Then, in a huge pot make the brine: bring water, vinegar and salt to a boil. Stir until the salt dissolves.
Ladle the brine into each jar, covering the veggies completely.
Let cool. Then put on lids and put in fridge. Let set unopened in fridge for at least 3 days before eating.
Note: they do start to get soggy after a couple of months, but I’ve kept these in the fridge (and ate them) way longer than that. Supposedly, you can add a grape leaf to each jar to keep them from getting soggy. I haven’t tried that yet.
I do believe there's magic in preserving the season's bounty, a way to capture the warmth and vitality for the cooler months ahead. The pickles can serve as a reminder of the sun’s warmth and the earth’s generosity (when we treat her right) and the tangy taste of life in general.