PICKLING EVERYTHING
SWEET PICKLED RED ONIONS
Taste bud puckering pickles, almost forcing your senses to pay attention to the surround sound of whatever else you are eating along side. The pleasure of eating ones own pickle (eh eh) has to hark back to a primal instinct innate in all of us to store and preserve what we find in the juicy sweet months of sunshine to enjoy when the sky outside is white and we are need. Nostalgic floodgates open for even what came the day before, the memory of a swift peaceful moment in the kitchen making sweet pickled onions for supper, watching the water turn fuscia and the sweet vinegary aroma lift up to your nostrils whilst you listen to everyone chatter. All this breathing an ounce of its peaceful calm into the following days head long dive into the fridge to orchestrate some kind of emergency lunch bowl.
PICKLED PEARS, LABNEH, CANDIED WALNUTS
The power of a pickle made on a hot August day and eaten in March is nevvvver to be underestimated. A pickled memory of a hot morning met with an even hotter bubbling pot of quince slices hurriedly peeled and simmering in pickle liquor whilst my coffee brews and before the day begins/ quinces become over ripe and the pickling window is lost. Cut to that day in March, desperate for a lightening fast lunch - stack of steamy pitta, bowl of hummus and the ceremonial crowning wedge of pickled quince pulled, long and lovely from its hibernation liquor.
I always use cider vinegar to make my simple pickle liquor. This is mostly because its what I really go to for salad dressings and once you’ve added a few spices, sugar, and cooked or sunk your pickle victims into it, its imparted with all that fragrance and only makes it a better dressing compatriot.
I usually use equal parts sugar to vinegar and half a part water. The levels can all be played with depending on how sweet you like your pickles, how naturally sweet what you are pickling already is and how much water content it contains. If a fruit, a quince for example is to be cooked enough to make a relatively bite able pickled slice, it may need to simmer for a while, thus the water content of your liquor will be quite evaporated so you may want to add a little more at the start in comparison to when you might just be pouring the liquor over bright shards of raw carrot that need no cooking at all.
Have a play, pickle anything, cut it beautifully - shards of carrots, full halves of pear, thick wedges of peeled plump pink quince. My go to spices are star anise, mustard seeds, pink peppercorns, black peppercorns, bay leaves. Below is a recipe for my pickled pears to give you a standing start….
PICKLED PEARS
1 cup golden caster sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
½ cup water
1 star anise
pinch pink peppercorns
pinch chilli flakes
8 juniper berries
3 bay leaves
3 Conference pears
pinch of salt
In a saucepan on a gentle heat mix the sugar, vinegar, water, 1 star anise, and spices until the sugar has dissolved
Peel and halve you pears lengthways
Once the sugar has dissolved add the pears and slowly simmer for about 10 mins - I like my pears a little firm but you can cook them for longer if you prefer a softer pickle
Lay your pears in a jar and pour over the liquid, leave them to cool, they will keep in your fridge forever
