In a Pickle - Bread and Butter or Cucumber and Dill Pickle

My go to cookery book when I want to make an exciting preserve is Preserving by Oded Schwartz . To me it is the most beautiful book to look at and as I said, the recipes are exciting.

Our friend, Sophie - who grows an awful lot of veg and fruit - gave me 6 kg of pickling cucumbers. It might be a bit late in the growing season, but if you have neighbours, friends, relatives who have been pickling themselves to death and can't tackle another cuke, here is your chance to store some of this year's harvest for winter use.

This first recipe is for a Bread and Butter Pickle and it is my take on it.

Ingredients - yield +/-  3.5 ltr

• 2.5 kg cucumbers - washed, weight after : cut in half, seeds removed and sliced into half moons (0.5 cm)
• 1 kg onions, red or white, whichever you find first, weight after peeled and sliced 
• 8 tbsp sea salt
• 2.5 l white wine, cider or malt vinegar. I only had white distilled, so that is what I used.  Mind you it is sharper than any of the others, so you should taste and tweak if you use the latter.
• 1.25 kg soft brown sugar
• 1 heaped tbsp ground turmeric
• 3 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 tbsp dill seeds (or if you don't have any,like me, go into your herb patch and pick dill flowers and green). Whatever you do, don't leave out dill, because that is a main ingredient for this cucumber pickle.

Method

• Put cucumbers and sliced onions in a non corrosive bowl with all of the salt. Mix well, cover with a clean towel and leave overnight. So far so good.

• Next day you'll find a lot of liquid at the bottom of the bowl. Drain  

• Rinse under cold running water. Taste a slice of cucumber. If it is too salty, cover with cold water and leave for about 10 minutes. Drain again
• Pour the vinegar in a large cooking pot or preserving pan, add the sugar, turmeric, mustard seeds and dill seeds (if you have them). If you only have flowers and/or green only add them when potting up.
• A rapid boil for 10 minutes is required.
• Time to add the drained veg and bring the whole shebang back to the boil.
• Remove from the stove and start packing the pickle in sterilized jarred while still blistering hot. Seal.

This pickle is ready to eat immediately. Shelf life (according to the above mentioned book) is 1 year.

Come back for the Asian Flavoured Pickle.

Thanks for stopping by.

Patricia xxx...x