It's All About the Pickles
Fermented veg add a cooling crunch to dinner during a heat wave
Issue 40: From Dana
When we taught our Pop-Up Restaurant Summer Camp in Brooklyn, one of my favorite parts of the job was going food shopping for the different lessons. Can you imagine a more exciting supermarket than all of New York City?
My son loved tagging along when the lesson took us outside of our usual circuit: we’d get chutneys, pappadums and spices at Patel Bros in Jackson Heights, Queens; fresh noodles, dumpling skins, chili crisp and teas at the massive Fei Long market in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Every trip was an adventure that made me feel so lucky to live in a place as diverse and delicious as New York.
But our pickling lesson was the most intrepid: it had us criss-crossing the map, hauling tubs of different ingredients swimming in brine back to our Dynamite kitchen. In Brighton Beach, at the sprawling and fancy Gourmanoff, we’d get garlicky pickled watermelon and whole apples from the self-serve pickle buffet. On Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, I’d order Pikliz, a spicy and addictive slaw of cabbage, carrots and scotch bonnet peppers, from Haitian restaurants. At H Mart in Manhattan’s Koreatown, we’d get all kinds of kimchi: cucumbers, cabbage, and radishes. And I’d pick up a five gallon tub of classic Kosher half-sours from Gus’s, a family-owned business that started selling pickles out of barrels on the Lower East Side in 1920.
All of this running around town was to create a pickle plate for our students to taste how culturally universal pickling is; how the technique helps people the world over preserve the harvest.
Sometimes our friend Rick Field from Rick’s Picks, would bring samples of his Dilly Beans and talk about the inherent creativity in the art of pickling and preserving. Rick’s pickles are amazing, but if you’ve ever met him, you know his stories and sense of humor are even better. (I met Rick when I worked on the first International Pickle Day on Essex Street – years later, his daughters became Dynamite students!)
We talked about the traditional process of lacto-fermentation, where ingredients are preserved with nothing more than salt. But that traditional technique takes time for the good bacteria to do their thing. So what do you do when you want some tangy, crunchy pickled things and don’t have the patience to wait? You make quick pickles–Quickles–with a vinegar brine, and they’ll be ready in just a few hours.
It’s an easy project, and a great one for using up all those cucumbers that gardening neighbors may be leaving on your porch or front stoop about now. (Yesterday, TWO friends brought me a bag. I better get busy!) But don’t stop there: you can add vegetable you like: slices of red onion, cauliflower florets, carrot coins, cabbage, you name it. This is a great lesson in giving kids license to customize by adding whatever veg, herbs and spices they want so that their pickles are truly their own.
And now is a great time because pickles pack such a refreshing note to meals when it’s blazing hot outside. On many a busy summer night, dinner in our house is a spread of bread, cheeses, cured meats, and whatever pickles I have on hand, but there are so many other ways they add a cool crunch when dinner needs it. Layer them on sandwiches. Toss them with grain bowls. And, depending on what
vegetables you’ve pickled, cooking with them adds a great bright note. I roast potatoes and saute swiss chard with slivers of quick pickled peppers – so good! I make fried rice with quick pickled cabbage and carrots or kimchi, and I always have pickled onions in the fridge for topping tacos, quesadillas or cumin-y beans.
Last week, when we invited friends to a last minute pool party during an epic heat wave, I did something I’ve never done before with pickles that I can’t wait to do again. One pal brought jars of beautiful pickled vegetables she’d made and crunchy jalapeño kraut and set them out alongside the hot dogs coming off the grill. I noticed everyone was piling her pickles on top of the dogs with all the condiments and that the dinner we were all enjoying resembled Chicago-style hot dogs, which are, in my opinion, the most refreshing way to eat a weiner: topped with spicy pickled peppers, sweet pickle relish, minced onion, ripe tomatoes, a sprinkle of celery salt, and a pickle spear that stretches the length of the entire thing.
My son, usually a ketchup-only hot dog topper, kept going back for more. “It’s all about the pickles,” he said. It always is.
Quick Fridge Pickles
Makes two 32-ounce jars
2 pounds mixed vegetables, trimmed (thin vegetables such as asparagus, green beans, or okra), or sliced into 1/8" - 1/4” pieces (vegetables such as cucumbers radishes, carrots, peppers, or cauliflower florets)
1 small red onion, sliced thin
6-8 cloves garlic, smashed
2 cup vinegar, such as white, apple cider, or rice vinegar
2 cups water
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons pickling spice or whole spices like peppercorns, coriander, and mustard seeds
Optional flavorings:
A few sprigs herbs (dill, thyme, rosemary)
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon - 1 teaspoon ground spices (turmeric, smoked paprika, Aleppo pepper)
Wash and thoroughly dry two wide-mouth quart jars (or other 32-ounce sealable containers) and their lids.
Pack the vegetables and any optional flavorings into the jars, leaving 1/2-inch of space at the top. Pack them in as tightly as you can without smashing.
Place the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and whole spices in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Stir the mixture to dissolve.
Pour the brine over the vegetables, filling each jar to within 1/2 inch of the top. Carefully tap the jars on the counter to release any trapped air then top off with more brine if needed. Seal the containers with a tight-fitting lid.
Let the jars cool to room temperature. Store the pickles in the refrigerator. Refrigerator pickles will keep for about 1 month.