Pickling

I was making dinner the other night and the cupboards were looking pretty bare. We were all out of vegetables, save a lone English cucumber chillin in the fridge. Being raised by a woman who refused to serve a meal without some sort of green veggie, I hauled out the cucumber and thought of what to do.

Normally I would make a cucumber and red onion salad, alas, I was even out of onions (a horror, I know). And then I remembered that I'd been wanting to try my hand at pickling. I had some spiced, pickled carrots at a party recently that were so delicious and it had been on the brain since then.

I went to epicurious.com, in search of a "quick" pickling recipe to turn my yummy, albeit boring cucumber, into a crunchy, zesty pickle. I found a quick recipe and went to work.

I cut up half the cucumber into 1" slices and laid them out in a 9x13 glass dish. Then I mixed 1 tablespoon of sugar with 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar (which I always have on hand for Oriental Chicken Salad and various salad dressings), until the sugar was dissolved. I poured that evenly over the cucumbers, and popped it in the fridge.

The recipe said you could eat after 30 minutes or keep in the fridge for several days. To my delight and surprise, they were wonderful, though I must say that the longer they stayed in the marinade, the better they were. The vinegar mellowed and took on a soft jazz kind of vibe, rather than the in your face Kenny G saxophone that knocks your socks off. I'm so impressed, I'm going to be pickling a lot of different vegetables this week to see which one I like the best. I'm on the hunt for a good spiced carrots pickling recipe to try and replicate the party version I had.

Don't be afraid to get your pickle on! Give it a try.