Pickle Infatuation

I know I’m being a bit single minded about this lately, but I can’t seem to get my mind off pickles.  Perhaps because it’s hot and I’m craving salty foods, or because they’re crunchy and I find they go great with a slice of ham and cream cheese, or because I get a quick blast of cold air from the fridge when I fish them out of the jar, but I’ve been doing nothing lately than thinking about pickles.  I’ve dreamt about finding new cucumber plants in the garden to make them, and I even bothered Facebook friends about them, extensively.  I have successfully made “ice box pickles”, but I decided I wanted pickles year around.  We normally travel state-side at Christmas for a few weeks, so we unplug the fridge and empty it of its contents.  (Which is not easy with Christophe, who loves having a full refrigerator.)  That of course means I sadly have to dump out any remaining pickle juice before I board the plane.

We only have two cucumber plants, so I have to use our cucumbers wisely. Christophe saw me come in the house last night with the four ripe cukes we had and shook his head saying, “So if I understand this correctly, all the cucumbers we have will be pickled?  What’s wrong with fresh?” 

The answer to that is: nothing.  Fresh cucumbers are great, but pickles are just better.  I’ve canned for years now and even though everyone says pickles are easy, I’ve worried about it.  Basically, I just wanted to get it right: a salty brine, a dill-garlic bite, and of course, the illusive crunch.  I completely over-studied the subject.  There are hundreds of pickles recipes out there. (I saw one that took over three days.)  There appears to be no exact science to it, but nothing is worse than a let-down for something you’ve waited for months to open.  The photos are what I’ve got to look forward to once 2013 rolls around. Undoubtedly, you’ll hear about when the jars are finally opened.  Until then, I’ve got my ice box pickles.  I just need to find a good excuse as to where all the sliced ham and cream cheese is going.

Homegrown

Ratatouille – all from the garden, of course.

As gardens are starting to go into full bloom, I’ve noticed more Facebook profile photos changing to photos of vegetables.  I’ve seen various photos of tomatoes, cucumbers, and even corn (clearly, a very rare oddity this year) grace my page as people share what they’ve been doing all summer.  Even more so, I’m seeing photos of what people are doing with all those fresh vegetables afterwards.  Pickles seem to be a favorite this year as one tries to handle an avalanche of cucumbers.  There’s also been a variety of tomato-basil salads, and a few adventurous lads have shared photos from their first jamming session – with delicious looking results.   Now, I don’t think this means the whole world has gotten up and gone granola, but I do think it shows a conscious effort to benefit from fresh and local products.  Honestly, a homegrown tomato does taste better than a supermarket one, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.  People are proud of what they grow and even prouder of their creativity in what they do with their products.  Canning, and complaining about the kitchen heat is popular, but those who are doing it are doing so willingly, and are very happy with the results.  Admiration is shared for those generations who’ve done this for survival, and even more so, a deep appreciation for modern conveniences such as a freezer.

It doesn’t mean the world is going to give up tomatoes in winter, but it does mean, and I’m making my own judgment here, that people enjoy making something from start to finish or from seed to plate, if you will.  I’m not starting an ecological or nutritional debate, but rather sharing an observation of trends.  People are growing gardens; it’s cheaper and better tasting, and not to mention, a lot of people clearly like getting their hands dirty.

Explaining the monster

Looking at Friday’s blog, I realized I probably didn’t explain very well the monster and why it makes it annual visits to our kitchen.  We do a lot of canning from our garden.  The first vegetables ready are the tomatillos in August, the small green Mexican tomatoes used to make salsa verde.  After that, we can tomatoes coulis, apple sauce, and sometimes dishes like ratatouille.  Basically, we stick anything in a jar that grows in such an abundant that we couldn’t eat it all at once.  The canning jars are washed, filled, and equipped with a rubber ring that doesn’t allow any air to pass.  Then they go into that giant pot (aka ‘the monster’) that sits on my stove; that’s the sterilizer.  A large soup pot could be used too, but the size of the sterilizer lets us do a lot at once and is made to hold the jars tightly so they don’t bounce around doing the vigorous sterilizing process.  To sterilize the jars, the water is boiled for two hours (getting to this temperature takes some time too) and then again for 90 minutes 24 hour later.  We can when the vegetables are fresh, which often means in August, the hottest month of the year.

Why do we do this?  For the same reason we garden: because we like to eat well.  There’s nothing like opening a jar of homemade tomato sauce in the middle of a dismal January evening.  At that point, sweating our butts off in a dripping wet kitchen is just a memory and it’s far better than anything store bought.  And, not that I always feel this way in August as the sweat rolls down my back and I still have hours of work in front of me, but I really like it too.   

There’s a monster in my kitchen

The monster takes over the entire stove.  Translation: sandwiches for dinner.

It’s that time of year again- canning.  As usual, our first run in the sterilizer is salsa verde, made from tomatillos.  The sterilizer holds up to 15 half-pint jars and boils for 2 hours on the first day and 90 minutes on the following to make sure any lingering bacteria is killed.  Just what I want on a hot August day…

Salsa verde