Saturday, September 6, 2008

Pink Pickles

Richard Saunders and the crew over at Poor Richard’s Almanac took a trip to the 13th Chili Pepper Festival in Bowers, PA yesterday. I like to think my “After Burner” sauce would fit right in with the hot sauces he described.

Richard’s blog report on the trip got me to thinking, I need to cook. I also need to do a little canning as red noodle beans, cucumbers, and such are coming in slowly. As I do not have enough produce for a large batch of pickles, the canning method will have to be refrigerator pickling. This is basically the same as regular pickle making except there is no water bath, the jars are not sealed, and the pickles need to be consumed in a couple of weeks instead of lasting for months.

The brine for the pickles I made today is equal parts vinegar to water, 2 tablespoons sea salt to each cup of brine, one tablespoon of dill seed to each cup or brine, and a couple of chili pequino chilies and garlic cloves per jar of pickles. Heat up the brine for a few minutes in the microwave and poor over sliced cucumbers and/or green beans (I use the red noodle or yard long beans). If you want to have a little more fun with this, add the sliced up stalk of a red Swiss chard to the brine. This will tint the brine pink making pink pickles.

For dinner we are having dirty rice. This is simply browned ground beef and rice with peppers, onion, garlic, celery, rice, and Cajun spice. I don’t measure anything. Everything is to taste.

I had to brown one of those giant batches of ground beef. Somebody, who will remain nameless, forgot to cut it up into meal sized portions before freezing it. So I will also make sloppy Joes and spaghetti sauce and put them in the fridge for meals for the next two days. Yippee, I don’t have to cook dinner on Sunday or Monday. What ever will I do with my time?

13 comments:

  1. Looks like you'll have more time to work in the garden! Pink pickles, huh? Interesting...lol

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  2. I've been forgetting to manage my meats before freezing them too. I've got 10 pounds of chicken in one bag together. I've never heard of pink pickles before.

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  3. pgl, pink pickles are funny. Sorry, they just are. Yep time in the garden. Sounds wonderful. The person who shall remain nameless was pretty impressed by my three meals in one session cooking spree.

    cinj, I am not sure I could do anything with 10 lbs of chicken at one go. Good luck and let us know what you do.

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  4. I will look for my grandmother's recipe for "Under the Sink" pickles. They aren't processed, much like the refrigerator ones you mentioned. But they will keep for weeks in the fridge. I don't remember the specifics, but basically you mix the stuff up and just leave it alone for a while, like you just set them "under the sink" and leave them alone. Crap, now I'll be thinking of them forever, until I find the recipe. If I forget, email me in a day or two and remind me.

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  5. Pink Pickles?? :)
    I would love to learn how to do pickles. I love to blanch, then freeze fresh veggies I get from my local produce stand. Love to have those fresh black eyes in the middle of winter!

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  6. Hmm. I love pickles. I was watching Alton Brown on the food network and he visited a place where they used cherry koolaid and vinegar to make pickles. I don't know about that now.
    Billy swears they put liver in dirty rice so he want eat it at Cajun Fried Chicken or Popeyes Chicken place, two local fast foods. LOL

    I usually do separate my ground meat out into l.5 lbs but isn't it nice to have some already cooked up?

    I just finished cooking a whole chicken in my crock pot and refrigerated it. Dumplings, dressing, or Pot pie will be a lot easier with that part done.

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  7. ha ha! love how the "after burner" just keeps "coming up"...ha!

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  8. Ha! Love the Pink Pickles idea! Silence makes hot sweet refrigerator pickles that keep beautifully in the fridge---at least, as long as, er, nobody eats the whole container full---but we'll have to try some pink ones around here. Please show photos of the red beans and tell us how you cook them and how they are. We love red!!!

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  9. Meadowview Thymes, pickles are easy. There are a million recipes on the internet. I am freezing purple hull pink eyed peas right now for use this winter.

    Eve, I am so going to try kool aid pickles just because it sounds funny. I am not a liver fan, don't think I would eat that dirty rice either.

    HI Sarah, our out, oops sorry, hahaha.

    obf, the red beans are red noodle yard long. They are a red variety of regular yard long or aspargus beans. I don't have any today, but as soon as I do I will show pictures. I have not had enough to cook because the monkeys keep eating them straight off the vine or there are only one or two so I cut them up and throw them in with the pickles peppers. Hot pickled red beans are goooood.

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  10. More time to watch out for Tisha coming back atcha?

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  11. Vp, hehe, my paranoia is growing every minute.

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  12. I think I'll have to just chink the pieces apart, I'm at a loss for what I could possibly do with that much chicken. If I can make two meals with 3 pieces of chicken, I wonder how many meanls I can make out of 10 pounds....

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