My journey of cooking, gardening, preserving and more
Preserved lemons rank as one of the easiest things to make; the difficult part is waiting a month before they’re ready to use. This is why it’s always a good idea to have a jar ready to go so you’ll probably want to keep them …
Break out the cream cheese and crackers because I’ve got on an old-school classic for you that I just can’t resist sharing. This is an easy holiday appetizer recipe and guess what – it also makes a great gift! If you want to fancy it up a …
I’ve been posting some of my classic recipes recently, such as my potato salad with peas and my easy refrigerated pickled beets, so here’s another classic for you. This simple little salad has a number of different names – cucumber salad, refrigerator pickles. pickled cucumbers, and the obvious, cucumbers in vinegar. No matter what you call it, it’s easy to make and a fabulous way to preserve your cucumber bounty, whether it’s from your garden or your over-ambitiousness at the farmer’s market. Because of the vinegar, this dish stores easily in your fridge for weeks and makes a perfect side to grilled ribs and chicken. They’re also great on burgers and hot dogs and nothing can be easier to make.
I prefer to make mine with rice vinegar, as it’s not as sharp as white vinegar, but white will certainly work.
Remove the ends from cucumbers and discard. Slice the cucumbers thin – I prefer mine sliced over shaved with a mandolin, but you can try it both ways to see what you like – and place them in a large container with a lid. Thinly slice your onion and add to the cucumbers.
Sprinkle the cucumbers and onions with salt and toss well. Sprinkle with pepper, add vinegar and water and toss well again. Using the back of a large spoon or a potato masher, gently press everything down in the bowl.
Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 days, stirring them up and pressing them back down a few times. The cucumbers and onions will release their moisture and create a brine as they mix with the salt, vinegar, and water.
You now have quick pickles, basically, and they’re oh, so good!
If you have fresh dill on hand, it’s a delicious addition to this. Also, you can toss with fresh tomatoes before serving – just don’t add them ahead of time, as tomatoes will lose their flavor when refrigerated too long.
You can also use red onions here but be warned that they can turn your salad pink, especially the longer it sits.
Did you have this salad (or pickles) growing up? What did you call them? I’d love to hear about it! And now you know an easy way to preserve them when you’re wondering what to do with a lot of cucumbers.
Enjoy!
Every year I grow beets and every year I still end up with more than we can eat. I love them roasted on the grill or in the oven, or shredded and made into my beet and carrot slaw. I saute the greens up, similar …
Looking for ways to spice up your life? Try adding some hot chili oil to it. Making your own hot chili oil is very easy and it’s a great way to preserve your garden if you’ve got some dried hot peppers laying around. I love …
In case you didn’t know it, I’m huge on Pinterest! Okay, well, my Pickled Hot Cherry Peppers recipe is huge, anyway. One of the things I miss most about living in Connecticut is being able to find both fresh and pickled cherry peppers at the store. Stuffing pickled cherry peppers with provolone cheese and prosciutto is popular out east, but the ones I’ve come across here in Northern Illinois are all made with raw peppers, which is not very appetizing at all.
Not being able to find these beauties forced me to start growing, pickling and stuffing them myself. This isn’t really a bad thing, as it’s made me pretty damn popular at the holidays. It may sound like an odd combination but trust me that they’re delicious. I’ve also heard the stuffed version of these called hot cherry poppers and cherry bombs so hey, if that makes you like them more, that’s okay.
If you’re lucky enough to be able to buy cherry peppers at your local store or market, I have just the appetizer for you! The pickling part is super easy, even when canning and processing them to put up. All you need is fresh cherry peppers white vinegar and water.
You don’t have to can these, though. You can pickle them and put them in the fridge, as long as you have space. When I don’t process these for preserving, I call it “quick pickling”.
Prepare the peppers by washing them and cutting the stems off. Using the tip of a sharp knife, make a small slice into the pepper at the top of it, around the stem area. I like to do this to assure the hot juice is released from inside the peppers. Now you’re ready to pickle them.
In a large saucepan, bring the vinegar and water to a boil. Add peppers, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool and transfer peppers to a glass jar or container and then cover completely with vinegar/water brine. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Be sure to reserve the pickling juice for storing and serving. To prepare the peppers for stuffing, use a sharp knife to cut the top off of the peppers. Then, using a small spoon, scoop out the seeds and discard them.
For the stuffing, take a chunk of provolone and cut it into cubes The actual size of the cubes may need to vary, depending on the size of the peppers. Cut strips of prosciutto in half lengthwise, Wrap a cube of provolone with a piece of prosciutto and stuff the wrapped cube into a hollowed-out pepper. Set the stuffed pepper into a shallow dish and repeat until all of the peppers you have are stuffed.
Using the reserved pickling juice, fill the dish of peppers until the level is about half way up the peppers. Cover dish and refrigerate until ready to serve, preferably within a few hours.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing these, you’re missing out. It may sound like a strange combination but the heat of the peppers, the tang of the vinegar, the smooth creaminess of the provolone and the salty earthiness of the prosciutto is a fabulous collaboration. I typically make these hot cherry pepper poppers for the holidays and for get-togethers and they are always, always the first thing to disappear.
Enjoy!
We grew Trinidad Scorpion Peppers this year and they were pretty prolific, much more so than necessary, considering there are only so many of the second-hottest-peppers in the world you can eat I grew Ghost Peppers a few years ago and can tell you the …