Pickling
Samphire
This Australian member of the genus salacornia, is a plant of tidal estuaries best harvested in spring when it is fat and juicy and less salty. For more on samphire, see my blog.
There are lots of methods to pickle samphire. After washing and removing the tough parts of the stems, either blanch in boiling water, drain and let dry then cover with cider or white wine vinegar, with or without spices. Or simply pack into sterile jars and pour over boiling vinegar and seal.
As a side dish, lightly steam and dress with lemon and butter or olive oil. Use raw in salads or pickled with fish, white meats and mild cheeses.
This Australian member of the genus salacornia, is a plant of tidal estuaries best harvested in spring when it is fat and juicy and less salty. For more on samphire, see my blog.
There are lots of methods to pickle samphire. After washing and removing the tough parts of the stems, either blanch in boiling water, drain and let dry then cover with cider or white wine vinegar, with or without spices. Or simply pack into sterile jars and pour over boiling vinegar and seal.
As a side dish, lightly steam and dress with lemon and butter or olive oil. Use raw in salads or pickled with fish, white meats and mild cheeses.
Red Cabbage
2kg red cabbage
3 Tbsp salt
2 litres spiced vinegar, purchased or homemade.
Shred cabbage finely, layer one third cabbage in a ceramic bowl, sprinkle over one third salt and repeat twice.
Put a layer of plastic wrap over the cabbage and then a small plate.
On top of the plate put a heavy weight. A pot of water or a couple of bricks on top of a round chopping board work well.
Leave overnight and in the morning drain liquid and rinse well.
Put in steriised jars and cover with spiced vinegar.
Leave one week before eating with cold meats or cheese or as a side dish with bangers and mash.
First published on my blog frompotionstopesto.
3 Tbsp salt
2 litres spiced vinegar, purchased or homemade.
Shred cabbage finely, layer one third cabbage in a ceramic bowl, sprinkle over one third salt and repeat twice.
Put a layer of plastic wrap over the cabbage and then a small plate.
On top of the plate put a heavy weight. A pot of water or a couple of bricks on top of a round chopping board work well.
Leave overnight and in the morning drain liquid and rinse well.
Put in steriised jars and cover with spiced vinegar.
Leave one week before eating with cold meats or cheese or as a side dish with bangers and mash.
First published on my blog frompotionstopesto.
Pickled Peacharines
This recipe works equally well for peaches and nectarines.
Warm three sterile screw top jars and fill with layers of sliced stonefruit.
Bring to the boil :
150ml cider vinegar
300ml water
250g white sugar or honey
1 tsp salt
3 whole star anise
3 cloves
6 allspice berries
Pour over fruits, sharing the spices between the jars.
Screw lids down tightly and leave for 5 days before eating.
Serve with cold meats, on a cheese board or with ice cream and biscotti.
First published on my blog, frompotionstopesto.
Warm three sterile screw top jars and fill with layers of sliced stonefruit.
Bring to the boil :
150ml cider vinegar
300ml water
250g white sugar or honey
1 tsp salt
3 whole star anise
3 cloves
6 allspice berries
Pour over fruits, sharing the spices between the jars.
Screw lids down tightly and leave for 5 days before eating.
Serve with cold meats, on a cheese board or with ice cream and biscotti.
First published on my blog, frompotionstopesto.
Preserved Lemons
Magical Morrocan dishes depend on the unique flavour of this simple recipe.
20 (or as many as your jar will hold) lemons. washed well
Coarse salt
2 cinnamon sticks
10 whole cloves
2 whole dried chillies
12 black peppercorns
4 bay leaves
Sterilize a large jar.
Carefully cut the lemons from the pointy end down to the stem end, in quarters but not cutting right through.
Put about a teaspoon of salt into the cuts, close the lemon and place in the jar.
Repeat with lemons, adding spices as you go and pushing the lemons flat to release their juices.
When the jar is full, top up with lemon juice to cover.
I have used vinegar when I ran out of lemons and it worked fine.
Pour a layer of olive oil on top of the lemons.
Leave for a month, tipping the jar upside down when you can, to release any air bubbles.
The lemons will soften and the peel become soft and velvety.
Rinse the lemons before using. Scrape away the flesh if advised in the recipe you are using.
Keeping time is at least until the next lemon season!
20 (or as many as your jar will hold) lemons. washed well
Coarse salt
2 cinnamon sticks
10 whole cloves
2 whole dried chillies
12 black peppercorns
4 bay leaves
Sterilize a large jar.
Carefully cut the lemons from the pointy end down to the stem end, in quarters but not cutting right through.
Put about a teaspoon of salt into the cuts, close the lemon and place in the jar.
Repeat with lemons, adding spices as you go and pushing the lemons flat to release their juices.
When the jar is full, top up with lemon juice to cover.
I have used vinegar when I ran out of lemons and it worked fine.
Pour a layer of olive oil on top of the lemons.
Leave for a month, tipping the jar upside down when you can, to release any air bubbles.
The lemons will soften and the peel become soft and velvety.
Rinse the lemons before using. Scrape away the flesh if advised in the recipe you are using.
Keeping time is at least until the next lemon season!
Pickled Eggs
This is traditional English pub food, served in a nest of potatoe crisps.
These eggs are useful for snacks, sandwich lunches and antipasto platters.
6 eggs, hard boiled and shelled
1 sprig each thyme, oregano, rosemary
1 Tbsp peppercorns
1 garlic clove, sliced
2 C (approx) white wine vinegar
Layer the herbs, peppercorns and garlic with the eggs in a wide mouthed sterile jar.
Heat the vinegar to just below boiling point and pour over eggs until covered.
Leave for 6-7 days before using. Store in the refrigerator.
You can use spiced malted vinegar but the flavour will be a bit harsher.
These eggs are useful for snacks, sandwich lunches and antipasto platters.
6 eggs, hard boiled and shelled
1 sprig each thyme, oregano, rosemary
1 Tbsp peppercorns
1 garlic clove, sliced
2 C (approx) white wine vinegar
Layer the herbs, peppercorns and garlic with the eggs in a wide mouthed sterile jar.
Heat the vinegar to just below boiling point and pour over eggs until covered.
Leave for 6-7 days before using. Store in the refrigerator.
You can use spiced malted vinegar but the flavour will be a bit harsher.
Olives
Water and Brine
Fresh lives are extremely bitter. This bitterness is leached by rinsing with water or with brine.
Cover the olives with fresh water then seal from the air with a layer of plastic wrap held down by a plate that can fit snugly into the bucket.
Each day carefully strain off and replace the water. Repeat this process for 7 -14 days. The only way to see if they are ready is to bite into them. I prefer mine with a hint of bitterness, for black olives, usually ten days. The amount of time will vary with the ripeness of the olives, the air temperature, wether you use water or brine to soak them and the number of times they are rinsed. It can be speeded up by slitting each olive with a knife.
I do the whole process in the jars in which I will store them so the chance of bruising is less. I usually get 1 kg jars, fill them to the brim and screw the lid down between rinsings.
You can also soak and rinse the olives in brine. It is time consuming if you have a lot to deal with. As I use my rinsing water on the garden, I prefer using water only.
Brine
100gms salt to each litre of water.
Bring water to the boil, stir in salt until dissolved and leave to cool.
When the olives are ready, place in clean jars ( if processing in buckets) and cover with brine. One way to test your brine to see if it is strong enough is to see if a fresh egg will float in it...if it won't, add more salt! Cover the top with aenough olive oil to exclude air. Try not to let the oil touch the lid as it will ooze out forever more.
Store the olives somewhere cool, dark if you can. I have never kept my olives in the dark, that’s why they are always a little pale coloured. The longer they sit, the better they become.
When I come to use the olives I rinse them and discard any that are bruised or feel a little slimy. Often a raft of slime will develop beneath the oil ( it’s a bit like “Mother of vinegar” ) and that is rinsed away too. I then either put them in fresh brine.To marinade them in olive oil with herbs, only make a small jar at a time and store in the refrigerator.
Cover the olives with fresh water then seal from the air with a layer of plastic wrap held down by a plate that can fit snugly into the bucket.
Each day carefully strain off and replace the water. Repeat this process for 7 -14 days. The only way to see if they are ready is to bite into them. I prefer mine with a hint of bitterness, for black olives, usually ten days. The amount of time will vary with the ripeness of the olives, the air temperature, wether you use water or brine to soak them and the number of times they are rinsed. It can be speeded up by slitting each olive with a knife.
I do the whole process in the jars in which I will store them so the chance of bruising is less. I usually get 1 kg jars, fill them to the brim and screw the lid down between rinsings.
You can also soak and rinse the olives in brine. It is time consuming if you have a lot to deal with. As I use my rinsing water on the garden, I prefer using water only.
Brine
100gms salt to each litre of water.
Bring water to the boil, stir in salt until dissolved and leave to cool.
When the olives are ready, place in clean jars ( if processing in buckets) and cover with brine. One way to test your brine to see if it is strong enough is to see if a fresh egg will float in it...if it won't, add more salt! Cover the top with aenough olive oil to exclude air. Try not to let the oil touch the lid as it will ooze out forever more.
Store the olives somewhere cool, dark if you can. I have never kept my olives in the dark, that’s why they are always a little pale coloured. The longer they sit, the better they become.
When I come to use the olives I rinse them and discard any that are bruised or feel a little slimy. Often a raft of slime will develop beneath the oil ( it’s a bit like “Mother of vinegar” ) and that is rinsed away too. I then either put them in fresh brine.To marinade them in olive oil with herbs, only make a small jar at a time and store in the refrigerator.
Wood Ash Method
Commercial olives are processed really quickly using a 3% solution of caustic soda. They keep their lovely colours and crunch. The CWA Cookbook will show you how to do this if you are interested in playing with dangerous substances, then eating them. Wood ash also creates lye but in a much more gentle form. Green olives can be processed by rinsing alone but they do take a lot longer than the black ones and we don’t all have water to waste (rinse your olives onto plants, they love it.)
Sieve your ash on a day with out wind to remove lumps then mix to a runny paste with water and mix in your olives. Wear gloves if you have sensitive hands. I don’t and stir it with bare hands to help remove ground-in garden grime. Stir very gently each day, don’t use a spoon or you will bruise the olives.
When they have changed from bright green to khaki, they are ready to rinse and brine. These olives don’t keep as long as the rinsed ones, so don’t leave them more than two months. They may still look good but turn to mush when you touch them… definitely NOT for eating!
Sieve your ash on a day with out wind to remove lumps then mix to a runny paste with water and mix in your olives. Wear gloves if you have sensitive hands. I don’t and stir it with bare hands to help remove ground-in garden grime. Stir very gently each day, don’t use a spoon or you will bruise the olives.
When they have changed from bright green to khaki, they are ready to rinse and brine. These olives don’t keep as long as the rinsed ones, so don’t leave them more than two months. They may still look good but turn to mush when you touch them… definitely NOT for eating!
Salt Curing
In the drier Mediterranean areas where water is scarce, olives are preserved by salting.
I first came across this method in a book about Sufi masters and just had to try it.
This is lazy man’s olive preserving. Simply mix your olives with an equal weight of cooking salt and place half fill an old pillow case or flour bag. Tie the opening shut and hang in the shade. The olives will gradually become tiny, wrinkled little prunes. You simply reconstitute them in warm water. They have a delicious smokey taste. Be warned, this process can take a few months so if you have wet winters after harvest, you need to hang them in doors so they don’t absorb moisture from the air. Put a container beneath them in case they drip.
I did a variation of this last year by storing my already soaked and rinsed olives in a 50% salt and lemon juice solution. They have become wrinkled and taste too salty to eat with out rinsing but have a delicious flavour.
I know that there are issues around the growth of bacteria in olives, but the oil on top is designed to keep out air which seems to prevent anything too nasty from happening. I haven’t killed anyone yet. Never use fresh garlic in your olives unless you will be eating them within a couple of days. The best thing to do is throw anything away that seems at all suspicious, smells odd or fizzes when you take the lid off. Throw these in the compost and every worm for miles will come visiting.
See also Baked olives
In the drier Mediterranean areas where water is scarce, olives are preserved by salting.
I first came across this method in a book about Sufi masters and just had to try it.
This is lazy man’s olive preserving. Simply mix your olives with an equal weight of cooking salt and place half fill an old pillow case or flour bag. Tie the opening shut and hang in the shade. The olives will gradually become tiny, wrinkled little prunes. You simply reconstitute them in warm water. They have a delicious smokey taste. Be warned, this process can take a few months so if you have wet winters after harvest, you need to hang them in doors so they don’t absorb moisture from the air. Put a container beneath them in case they drip.
I did a variation of this last year by storing my already soaked and rinsed olives in a 50% salt and lemon juice solution. They have become wrinkled and taste too salty to eat with out rinsing but have a delicious flavour.
I know that there are issues around the growth of bacteria in olives, but the oil on top is designed to keep out air which seems to prevent anything too nasty from happening. I haven’t killed anyone yet. Never use fresh garlic in your olives unless you will be eating them within a couple of days. The best thing to do is throw anything away that seems at all suspicious, smells odd or fizzes when you take the lid off. Throw these in the compost and every worm for miles will come visiting.
See also Baked olives
