Simplest Dill Pickles

To me, July means the opening of pickle making season. The Valley has many farms that produce abundant first-rate pickling cucumbers. My garden produces plenty of dill and garlic. (Hopefully this year, I will have some of my own home grown cukes as well.) Pickles are the natural result of all of these riches.

I have been making a variations on a basic dill cucumber pickle recipe for many years. It all started when we had to go gluten-free in our kitchen. We missed good vinegary pickles, so I resolved to make them myself. Like so many people, I thought this was going to be a hard thing to do. I soon learned that with quality ingredients, it’s pretty easy to make good pickles. You also don’t have to make 3 dozen quarts at once. I have a routine down for 4-6 quarts at a time, which works out well. I do this a few times while cucumbers are locally available, and in this way have a nice supply for the year.
Pickling is associated with canning. Canning involves processing the caning jars full of pickles or what have you in hot water to kill any microbes that will spoil your food under non-refrigerated storage. Processing the pickles freaks a lot of people out and I was definitely one of them (I was haunted by vague unsettling visions of dangerous pressure cookers.) It can also go badly if you do it too long, resulting in mushy pickles, which are pointless. The good news is, there are many types of pickles you do not have to process, as long as you keep them refrigerated. I do not process these pickles in hot water after I make them. Once the jars are cooled, they go right in the fridge, where they will keep for over a year and still be quite tasty.

I’m not a pickling expert. Quite frankly, my experiments beyond my basic dill pickle recipe have been mediocre at best (and sometimes just awful). However, I have hope that this summer’s experiments will work out better. I have a new guide: The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich. This revised edition came out this past spring. In addition to covering the basics, it is an excellent overview of all sorts of different types of pickles from many cultures. She conveniently includes many recipes on a smaller scale, so you can just make a couple of quarts of something, or even reduce her recipes to make just one quart if you like.

Pickle Essentials

Simplest Dill Pickles

6 quart sized canning jars (aka Ball jars or Mason jars) with screw on lids, spotlessly clean and scalded (dunked in boiling water)

6 lbs of freshly harvested pickling cucumbers no larger than 2.5 inches, scrubbed clean,(you really do need to look for cucumbers labeled for pickling for the best results)

Ice water to cover the cukes and a container to hold it all ( I use a cooler)

1 garlic head (about 8-12 cloves) peeled and chopped course

12 large dill heads, plus all of the sprigs of dill removed from the stalks, divided into 4 equal portions

6 tbs of pickling spice (1 scant tbs for each jar). If the pickling spice does not include hot peppers, I like to add half a small dried hot pepper (such as arbol) to each jar as well. Sometimes I make my own pickling spice. I can’t give exact measurements, but I can tell you the order by proportion, starting with the largest amount: yellow mustard seed, dill seed, whole coriander,  whole peppercorns, celery seed, dried hot pepper, whole allspice, whole cloves, whole cinnamon stick (cut in chunks).

3 1/2 cups of cider vinegar (Get the best quality that you can find — it makes a difference whether you use the good stuff instead of the generic. Some orchards that make apple cider also make excellent cider vinegar. Lately, I like the vinegar made by Dwight Miller Orchards, just up the road in Vermont.)

6 cups of water–filtered is best

1/2 cup pickling salt (Picking salt is a finely granulated plain salt that has none of the added iodine or stabilizers that table salt has. These additives will form a whitish sediment in your pickles that won’t spoil them, but will look funky. )

Approximately 24 hours before you want to make your pickles, slice about 1/16 inch off the ends of each cuke and put in ice water. Add ice as needed during the 24 hours to keep cold. If you use a cooler, you’ll probably only have to add it once. This step really is the secret to crispy, full flavored pickles, don’t skip it. I am sure there is some scientific explanation for this.

Bring vinegar, water and salt to a boil, stir to make sure salt is dissolved. Keep warm over med heat, covered. While it’s boiling, put one dill head, dill sprigs portion, garlic portion and spice portion in each jar. Then you can slice your cukes into spears or halves as you like.  Pack cucumber vertically in each jar, as many as will fit in one layer. Don’t be afraid to squeeze them in, they will shrink a bit as they sit in the brine. Top with another dill head.

Ready for the brine

I like to put the jars on a cooling rack, because they do get hot when you add the brine. Ladle the hot brine into each jar to cover the contents, but only as far as the bottom of the ring on top of the jar.

Practically Pickles Already

Top with screw on lids and let cool for about 10 minutes. I suggest writing the date on top with a sharpie, plus anything else you want to remember about the batch.  Allow to cool completely before refrigerating. Wait at least 2 weeks before eating for best flavor. The flavor gets better with time.

Dated and ready for the fridge

Tempeh for a Big Salad

June and early July mean harvesting lots of lettuce and spicy greens from the garden. I do make a lot of simple green salads with meals. However, I really enjoy having garden fresh greens to use in one of my favorite meal concepts “the Big Salad.” I put together mixes of tofu or tempeh, cheese, cooked veggies, raw veggies, beans, grains and herbs with the greens and suitable dressing for a complete and delicious meal. The trick is not to use too many things, or else the greens get lost. You also want to choose things that will harmonize. For example, vegetables cooked in with Asian style seasonings (soy sauce, ginger and sesame oil) might not go so well with balsamic vinaigrette and sun dried tomatoes. Within these basic guidelines, anything goes!

Spicy Greens

I first discovered the Big Salad concept about 15 years ago in the cookbook that really got me going on creative vegetarian cooking “The American Vegetarian” by Marylin Diamond. I’ve been playing around with it ever since. In the winter, when salad greens are mediocre, it helps enhance that dose of fresh greens that we need. In the spring and early summer when the greens are great, it makes for a delicious meal. I look forward to the “salad days” all year.

Lately, I’ve been inspired anew by the eating at the Candle Cafe and by their cookbook. Their fabulous salads and their recipes reminded me of a technique I had sort of forgotten about: marinating tofu and tempeh. Tempeh and tofu treated this way make a great component to a big salad.

Here is one flavorful way that I like to prepare tempeh to use in these salads.

Tempeh for a Big Salad

This is more than you need for a big salad for two, but it is so good as leftovers it is worth it to make extra.

2 8 oz packages of tempeh

1/2 cup of soy sauce, tamari or bragg’s liquid aminos

2/3 cup of apple juice

1/4 cup of agave syrup, or honey or other sweetner

4 tbs of chopped garlic

3 tbs of grated ginger

1 tsp dried chile flakes

fresh ground pepper to taste

Grated Ginger

Combine all of the ingredients except the tempeh in a shallow baking dish or other container. This is your marinade. Cut each package of tempeh into 4 equal pieces and place into the marinade.

You can now do a couple of different things with this. Both methods make for flavorful tempeh.

A. If you made this in a baking dish, you can immediately put the whole thing into a 350 degree oven and bake for one hour, cool slightly and slice for salad.

B. Leave the tempeh in it’s marinade for a couple of hours or overnight. You can then bake the whole thing as above. You can also take the tempeh out of it’s marinade, slice it and saute until slightly browned.

Marinating Tempeh

The big salad pictorial continues here.

Oden for Vegetarians

Oden is a traditional Japanese one pot dish that combines vegetables with meat and seafood cooked in a soy sauce broth. I have been looking for a way to come up with a vegetarian version without much success– until now. In addition to making it veggie, I also wanted it to be tasty and interesting without relying on too many hard to find specialty ingredients. The appeal of this dish is the wide variety of textures as well as flavors that comes to you all in one bowl. After a series of fairly mediocre attempts, I’ve finally hit upon the right combination of flavors and textures. I’m sure this recipe will continue to evolve.

Dashi stock is super easy to make from scratch. I think that Just Hungry has the best advice for vegetarian dashi variations. The only required ingredient is kombu, dried kelp. Other variations include dried bonito (tuna) flakes, ginger and dried shitakes. Instant dashi powder works just fine, too. You can find it in Asian markets. I know Mom’s House Chinese Food Market in Amherst carries it (they don’t have a website).

You can vary the stuff you put in it to suit your tastes and what you have around. I think you could use most vegetables, you’d just have to vary the timing of when to add them (probably not tomatoes, though). If you do want to throw in some meat or fish in, hey go for it. I do suggest frying the tofu. I also suggest seeking out the mochi, a japanese style rice cake that bakes up puffy and chewy. Most health food stores carry the Grainaissance brand in the refrigerated section (make sure you don’t accidentally buy the cinnamon raisin variety!)

I realize this recipe is full of multi-tasking, but that’s just the kind of cook I am. Please break this down into one thing at a time if you need/want to.

Vegetarian Oden

The stuff
1 lb block of firm tofu
rice flour or cornstarch to coat the tofu
neutral vegetable oil to fry the tofu (canola, corn, or peanut)
1 lb of red or yellow potatoes, peeled and diced ½”
2 medium sized carrots, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
1 ½ to 2 cups of broccoli, stems peeled and diced ¼”, crown cut into ½” florets
8-10 button or crimini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 package of mochi, about 6 oz., preferably a savory flavored variety, cut into one inch square

The Broth
4 1/2 cups of dashi
5-6 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water for at least 10 minutes
6 tblspoons of good soy sauce or tamari
4 tbs of sake or 1/3 cup of white wine
4 tablespoons of mirin
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

The mustard dipping sauce
1 tsp or so of wasabi powder
4 tbs or so of dijon mustard
1 tsp black sesame seeds (optional)
or
japanese mustard sauce -the kind they use at japanese steakhouses, another thing to look for in Asisan markets and there are many recipes out there

Start by making your dashi, either by soaking your kombu or from instant powder.

Take your tofu out of the packaging, wrap in a clean dish towel for about 20 minutes (to remove excess moisture)

Meanwhile, combine the potato, 2 tbs soy sauce, 1/2 cup of dashi and a little more water to cover the potatoes in a big soup pot. Cook over med-hi heat until tender. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon, keeping any leftover liquid in the pot.

While the potatoes are cooking, coat the tofu in flour and fry in oil in a small pan. Drain on paper towels.

Heat the oven to 450. If you are making the mustard sauce in this recipe, mix wasabi powder with a little water to form a paste. Set it aside.

Add the rest of the cooking liquid ingredients to the pot (include the soaking water from the mushrooms). Bring to a boil and then lower heat and keep at a simmer for 20 minutes. Then add all of the vegetables except for the broccoli florets. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Put your squares of mochi on a cookie sheet and put in the oven. Add the broccoli florets to the broth. Simmer your soup and bake your mochi for another 10 minutes. Take the mochi out of the oven, they should be puffy brown and crisp. Turn the heat off of the soup and fish the dried mushrooms out of the broth. Squeeze the water out of them with tongs backinto thre soup and slice very thin (discard any stems that are too touch). Return slices to the soup.

Stir dijon mustard and sesame seeds into the wasabi powder.

To serve, ladle soup into bowls, place a couple of pieces of tofu and a couple of poieces of mochi on a small plate with a little dish of the mustard sauce. Take one piece of tofu or mochi at a time, let it sit in the soup for half a minute and then take out and dip in the mustard sauce to eat. Alternate with spoonfuls of soup. I like to use chop sticks to eat the tofu/mochi and eat the veggies out of the soup.