And so, in an effort to rid myself of 2 pounds of asparagus I nabbed on the Eastern Shore without having to smell my pee for the next week, I decided to make Spicy Garlic Asparagus Pickles, inspired by the King o' the Canning Mountain... the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I have no idea how these taste yet, but really, I have never met a pickle I didn't like.
Cut about 2 pounds of asparagus into 4" pieces, making sure to discard any of the really fat fibrous icky bottom part. Yes, very scientific-foodie description, but don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. I also cut about 1/3 of a red onion into very thin slivers. Mostly, because I love onion, and who wouldn't want to pickle onion. They also happen to match the slightly purple tips of my asparagus. Cuz pickles should also be pretty (Disclaimer: see discussion of canning salt... this obviously is secondary to taste). Soak these in water with about 1/3 cup of canning salt for two hours.
Now, stores in downtown DC where I live do not seem to carry canning salt. At least, not in the Logan Circle/Dupont area. I figured out after searching online this basically means you can't use iodized table salt and probably not sea salt or it will make your pickles turn a funny color possibly or make your pickling liquid cloudy. Well, I accidentally bought sea salt, of which I already have a ton, instead of kosher salt, which is considered an acceptable alternative for discoloration purposes. But, at the end of the day, really, its the taste that matters so if my asparagus pickles turn a funny color, I don't really care. They are still going to be delicious.
I used 3 pint mason jars and simmered them with water in my all purpose lobster/canning/beerbrewing pot atop a small cookie rack. I simmered in a small separate pot the lids (not the rings). While those were keeping warm, I brought 1 cup of water, 4 cups of white vinegar, 3/4 cups of sugar, and 2 heaping TBSP of mustard seeds to simmer for about 5 minutes in a large pot. Make sure this pot is big enough to hold all of your asparagus.
Rinse the asparagus and onions with cool water and add to the pickling liquid. Bring it back to a boil and then remove from heat. Using a handy dandy jar picker upper thingy (yes, these exist, check out a hardware store or kitchen store for one), take one jar and dump the water back into the pot. Put 1 TBSP minced garlic and your choice of dried hot chili pepper (I used 2 dried chile de arboles per jar, whole, but cracked the top off and dumped the seeds into the bottom of the jar, too) along with a couple white and black whole peppercorns in the bottom of the jar. Then pack as tightly as possible the asaparagus into the jar leaving 1/2 inch of head space. Ladle in the pickling liquid to 1/2 inch of head space. Make sure there are no air bubbles, wipe the rim, and then pop a lid (which has been keeping warm... I used plastic tongs) and a ring on each. Make sure not to tighten the ring too much. Then put back into the big ass pot.
Once you have finished all of them, make sure at least 1" of water covers the jars, and bring the pot to a roaring boil and let it go for 10 minutes starting from when the rolling boil starts with the lid on. Turn off the heat after 10 minutes, remove the lid, and let everything sit for 5 minutes. Take the jars out and put on a towel and let cool for 24 hours. Well, that means tomorrow I need to check to make sure the lids sealed properly.
So maybe only 3 pints of these pickles seems paltry, but my CSA starts next week and well, yea, I plan to pickle what I can't eat, freeze, dehydrate, or otherwise enjoy without getting completely sick of it...
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