Summer just officially started and the bounties of my CSA is starting to show it... although my basket was still laden with lettuce, wonderful gems like yellow zuchinis, sugar snap peas, and snow peas are starting to creep into the rotation. Since I discovered how easy it is to pickle almost anything, very little has escaped my pickling brine... muah ha ha ha... the joy of my CSA is that even I can do a lot of experimental pickling with the various goodies as refrigerator pickles, which do not require processing. I don't get enough of any one kind of produce to worry about if I have a funky brine, ruining a huge batch of 20 jars of a certain type of pickle. This week, I eyed my sugar snap peas... first, when I popped one in my mouth, they seemed a bit tough for sugar snap peas. These are the ones I normally can eat raw because of the sweet crunch... but I found myself chewing a bit vigorously for my liking. Doh. Well, when life gives you tough sugar snap peas, make Spicy Pickled Sugar Snap Peas.
The brine is basic, as are all my pickling brines. This time, I decided to kinda wing it, and just played a bit around with proportions. I heated about 1 cup of distilled white vinegar and dissolved 1 tsp kosher salt and 1 TBSP sugar in it and threw in about 1 TBSP whole black mustard seeds. I've never seen black mustard seeds before, but had ordered a pound online for pretty cheap for a future homemade spicy mustard experiment. I figured it couldn't hurt to see what they had to offer to pickling in case my spicy mustard experiment eventually fails. I packed my peas in a mason jar with a couple dried hot chili peppers with the stems torn off and the inner seeds dumped in, a couple whole black peppercorns, and a couple mashed cloves of garlic. The only downside to pickling is the stupid waiting part. Grrrr.
But enough of that. Let's talk summer. I've always been a fan of frozen treats to placate my sweet tooth in the summer. However, the sugar laden fruitsicles at the grocery store have always been a little too sacchrine, a little too much of a sugar bomb, and generally don't taste very good. I spent my childhood eating popsicles made of orange juice. I remember running hot water over the plastic molds trying to coax a single popsicle out without popping them all out at once. Well, popsicle molds have gone high tech with these crazy silicone coverings and fun shapes. I kind of splurged on some fancy ones, but I think I'll end up using these all summer. I can think of endless awesome combinations, watermelon lime (oooh, and then I can pickle the rinds!), creamy peach, cinnamon pumpkin nut, and everything in between.
Well, while I was glowering and making faces at my not-yet-ready pickles, my CSA strawberries and some leftover greek yogurt from the Famer's Market stared me in the face just begging to made into popsicles. This is mostly because I read on another food blog, which I cannot for the life of me relocate to give the appropriate props, all about popsicles the other day and have been itching to put my popsicle molds to use. And so I decided that I would try to do something other than just shove handfuls of beautiful fresh picked CSA strawberries down my face this week. Of course, half the quart met that fate, but I managed to exert enough self control to concoct beautiful Creamy Strawberry Swirl Popsicles, perfect for the hot humid 90 degree weather that has been causing my poor early garden veggies to bolt.
I threw about 1/2 pint of hulled strawberries in my mini chopper until it was pretty smooth. Some chunks are okay. I decided to eat the big chunks. Because that's where they go. In my belly. I added just a tiny bit of sugar even though these were so sweet they didn't really need it. Then I melted about 1 tsp of raw honey and stirred it into about 3/4 cup greek yogurt. Layer spoonfuls of strawberry puree and yogurt, then stick a chopstick down to serve the dual purpose of:
1. Making sure there are no air bubbles.
2. Making pretty swirls between each layer... cuz pretty is obviously a priority here.
Freeze for about 4 hours and voila! I, of course, had to try one for breakfast the next morning (and to be able to take this picture). Perfectly sweet, creamy, and satisfying. And taste a heck of a lot better than the frozen sugar water they sell at the store.
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