Mexican Sour Cucumber Pickles: An Experiment
We love our fruits and vegetables (well, most of them) and love trying out every new one we find (except Durian. I can't get over the smell). Our favorite stall at our local farmer's market (favorite because they do so frequently have the uncommon and because they sell chicory, a green most Americans seem not to be terribly fond of, and because their tomatoes are some of the sweetest and juiciest I have ever tasted) had several pint sized containers of Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumbers. They gave us one to try - think cucumber with a hint of lemon - and we liked them so much that we purchased a container. We took them home planning to add them to salad but, due to my general forgetfulness, they didn't make it into the salad, so I decided today that I would pickle them.
Now, here is the difficulty. Pickle them with what? You might be thinking, “How stupid can you be? You pickle with vinegar and spices.“ Right, but which vinegar would taste best and what blend of spices? That is the question I had but then I remembered the amazing garlic scapes I pickled earlier this year. Yeah, I had never heard of them either until I picked up anew canning book, Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round - a really cool one with great recipes for small batches, incidentally - and saw a recipe for them. Then, as though it were meant to be, our favorite stand had garlic scapes on sales not three weeks later. What are garlic scapes, you ask? Essentially, they are the non-flowering, flower-looking stalk that grows out of the ground when you plant garlic. These are cut off to divert nutrients to the actual bulb so that it grows to maximum plumpness. Taste-wise, they have a very delicate garlic flavor and texture-wise, it is a bit like biting into a small stalk of asparagus. Anyway, I pickled them using a recipe out of this book and they tasted amazing. Garlic scapes' flavor is delicate and the pickling spice mix and vinegar combination don't mask that. Mexican Sour Gherkin Cucumbers' flavor is also on the delicate side so I thought, “If it works for the one, it should work for the other!“ We will have to wait at least a week to see but, in the meantime, the recipe is:
For 2 pint sized (500 ml) jars
- 1 ½ cups/360 ml apple cider vinegar
- 1 ½ cups/360 ml water
- 2 tablespoons pickling salt (if you don't have this but have large pieces of sea salt for a salt grinder, it works equally well)
- 1 ½ pounds/680 grams garlic scapes (or, in this case, Mexican Sour Cucumbers)
- 2 tablespoons Mixed Pickling Spice (recipe to follow)
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Wash the garlic scapes (or the Mexican Sour Cucumbers and, in this case, take the little black bits off of the end) and then trim the ends off (both the blossom and the hard bit at the original cut) and then cut them into lengths that will fit the jar you want to use. If you are pickling the cucumbers instead, use a knife to put a small slit into them to aid in the absorption of the liquid. Put the garlic scapes or the cucumbers into your jar(s) until they are about an inch from the top. Then add the pickling spice and the red pepper flakes (note: if you make two jars, you need 1 tablespoon of the pickling spice and ¼ teaspoon of the pepper flakes per jar). In the meantime, combine the vinegar, water, and salt in a pot and bring it to a boil. It only needs to boil until the salt has dissolved. Pour this over the garlic scapes or the cucumbers until they are covered and the vinegar is about a ½ inch from the top of the jar. I find that pouring the liquid in through a funnel aids in keeping the sides of the jars (my hands, the counter, etc) dry. Once you have put the lids on, process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. If you've never done this before, don't panic. Just bring a pot of water large enough to hold the jars with some space above so that it doesn't boil over, to a boil. Slowly lower the jars into the water. They make special jar lifters, but we don't have one and just use grill tongs. It isn't optimal but it works. Boil them for 10 minutes and then lift them out onto a towel. You should hear a “Pop“ sometime afterwards, which indicates that it is sealed (this can happen quickly or take some time so don't panic if you don't hear it right away. If it still hasn't popped by the time it cools down, you will need to replace the lid or just put it into the fridge and eat that jar first. Pickles contain vinegar so you don't need to worry about them going bad too quickly if you go this route). Let these sit for at least 1 week before you eat them. This will allow the vegetables to absorb the pickling liquid.
Mixed Pickling Spice Recipe (makes enough for about 20, 1 pint jars)
- 3 tablespoons crushed bay leaves
- 3 tablespoons black peppercorns
- 3 tablespoons whole allspice
- 3 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 3 tablespoons mustard seeds
- 3 tablespoons juniper berries
- 1 tablespoon whole cloves
- 1 tablespoon dill seed
- 1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces (I recommend cinnamon from Sri Lanka or Mexico, as it breaks up more easily)
Put these all into a jar, mix or shake, and store in your cupboard. Note that this is more of an idea for a pre-mix. If you like one spice that isn't in here or don't like one that is, feel free to modify as you wish.
If you want to grow the mexican ghercin cucumber yourself, here is a great
source.