Pickles

Pickles - Photo:Chad

I have never made so many different things in the kitchen at one time, with no intentions of eating them immediately, as I did Saturday after the farmer’s market.  I had two and a half hours from when I got home till I had to be at work.  Needless to say, the race was on.

I started by making pesto using the remaining basil from our patio garden and the bunch I bought from the Wednesday farmer’s market.  The recipe I found was from Cook’s Illustrated (July, 1996) and featured both toasted pine nuts and roasted garlic.  I used the soft fresh garlic from Sutter Ridge farm, and the smell that floated through the house as the garlic caramelized in its skin was amazing.  I also used some of the Romano from Farmer John’s, which added a little more bite than the recommended parmesan usually does. The entire process took about 30 minutes and resulted in a half dozen small containers that were immediately placed into the freezer for future use.

Next I prepped my new jar for my stab at Alton Brown’s pickles, sterilizing it and letting it cool.  Meanwhile, I cleaned the cukes and prepared the seasoning.  When the jar was cooled, I started layering in the cucumbers and, to my dismay, found that the three pounds filled it to the brim!  I should have gone with the two gallon jar, but it was too late and anticipation had gotten too high.  I followed the rest of the recipe, adding the brining solution and covered the surface with a ziplock (filled with more solution) to keep the cucumbers submerged.  Lacking a cool place to store the pickles, I resorted to a small cooler, with a couple ice packs in it to keep the temperature down.  Now the waiting game begins… 3 days before I move on to the next step!

The last thing I wanted to start before heading to work was a batch of dried apricots.  I love the sweet chewy ones that you can get at the store and thought I’d take a stab at my own.  I cut the apricots that I had gotten from Door County Fruit Market in half, removing the tiny pit, dipped them in a lemon water solution to help prevent browning and left for work.

Needless to say I had a few dishes to do when I got home.  I’ll let you know how everything turned out in a future post.

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