That's a Dilly of a Pickle!

Hi diddily ho bloggerinos!    We're both huge fans of pickles, and since we got a few kirby cucumbers in our last share, it seemed like the perfect time to try to make them. We searched the interwebs for some recipes and settled on this one and this one, plus we added a few of our own spices.

Start by washing your cucumbers, and making sure they don't have any dirt on them. Since our jars are still full of kimchi and saurkraut and we don't have canning supplies, we just used a plastic container with a lid.  Any airtight container should work, as long as it's been sterilized.

For the pickling liquid, we mainly followed Alton Brown's suggestions...mixing up a brine, though we did add a splash of vinegar.  For spices, we roughly chopped up about 6 cloves of garlic, and added in red chili flake, mustard seeds, carraway seeds, black peppercorns and a whole bunch of dill.

Once your spices are in your container, stuff your cucumbers in there.  You want to make sure they are nice and snug in the container.  Then, pour in your brine so the cucumbers are completely submerged.  If the cucumbers are nice and snug, they're less likely to float to the top when you pour in your brine.  Then just place your lid on the container, and make sure you get as much air out of it as possible.

Now you'll have to be patient, and let your cucumbers pickle.  Store them in a cool dry place.  We just placed ours in one of the kitchen cabinets, away from the stove.  After about 3 days, you'll notice bubbles rising to the top of your container.  This is proof that fermentation has begun, and you're on your way to having pickles!  If you notice any scum forming in the top of your pickling liquid, wipe it off immediately.  We noticed some white film on one of our pickles, so we wiped it off with a paper towel that was soaked in a little vinegar.

Fermentation should be complete in about 6-7 days, once the bubbles stop rising and your pickles taste sour.  Then transfer them to the refrigerator, and start to enjoy them!  If any of the pickles get soft or start to smell funny, you should discard them.  Ours came out nice and garlicky, with a slight heat to them.  They're the perfect snack or or sandwich companion!

That's What I'm Talkin' 'Kraut

You've seen us mention our homemade sauerkraut here and here, so I guess its about time we tell you how we made it.  Its actually a really easy process that takes little to no time at all.  We consulted our good friend, Alton Brown, for a recipe and he didn't lead us astray.

We've received a lot of cabbage lately, and sauerkraut is a great way to use it since it just gets better over time.  You really just need 3 ingredients: cabbage, Kosher salt, carraway seeds.

Step 1: Slice, dice, chop your cabbage however you like it.
Step 2: Mix in the Kosher salt and carraway seeds.  We didn't have juniper berries, so we omitted them, and it still came out tasting great.

Step 3: Toss the cabbage around so the salt and carraway are thoroughly mixed in.
Step 4: Pack the cabbage into air tight containers.  Since Mason jars are now being hoarded by hipsters, we had to come up with an alternative for storing and fermenting our cabbage.  The first time we made it, we packed it all into a plastic container.  Since the cabbage didn't fill the space, and you need everything packed air tight, we filled a ziploc bag with water and placed that on top of the cabbage to keep it packed down.  This time around, I'd picked up some jars from Ikea that we packed the cabbage in.

Step 5: Place your cabbage in a cool place to ferment.  I stored mine in the pantry where it will sit and ferment in peace and quiet.  The salt will draw the water out of the cabbage, and after a week or two, the cabbage will be submerged in the water where it will just hang out and get sour.  As the water is drawn out of the cabbage, make sure its still packed tightly in your container.  After about a week, we were able to combine our 2 jars of cabbage into just 1, to make sure things stayed nice and tight.Now you can put it in the fridge and use as needed.  The longer you let it sit, the more sour and delicious it will get.

Our first batch is pretty perfect right now, and we've had it for almost 2 months.  The cabbage still has some bite to it, along with the sour tang from fermenting.  Now that we've mastered sauerkraut, I want to try experimenting with pickling other veggies.  Stay tuned!