One day last summer I was wandering through the Vashon Island Farmers’ Market and I caught sight of the odd little green things above. To be honest, I thought they looked like miniature watermelons, ready to serve up at a dollhouse picnic. Lilliputian melons.
But ever since my experience with the kiwi berries, I stop and try. I’m still kicking myself for missing out of half the kiwi berry season because I didn’t investigate these small green delights.
And in fact, the basket of green mini-watermelons looked somewhat similar to the kiwi berries. Perhaps this was a different variety that fruited in summer? I had to find out.
Turns out they were mini cucumbers—Mexican sour gherkins. They were grown by Island Meadow Farm, as an experiment. This is what I love about small farmers, they’re the type of folks who will grow a Mexican sour gherkin, just to see how it tastes and how it does in their climate and soil. They’re willing to take on a few experiments, and we get to benefit from their curiosity and whimsey.
Tiny in size, the gherkins were softer than a cornichon, but apparently good for pickling. Since my new resolution is to try everything once, especially the unusual things, I bought a basket and took it home with me.
Eaten raw they were fine—a bite of juicy, refreshing cucumber flavor. I didn’t notice anything very “sour” about them. They were fresh and clean tasting: cucumber flavor in convenient, one bite packaging.
I decided to pickle them, and that’s mostly what I want to talk about today: pickling. I’ve made my share of dill pickles at this point, sweet and sour ones as well. Pickling is often an end-of-summer sort of activity—canning up all those cucumbers while they are in season, stocking up for the winter ahead. But really, pickling doesn’t need to be that labor intensive, and it doesn’t need to be confined to some hot day in August or September.
You can pickle so many vegetables. How about carrots, or beets, or onions, or even Jerusalem artichokes? Brandon—he of Orangette and Delancey fame—once gave me a jar of Jerusalem artichokes pickled in a sweet-sour brine with slivers of shallots, thyme, and red peppers that were so good I’ve kept the brine in a bottle so that some day I can recreate that flavor. There are so many things you can pickle.
I’m talking refrigerator pickles here, not canning or otherwise sealing the jars. If the brine you use has enough salt and vinegar, and you keep it in the fridge with the vegetables fully submerged, you can be fairly well assured that they are going to be safely preserved. Naturally, if you find your pickles developing mold, scum on the surface, changing smell or color significantly, you’ll know they’ve gone off and want to throw them out.
Between you and me, a batch of pickles never lasts that long in my house.
That’s what I did with the Mexican sour gherkins. I poured a hot brine over them, added some garlic and fresh coriander seed from the garden. Then I let the salt and the vinegar do its work, and waited a few days. Honestly, the hardest part of the process is waiting.
What came out, after a reasonable number of days had passed, was a sheer delight. The gherkins are fairly juicy, so every piece was a burst of pickle flavor in the mouth, which surprised and pleased me to no end. While most of them were popped straight into mouth, they would make a dandy addition to some cocktail—a martini, perhaps. They’re just tiny enough to add a few to a nice drink.
If I could give you any advice it would be this:
• Try the odd things you find at the farmers’ market. How else will you know what goodness you might be missing?
• Try pickling something. It’s much easier and more rewarding than you think. It might even become a passion.
[I'm not the only one falling for Mexican sour gherkins. Check out this post on Diary of a Locavore.]
BASIC PICKLING BRINE
You can go all sorts of directions with a pickling brine—sweet and sour, sour and spicy, the sky’s the limit. This is a basic framework to get you started. Feel free to add whatever herbs/spices you’d like. Garlic adds flavor, peppers add heat. Play and have fun.
2 quarts water
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup salt (make sure it fully dissolves)
In a large enough saucepan, add the ingredients and bring to a strong simmer, stirring until the salt has all dissolved.
Thoroughly wash whatever vegetable you wish to pickle, and cut into small pieces if necessary (should probably not be thicker than one inch).
Place vegetables in an impeccably clean glass container (submerge in a pot of boiling water, or run through a dishwasher and remove hot). Add any garlic or herbs, as desired.
Add hot brine until it covers the vegetable entirely. No bit should break the surface of the brine.
Allow to cool, cover, put in fridge. You’ll want to wait a few days for the to flavor develop before eating.
Can be kept in fridge for a few months—so long as no mold, scum, spoiling occurs. Monitor regularly and discard if there is any cause for concern.
Twitter
Flickr
RSS
umm thy look good pickled,..:-)
I love this post, because I love pickled things. Pickled small onions being my favourite. Like you, I am going to attempt to try everything new!
so cool…love learning about new ingredients that I have never seen and your pickling idea looks great…
I will admit I got pretty excited when I read that they were mini watermelons…
Joel
Aren't they adorable. I too love the notion of trying something different from my local growers. You just never know what pure pleasure you might experience.
I'm delighted you decided to pickle them via the refrigerator. I can just never bring myself to pickle anything any other way.
Thank you so much for sharing…I'm adding your link to my search engine so I drop by more often…
This is such an encouraging tale of market inspiration. I agree that these pickled lovelies would make a fine addition to a dirty martini (the more brine in my martini, the happier I am!). I pickled cherries last year and adored the sweet and sour combo. Seems it's time again to explore a new ingredient for pickling…
Pickles! Yay! I just made Danny and Shauna's pickled vegetables for carnitas tacos and I cannot. Stop. Eating. Them. Salt sugar mustard seed apple cider vinegar cabbage carrots cucumber and jalapeño. So good, got to remember to keep some sort of pickle all the time.
I saw those little cucumbers in a seed catalog! I am glad you got to try them. I need more sun and less neighbors trees so that I can try growing more things.
Hi Tea and Cookies,
Pardon, but the ratio isn't listed for the white vinegar?
Those sound delicious though!
I've never seen those pickles before, and I also thought they were little watermelons!
My family loves pickles, they don't last long in my house either. My husband gravitates to anything salty and doused with vinegar! I'll have to try this out even if I cannot find gherkins.
Funny you should post this today. I'm planning to make pickles this weekend. However, it won't be with petite Mexican Gherkins. I've never seen anything like them before. Will be on the lookout at our Farmer's Market.
Thanks for sharing!
Susan
Tea,
I meant to ask you this question for a long time, about the glass that you used in this post. I found the glass but no covers, can you let me know where i can find them. I live in the bay area.
thank you very much! Love your site, give me joy daily.
Connie
Ginny–thank you for pointing that out! Now fixed.
CK–thanks for the kind words. Crate and Barrel has the covers in the Bay Area (probably cheapest in the Berkeley outlet store). They come in two sizes, so make sure you get the right one. I use mine constantly.
OMG, I want those so I can do some sort of dish that pairs them with watermelon. Too cool.
I think pickles are the new bacon.
I heard about those gherkins being used in some SanFran resto -sorry, I forget the name- and I was intrigued, and then I saw them in a seed catalogue this past week…. I think I may have to try them out in my garden…
Love this post. Makes me want to pickle everything. And also get those glasses with the lids.
"Artichoke pickle" — Jerusalem artichokes — was a standard in my grandmother's Georgia kitchen, from the bank outside where they were planted to control erosion: they are notorious "spreaders" with roots that hold the soil. She preferred to grate (large hole on the grater) them and make a sort of relish with spices and little hot peppers. Other people cut them into uniform shapes. They're crisp and quite wonderful as condiments with pork and poultry, especially. Glad to see someone praising them!
I'm so excited…'make pickles' is on my 30 things to do while I'm 30 list…it's so easy! now…what to pickle?
I started the pickling phase at our house but my husband has taken it over … we pickle all sorts. Our current fave is dill green tomatoes (in a no vinegar brine).
But now I need to find those baby watermelons. Thanks for the inspirtion.
I love the fact that you are up to trying something new. I can imagine what the taste of those pickles were like. Kudos, and good job to you!
i love, love, love these little things. we've been experimenting with them too!
http://www.diaryofalocavore.com/2009/09/since-day-one.html
I pickled a pint of those sour gherkins last summer (I'm deeply jealous that you're able to get them right now) and they were SO GOOD! I particularly love how they pop when you bite into them.
Your photos are gorgeous, and I love your jars! I've canned lots of stuff, but I haven't pickled – yet…
I've pickled some onions but never anything else. My mother did it all the time. I loved your posting because it's encouraging me to try and giving me all sorts of ideas.
Love your photos (and your glasses) and you make it all look so simple.
Yum, I'm inspired! Especially because I just ate three store-bought dill pickles with lunch and felt like I could eat the entire jar. These look much better.
Those cucumbers are adorable. I was going to guess they were baby zucchini.
I make the Vietnamese carrot and daikon pickle, which I see you also made. It's quick and easy and goes well with lots of things.
I also make kimchi at least monthly, but that is a different process altogether.
When I'm in a market or grocery store I tend to look at everything and love to buy something new every week or so.
But, I still haven't gotten my hands on those kiwi berries, unfortunately! Happy weekend, Tea.
I wish I would have pickled some of the delicious, extra-crunchy "poona kheera" cucumbers that I helped grow at my CSA this summer (I think it's an Indian variety). If you've never had them, you should check them out — but be warned: they are somewhat ugly, at least as cucumbers go. They're a yellowish brown when ripe, and very short, so they kind of look like a cucumber that never developed properly and then started to rot. But they're crunchy and juicy and I bet they'd make fabulous pickles.
Thanks for the support & kind words! Glad that you were inspired by these little gherkins. For those interested in growing them, we got them from Fedco Seeds in Maine.
I have grown these for two years and we love them. We have only ate them raw, but tomorrow I'm doing this, thanks for this great post!!
Andrea
Hi Tea: I am so excited to discover your site and even more excited to find this brine. I do have a question. My kitchen is laden with green tomatoes and I am about to pickle a ton. Can I use this brine in a water bath? I am new to canning and pickling so it is all fun to me!!
Love it! Can't waitto try on my freshly picked peppers and tomatoes!
Onequestion though, which oft hose components makes it more sour?
Radiance–my friends have posts on pickling green tomatoes. I have never tried it myself:
http://whiteonricecouple.com/recipes/pickled-green-tomatoes/
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2010/10/pickled-green-tomatoes.html
Good luck!
Anon–the vinegar makes it sour (and is essential for preservation of the food). I'm not sure how it would go if you increased vinegar content (and definitely don't decrease it, it won't work to preserve). You might want to check out some recipes for extra sour dills, if you're looking for more sour flavor. I've never made them myself.