Scotch Bonnet Hot Pickle Relish

My end-of-summer scotch bonnet yield was a neat dozen. I made the third version of hot pepper relish of the season: a sweet hot pickle relish. I hope this one makes us holler.

Scotch Bonnet Pickle Relish

1 large white onion

1 large green bell pepper

4 kirbys

12 scotch bonnet peppers

1 cup cider vinegar

1 cup white vinegar

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

To prepare, put a pot of water up to boil and fill with your jars & lids. For this amount of veggies, I used four small jars. In another pot on the stove, place your vinegars, sugar, and salt. Turn the heat on the vinegar mixture once your veggies are almost finished with the chopping. Next, in a food processor, pulse the white onion a few times and then add the scotch bonnets.

After those are chopped finely, add the green bell pepper and three of the kirbys. It may take a bit of arranging to get stuff chopped uniformly. Because I like a chunkier relish, I diced the last kirby by hand. Once the vinegar mixture has heated, add the chopped veggies to the liquid and bring to a boil. Boil for about two minutes. Strain the relish, reserving the liquid.

Take the boiled jars out of the pot and place on a clean surface. Spoon very wet relish into each jar. If you like your relish a little more liquidy, you can add some of the strained pickle juice. Seal the jars quickly and set to rest until you hear a "pop." That means the jars are sealed and you can put them up. You can eat the relish right away, but it's best in about a week.

Block Party Cubano Tacos

I've lived in the same place for almost 15 years in Brooklyn. Almost every year, our block has a party, but in years' past, I've been too busy to go. Recently, I've attempted to get involved in our newly-formed block association. I attend meetings when I can, but infrequently because of work. This year when the date of the block party was announced, I put it on my calendar and committed to go. Today was the block party, and I have never had more invitations to do different things: my softball team's party, a friend in from out of town, a colleague's birthday party--but I was committed to this block party. And I'm glad I made that decision.

Our block is really unique. There are people who've lived there all their lives, their apartments or houses were passed down through generations. There are entrepreneurs, families, same-sex couples, hipsters. There are people in new apartment buildings (three of them on the block), and some in crumbling brownstones. There's a hot new pie shop on the corner at one end of the block, and a reliable Chinese take-out on the other side that has a ginger and scallion soup that I swear cures the common cold. We have musicians who drum and play guitar on the roof every Saturday night, a motorcycle dude who annoys the hell out of me when he revvs his engine really loud, and the owner and founder of a local brewery. And even though I pass most of them by every day, I don't know very many of them at all.

I decided that I wanted to share my pickles and D's hot sauce this year, and made pernil as the platform. D happened to be away at a concert this weekend, but he cooked up a new batch of sauce and helped me roast the pernil last night. I made some pickles a few weeks ago, and had some pickled onions keeping in the fridge. So I made cubano-tacos: little corn tortilla halves, shredded jack cheese, shredded roast pork, pickle slice, pickled onions, and hot sauce. Folks were grilling with their families in front of their homes, so I went around and introduced myself and asked everyone if they wanted a little taco with some hot sauce.

People were so kind with their compliments and I got to talk to so many of them. My voting rights work, the state of the block's construction, the robust nature of the block association, and what "fracking" means were all little conversations I was able to have all day (D and I have a "no fracking" sign in our third-story window).

If I when I ever launch my pickle business, I'll start my marketing on my own block first.

Where's the Pickles?

There's an ultimate frisbee tournament coming up and I'm fresh out of pickles. If you've ever been to an ultimate frisbee tournament, you've probably seen the guys on the sidelines after a few games chugging pickle juice straight out of the jar. Pickle juice is widely believed by athletes (though not yet scientifically proven) to relieve muscle cramping. I like bringing my homemade pickles to the fields so that after they chug down some neon green Vlasic pickle juice, the guys can enjoy a fresh, tasty, wholesome pickle.

I picked up a few pounds of kirbys today at the Albany Food Co-op, and decided that they deserve not some pre-packaged, stale pickling spice, but a fresh, homemade pickling spice. So I made some. I adapted it from a blog called Girlichef. It's worth making your own pickling spice if only for the smell of the toasted coriander and mustard seeds crushed in a paper bag that will linger in your kitchen.

Juniper Pickling Spice

4 Tbs. whole black peppercorns
4 Tbs. mustard seeds
4 Tbs. coriander seeds
2 Tbs. crushed red chiles
2 Tbs. whole allspice berries
1 tsp turmeric
2 small cinnamon sticks, crushed or broken into pcs.
24 bay leaves, crumbled
2 Tbs. juniper berries
1 Tbs. ground ginger

Lightly toast the first three ingredients in a small dry pan, slide them into a paper sack (like a brown lunch bag), and then roll over them with a rolling pin a few times. Combine cracked spices with remaining ingredients, mixing well. Store in a tightly sealed plastic container or glass jar. Then, make yourself some healing pickles. Best Dill Pickle Recipe as of May 2012 You'll need 4 or more pounds of kirbys; and at least four, if not six, canning jars. Make sure the jars and lids are squeaky clean. Some folks say you have to sterilize them, others take a short cut and put them in a dishwasher. I just do a very thorough wash with hot soapy water right before I begin the process. Soak whole kirbys in ice water for between 2-8 hours Make brine: 4 cups white vinegar 12 cups water 2/3 pickling salt 2 tbsp pickling spice 1 tsp turmeric 3 tbsp sugar Add to each jar: 2-4 cloves of garlic 2-4 sprigs of dill 1 tbsp of pickling spice 1/2 tsp turmeric While bringing the brine to a boil, cut the kirbys into spears. You don't want to do this beforehand because you want the pickles to stay crisp in the ice water til the very end. Pack the spears into the jars, and fill each jar to the top with the well-combined and boiling brine. Screw on the lids, and set onto tea towels until you hear the lids pop. Once they pop, the jars are sealed and can be stored at room temperature. If they don't pop, you need to refrigerate them and use them within a few weeks. Serve fresh from the fridge, or on ice from the jar on the frisbee field. : )

Pickled Red Onions

Soler's Pupusas food truck plates its pupusas with pickled red onions, jalapenos, and sour cream. They're so delicious that we had the proprietor Raphael Soler cater our wedding reception from his truck. Ever since we discovered his pupusas at the Red Hook ballfields, I've been saying that I wanted to make pickled red onions. Awesome in tacos, on arepas, and on top of burgers . . . it took me nearly two years to find the time to make them. A colleague turned me on to David Lebovitz's blog, where I found the best recipe for mint chocolate chip ice cream. I used his blog to find a simple recipe for pickled onions that I was finally able to make this afternoon.

Bread & Butter

Would that making pickles were my bread & butter....particularly small batches like this. We're going camping for the July 4th weekend, so I'm getting some pickles ready for the burgers we'll grill over the fire. These are simple bread and butter pickles that take a few hours to assemble, and then about two weeks to sit.

Bread & Butter Pickles

6 cucumbers
1/4 sliced red bell pepper
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup salt
ice cubes
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp pickling spices
3/4 tsp turmeric

Slice the cucumbers in oblong shapes, thick enough to stay crisp, but thin enough to place in a burger. Slice thinly 1/4 red bell pepper and 1/2 a white onion, then toss with 1/2 cup of salt. Cover the mixture with ice cubes and place in the fridge for at least three hours. The salt will make the vegetables emit water, so you don't need to put any water in with them. When you're ready to drain the pickles, add the cider vinegar, water, sugar, pickling spices, and turmeric into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Drain and lightly rinse the vegetables while you're waiting for the cider mixture to boil. Pack two mason jars full of the vegetables. When the cider mixture has come to a boil, pour the liquid over the vegetables so that they are fully immersed. Tighten the lids on the jars and let sit. After a day or so, you can move them to the fridge and keep until you're ready to use them. Enjoy!

Frisbee Kirbys

D has been playing frisbee since he was like 12 years old. He's been to both national and international championships multiple times. This summer, he joined a Grand Masters team--men over 40--in a tournament in Denver, Colorado. I wanted to do something special to support the new team. A few times, I've brought out big containers of cookies or brownies that they guys munched up after their last game. I wanted to do something healthier this time.

For the past few years, from the sidelines I've seen the guys chugging pickle juice from big jars of Vlasic pickles that they kept in coolers. Apparently, pickle juice helps with muscle cramping in athletes. I don't know if it's the vinegar, or a complex interaction of the ingredients, but I knew what I had to do. (info about the benefits of pickle juice in muscles here). So I made a big batch of kirby dills a few weeks before the tournament, and then packed them very carefully in a big plastic container, quadruple wrapped them, and put them in my checked luggage. I had a lot to think about before this trip--a lot of work stuff going on, things to do....but the safety and security of the pickles on the plane was really my biggest concern. They arrived safely with a very minimal amount of leakage and I brought them out during their second day of play. I think they liked them, though I regret not getting a picture of them digging in to the jar from the sidelines.

D's master's team made it to nationals in Sarasota, Florida this year, and I wanted to send him down with another batch of pickles. I bought about 24 persian cucumbers and socked them in ice water for two days, but then I found myself too busy to finish the picklemaking in time enough for me to be confident in their taste to send them down for the team. I cut them up, packed them in a big glass jar, and they stayed behind when D boarded the plane for Florida.


I wish I would have sent them because they were delicious, and they would have been fine after sitting for a few days in his hotel room. Oh well. Now we have a big old jar of pickles to eat ourselves!

Lamb Patties with Seasoned Yogurt

This is my favorite recipe from the New York Times magazine's Eat, Memory article series: Saratbhai's Shammi Kebabs. I've adapted them somewhat, and even though the recipe is a bit labor intensive, I have made them several times. This time I paired them with some naan and roasted eggplant. Next time, pickled eggplant on the side. I buy lamb from a stand at the Grand Army Plaza Farmer's Market--pricey, but definitely worth it.

Lamb Patties with Seasoned Yogurt

For the lamb
1 lb ground lamb
2 tbsp olive oil, or a blend of canola/olive
6 green cardamom seeds
1 1-inch cinnamon stick
6 whole cloves
1 tsp grated ginger (or more, according to your taste)
2 medium onions, chopped
2 tbsp red/orange lentils
pinches of salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 jalapeno chile pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 beaten egg
1 tbsp roasted chickpea flour or felafel

For the yogurt
1 cup of plain yogurt (non fat or not, your preference)
2 scallions
1 tbsp cilantro, chopped
cumin, coriander, paprika, salt and pepper

Combine the all ingredients up to and including nutmeg in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Boil over medium heat until all of the water is evaporated (about 45 minutes). Be careful to not let the contents burn at the bottom, so stir frequently at the end. Just before all water is evaporated, add the chiles, coriander, cumin, and some salt. Let cool a bit, and remove cloves and cinnamon stick.

Grind the cooked meat mixture in a food processor or mini chopper until it is finely ground, but not completely smooth.

Return the meat to the saucepan and cook over medium heat until the mixture is drier and more pliable, about 10-15 minutes. Let the mixture cool. When cool, stir in cilantro, egg, and flour. Roll the meat into balls and press into patties.

Cook the patties in a cast-iron pan in olive oil. Flip gently, they will be delicate.

Season plain yogurt with cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, and paprika. You can add some chopped scallions and more cilantro if you like, but not necessary.

Serve with a vegetable side and/or naan.

Sweet 'n Sour Mystic Gypsy Pickles

I found 6 mini Hungarian cucumbers at Fairway this weekend, and realized how badly I need to pickle again. We're going to a BBQ this coming weekend and making burgers for everyone (see previous post) and I decided to make some sweet 'n sour pickle slices to go on our burgers.

Sweet 'n Sour Mystic Gypsy Pickles

6 small cucumbers
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 medium red onion
1/2 cup kosher salt
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 tbsp. white mustard seed
1 1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. yellow cider vinegar

Combine cucumbers, onions, peppers with kosher salt and cover for 3 hours. Rinse and drain thoroughly. While the cucumbers are marinating in the salt, combine the sugar, turmeric, ground cloves, white mustard seed, water and vinegar. Bring the syrup mixture to a boil. Once the cucumber mix is rinsed, place the veggies into three medium-sized canning jars. Artfully. Pour the boiling hot mixture over the cucumbers and seal. They're good after a few days of marinating in the juice. Yum!

Single ingredient inspiration

You should always try to use all the leftover ingredients when you're cooking. It can be both the inspiration for a tasty meal the next day, or it can bring back childhood memories of a relative saying, "Eat up! There are children starving in Africa." If you're lucky, both.

D said our meal this evening was not noble enough to warrant blog, but don't worry, I wasn't planning to. (green leaf lettuce salad with mushrooms, grape tomatoes, pepitas, and raisins alongside a big, thick sirloin burger with a side of sauteed onions.)

I just wanted to advance the idea that you can always find use for your leftover onions, chives, scallions, ginger, garlic, or parsley. Or eggplant.

There's about a cup of sauteed onions left from dinner, and I put them in a jar in the fridge to use for tomorrow night's dinner. Sometimes its fun to build a meal around a single ingredient, kind of like a home-version of the Iron Chef. If I had a dedicated fan base, I'd have you all write in with suggestions for how to build a gourmet meal out of leftover sauteed onions, a little bit of feta cheese, and some cabbage. 'Cause that's what's sitting in the fridge.

Crazy Head Parsnips

I really love the farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza in Prospect Park! It was an insane 72 degrees in New York today, so there was no way I could resist doing a run around the park before hitting the market. I got there a little late and wasn't surprised to find that there wan't a whole lot left. I'd hoped to pick up a bunch of ginger and some tiny onions for pickling this weekend, but no luck. Checking out one of my favorite stands that sells root veggies and sprouts, though, I spotted the funniest looking things I've ever seen. They were curly-headed parsnips! (picture to the side on this page)

You can imagine the first thing I thought: pickled parsnips! How crazy it would be to pickle these things...they'd look so cool in the jars. I asked the woman who runs the stand how she cooks them, and she said she'd never heard of picking them, but she likes to soak them for a few hours to get all the dirt out, and then just roast them whole with all the curly stems, which get crispy and crunchy. It's always a good idea to get an idea about the taste of a veggie, I think, before you pickle it, so I set my excitement for pickling aside and took them home to roast for dinner.

That morning over breakfast, I dug out my two old Bon Apetit and Cooking Light magazines to look for a recipe I had seen for a navy bean salad. I found that recipefor Cauliflower, White Bean, and Feta Salad, but also found a recipe for Ponzu-Glazed Flank Steak and decided that's what we would have for dinner. It was delicious, and looked festive and fun on the plate. If we ever did open a restaurant, this could be a good meal for kids. The steak was sweet and tender, the cauliflower salad looked like little clouds on the plate, and the parsnips--we decided we'd call them "crazy head parsnips" might entice even the most veggie-resistant. We drizzled some butter garlic sauce with rosemary over the parsnip heads.

I also picked up two big quinces, and asked the man who ran that stand how to cook them. He said I could treat them just like apples, and I asked him if he'd ever made a crisp out of them. He said he hadn't, he'd made pies, though, but that I would have a hard time doing it. He said I'd end up eating all the quince slices before they made it into the crisp dish! That's the great thing about having a local market like this. You can ask the sellers all kinds of different questions about their produce.....and they always know the answers! I'll be away for the next two weekends, but the next Saturday morning I'm back in Brooklyn, you'll definitely see me up at the market buying a pound of two of crazy head parsnips for pickling!

Pickles and Eastern Europe

I went to a party tonite with old colleagues from an international organization that I used to work with. We were talking about what we were all working on, and I told them that pickling was my new interest. People who live and work in the U.S. and Western Europe were sort of bemused, but you should have seen the gleam in the eyes of people who live and work in Eastern Europe, and Russia in particular. You know why? 'Cause it is COLD there, and in the wintertime, many people don't have access to fresh vegetables; pickled veggies are staples.

So back to the problem of marketing....how do I get these Americans that I know to eat my pickled vegetables. People had several ideas, much better than my idea of buying fancy plates and putting out signs. One woman suggested that I just serve pickled vegetables in place of any other type of vegetable....kind of force my guests to eat them. I liked better the idea of having very small dinner parties, just three or four more people (I actually like to invite 3 single people over for dinner...it's much more interesting than two couples, who often end up talking about themselves and their coupledom). You bring the pickles out as a sort of discussion piece, like artwork. And then you can initiate a conversation about pickles. And I think it's fun to talk about them; everyone has something to say about pickles. Or maybe that's just my perception, and people think I'm crazy when I start talking about them.

Happy New Year!

Whew! I feel like I just got off a rollercoaster after the holidays. Even though I planned to try to take it easy, it seems the hours were filled with making pizelles, potato pancakes with zucchini, and salad for a get-together with D's family, veggie lasagna for my mother and sister who visited during one of the craziest times to come to New York, and french onion soup and braised BBQ short ribs for a New Year's Eve dinner party.

And putting out pickles at every event.

The lesson I learned over the holidays was that I need to present my pickles in a better way so that people want to eat them. Because once they do, they generally love them (although I've gotten quite a few helpful suggestions on how to make them better, too).

I usually put them out on a nice plate, but people don't really know that they are my pickles. So I think maybe putting up a label on a little stand in front of the pickles is the way to go.

I'm excited about the New Year.....there are lots of new pickle recipes to try, and lots of friends on their way to visit with recipes of their own to share with me. If you've got a recipe for a special kind of pickle you can share, please send it to me, I'd love to try it and post the results here.

FRENCH ONION SOUP

2 Spanish onions
2 cans of beef broth (or, for the vegetarians, veggie broth)
1/8 tsp thyme powder
1/4-1/2 tsp pepper (depending on your taste)
pinch of salt
12 thin slices of Swiss cheese (or Gruyere if you want to be fancy)
Sourdough bread (6 pieces, sliced thickly enough to come to the top of a ramekin, and toasted)
Romano or parmesan cheese to grate for the top
4 tbsp butter
6 ceramic ramekins (little soup bowls)

Pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. Slice the onions and saute in the butter for about 20 minutes on low heat so that the onions are tender and creamy, but not brown. Add broth, thyme, pepper, and salt, bring to a boil and then lower heat to simmer for 15 minutes. Toast the bread in the oven (which is at 550) and place the slices in the ramekins. Pour the broth and onion mixture over the bread just as your guests arrive, and layer with 2 slices of cheese each. Grate a bit of the Romano or parmesan on top, and pop in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, or until the cheese gets a little bit brown and bubbly.

Serve steaming hot, but warn your guests about how hot it will be. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

I read an article in a health magazine a few weeks ago that said one way to really get the most out of the holidays was to keep it simple; do less. I tried to keep that in mind over the past two weeks, and one result has been that I haven't posted to my blog.

Last weekend, D. and I pickled. We pickled a lot. As I suspected, it was a clash of the cultures in my kitchen. We both knew that, so he stayed in the living room prepping his vegetables, while I started with the pickled beets. I got the recipe from my friend's girlfriend who said they used to serve it in the restaurant where she worked. You cook the beets (I roasted half and boiled half just to see if they'd be different), and then put salt, black pepper corns, whole coriander, caraway seeds, mustard seeds, and cumin into a mixture of apple cider vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. I got impatient and opened a jar of them just hours after I made them and put a tablespoon of them on top of a wilted arugula salad with feta cheese. They were really good--and they were only half-pickled! I'm thinking of calling them Peace Beets, because she gave me the recipe on the anniversary of John Lennon's murder.

The kitchen was an absolute disaster when I was through and I had to spend quite a bit of time cleaning it up before we could start the major pickling endeavor: 2 dozen quart jars of pickled carrots and pickled roasted veggies.....a mixture we've dubbed "snackles."

D. assembled a mixture of roasted shallots and brussel sprouts, green beans, garlic, and carrots into a dozen quart jars and used my standard dill pickle recipe with a little turmeric. Truth be told, they didn't turn out as good as we had envisioned, I think it's because we used regular distilled white vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar. He also said that maybe we should have used a really high quality vinegar. Maybe I'll try that with a small batch.

Anyway, they were surprising gifts for people for the holidays....some people loved them immediately, others were a little skeptical. If you were one of the recipients of our pickled carrots or snackles, let us know what you thought.

Happy Hanaukkah!

We hit the Farmer's Market early this morning (but not as early as we'd wanted!) for vegetables to pickle for presents. We bought some carrots, brussel sprouts, and beets. They didn't have some of the other vegetables we wanted, so we had to resort to the grocery store for the rest. We're pickling tomorrow....I can feel the energy. Although I have to admit, I'm a little worried about working my pickle magic in the kitchen with D., who is very particular about his cooking style and recipes....he's a scientist; me, I'm more of an artist.

Last night was uncertain because I had conflicting plans, but it turned out that I ended my day near Union Square after having a drink with a friend at a cafe I'd never been to: 71 Irving. I stopped off at Whole Foods before jumping on the train to Brooklyn to get some fish and vegetables. I had an idea from the Bon Apetit magazine that I had just gotten in the mail. There was an article about how eating farm-raised fish is better for the environment than wild ones, and after just seeing Happy Feet, I was all for contributing to the well-being of penguins (and everybody else). The article said that tilapia, in particular, is a good farm-raised fish because the water it's raised in is rich in nutrients that are good for us, too.

I didn't remember the recipe exactly, so I just picked up a few things that I thought I would need and headed home. I cut up some carrots and elephant garlic and started roasting them in the oven. Then I flash-fried two pieces of tilapia with salt and pepper and set them aside. I sauted a bunch of broccoli rabe and set that aside as well. I simmered about 3/4 cup of balsamic vinegar with some chopped up garlic and set that aside. I also decided to fry some shallots to put on top of the fish. I called D. and told him the only thing I was missing was butter, so he brought some over. I put the broccoli rabe in the casserole dish in the oven with the roasted carrots and garlic, and put the fish on top. I popped it in the oven at 350 F and stirred 1/2 c of butter into the balsamic vinegar mixture, which I reheated.

I served the fish on top of the vegetables, drizzled the balsamic-butter vinegar on top, and then sprinkled some fried shallots on top. What a great meal! And it paired nicelyl with a wine called Echelon (2005 Pinot Noir, Central Coast, Sacramento, CA, hints of cherry and clove.

D. and I wondered whether ginger might have been a good spice to add. Next time.

"I never get tired of turkey"

That's what my mother used to say after Thanksgiving.....and twelve nights of croquettes, soup, sandwiches, etc. etc. etc. Well, I did get tired of turkey, so I threw all of our leftovers in the freezer and wondered if I'd ever have the stomach for them again. I knew it would be a late night, so I took out the leftover breast from Thanksgiving yesterday morning to eat last night for dinner. All I can say is I will never NOT brine poultry. I could not believe how moist it was! A few slices with some toasted pita, babaganoush, and olives made for a light tasty dinner.

Now....onto the subject that really matters: pickles! Friends keep sending me recipes and websites of homemade pickle sellers. One company had even SOLD OUT of their pickles for the holidays! So is there or isn't there room in the market for a novice start-up pickle maker with a lot of passion? I've got about 6 recipes I've made so far, and ideas and recipes from friends that will give me 6 more--a dozen products in my catalogue! Well, we'll see how the Christmas pickling goes, and maybe I'll ask all of my recipients to post their comments to this site. Tomorrow D. and I have promised one another we will get up super early and get to Grand Army Plaza for the Farmers' Market to see what kinds of great pickling produce we can score. Wish me luck!

Finding Baby Carrots

I’m experimenting with pickling carrots. The first time I tried, I used a standard dill pickle recipe when I found a lonely little bunch of fresh baby carrots at the Farmers Market at Grand Army Plaza one Saturday afternoon in September. They were so cute! About 2-2 ½ inches long, with friendly green leafy stalks, they fit perfectly into those 8 oz. canning jars. One bunch made about three jars, and they looked so appealing standing up amidst the dill, garlic, peppercorns, and other pickling spices. I kept my eyes open for another bunch of baby carrots in the weeks after, but didn’t see any. Unfortunately, I rarely get up early on Saturdays, so I never get to the Farmers’ Market before noon. I usually bring a collapsible shopping bag and wear it in a zippered bag around my waist while I run from the 9th Street entrance to Prospect Park all the way to Grand Army Plaza. Then I stop to catch my breath, sample the wine and fresh free range turkey, and start my weekly produce shopping.

I realized that if I wanted perfect baby carrots fresh, I’d have to get up earlier and get there before the run. I haven’t been able to do it yet, but I did get there by 10:30 one morning before Thanksgiving because I wanted to bring a festive jar of carrots to friends as a thank-you gift for letting us use their country home for our holiday weekend. I hit the jackpot. I found three stalls that were selling tricolor baby carrots! I’d never seen anything like them. They were bunches of yellow, red, and plain ol’ orange carrots. I brought about four bunches home and prepared three for canning. I made 3 big jars, and 3 little jars, of dilled carrots in cider vinegar. I actually forgot to give them to my friends, so they’re sitting, sealed, in my guest room, but I did bring a jar with me to a work event the weekend before last and my colleagues loved them!

We’re thinking of making jars of pickled carrots for our friends and co-workers for Christmas this year, and I’m dreading having to get up before 9 am on cold Brooklyn morning next weekend. But I think it will be well worth the sacrifice, and we can always come back and go back to the warm and cuddly bed!

Vinegar and the TSA, or “computer says no.”

I was away for a few days staying in a house in Florida with a few work colleagues, and I had brought small jars of my pickled carrots, relish, and cranberry chutney with me to complement some of our home-cooking. We had a lot of food and ingredients left over, so I shipped most of my clothes back to New York, and packed the leftover food, including a half-used jar of cider vinegar, in my suitcase, which I had planned to check. For reasons not entirely within my control, I was a bit late to the airport. I returned the rental car at about 3:45, and got to the Delta ticket counter at around 4:05. My flight was to leave at 5 pm, but since I’d changed my ticket that morning from a 12:30 pm flight to this one, I wasn’t able to access it at the kiosk. So I stood in a very long line, nervously checking the time and watching the two Delta counter people help what seemed like endless streams of clueless families with too much luggage.

I was finally called to the counter at 4:17, and the man told me that I was too late to check my baggage. I said I was only TWO MINUTES late, and he looked at me helplessly and said, “The computer won’t let me do it.” Any of you familiar with the British comedy show Little Britain will recognize this normally hilarious, but this time infuriating, response. So I had to carry on my suitcase. He told me I would have to throw away any liquids in my carry-on, or fly out the next morning.

There was absolutely NO WAY I was staying in Oakland, Florida for one minute longer (too many creepy Mickey Mouse faces everywhere!) so I just ran to security to get to my gate. I figured, let these jokers earn their paycheck and ferret out all the liquid in my suitcase. In fact,, I thought, this will be a good test for this crazy TSA.

I dutifully removed my shoes, bracelets, and sweatshirt, and placed my laptop, handbag, and suitcase on the conveyor belt. When I went through the metal detector, a TSA guy was standing with his rubbed gloved hands on my suitcase. I nodded and said that’s mine. I tied my sneaker laces and watched as he opened it. My travel toiletry bag was on top, so easy I bet he thought, and he started to throw things in the bin for disposal: about $35 worth of stuff! I zipped up my suitcase and got to the gate with 10 minutes to spare.

I hate being such a conspiracy theorist, but it has just GOT to be the case that the feds have some kind of a deal with the cosmetics company. Tons and tons of money will be spent replacing stuff like this. I’m trying to temper my frustration with Delta (One, why weren’t there more counter people; and two, why wasn’t there someone there herding people who were running late through the line like American Airlines does?) because it’s in bankruptcy and the employees own the airline. Does anyone think that the TSA will change with the Dems in power?

And finally, how lazy can these TSA people be? They looked in the most obvious place and found what they were looking for. It was almost with sadistic joy that this guy pulled my stuff out and threw it away. But just underneath the toiletries bag were four jars of very suspicious-looking liquids—my leftover pickled carrots, chutney, relish, and a half a bottle of vinegar! How safe does THAT make you feel?

Five Little Scotch Bonnets

One of my best friends from law school lives in Queens now, and I’ve only ever seen his apartment three times in the eight years we’ve lived in New York: once when he moved in—we’d rented a truck together from Buffalo and drove down with all of our stuff, but I was only there for about a half and hour stropping off his stuff. The next time, he cajoled me to come out to Queens for dinner when his partner was out of town. He’d told me back in July that he and L., his partner, grew Scotch Bonnet peppers in their apartment over the summer, and there they were in his kitchen: 4 huge, beautiful plants! L. is from the Islands, so he made all kinds of delectable sauces and oils with the peppers (and put them in really cool jars, too!) Now I like hot food, and I can really dig me some hot sauce, but they were all too hot for me. From what I’ve been told, Scotch Bonnets are really the hottest, but I seem to remember being told that habaneras are hotter….hmm?

As I was running out the door to the taxi after a chill evening of beef stew and red wine, my friend handed me a plastic baggie with five little Scotch Bonnet peppers.

I didn’t have time over the next few days to do anything with them, so in my fridge they sat. One Saturday afternoon, I decided that I wanted to make hot pepper relish, so I looked through my favorite websites, Epicurious.com, chef.com, and my favorite cooking bible: The Joy of Cooking. When I cut up the Scotch Bonnets, my whole kitchen was infused with the vapors from the peppers. My eyes were literally watering by the time I was done. So I ran out to the store, and bought some tomatillos, poblanos, and some more green bell peppers to add to the mix. I simmered the little flecks of yellow and red S.B.s with the bell peppers, onions, poblanos, tomatillos, in their own juices and little bit of water. I poured the mixture out 10 4 oz. quilted canning jars, and then poured a just-starting-to-boil mixture of cider vinegar and sugar over the pepper mixture. I sealed the jars, and then placed them all in a pot of boiling water to seal them for about 10 minutes. Voila! Hellfire Hot Pepper Relish!

We’ve used the relish on fish, in a mayonnaise-based sauce for salmon, on sirloin burgers, and on chicken. I brought a little jar to a cocktail party at the home of a doctor friend, and people spread it on crackers with hummous, cheese, and olives. I’m in Florida on a work trip right now and I brought a jar down in my checked luggage, and I plan to use it on steaks we cook on the outdoor grill. Yummy! I am definitely adding this relish to the list of products in my future line….

how i got started making pickles, and why making pickles matters

My boyfriend and I were at grand army plaza in Brooklyn one Saturday in September and I spotted a barrel of little cucumbers and I had a flash of memory of watching my mother making dill pickle spears in our kitchen in Mechanicsburg, PA. He’s a trained chef, and so I always turn to him for culinary answers. I said, “Do you think I could make pickles?” He said “sure!” I asked him what I needed and he said I probably had everything in my kitchen. I have a really well-stocked kitchen because I cook and entertain a lot, so when I went home, I consulted my Joy of Cooking and the internet, and by 7 when he came over, I had a batch of sweet and sour pickle slices, and a batch of dill pickles—all in old jars I had gotten from my mother, filled with her homemade jam or spaghetti sauce. They were beautiful (see picture). And, in a few days, I found, they were delicious. I was hooked. The next week, D. showed up with a Brooklyn magazine, Edible Brooklyn, with an article about two guys who started their own pickle businesses in Brooklyn—in their own small kitchens very much like mine. There was a recipe for dill pickles generously provided by one of the guys, and for my next few batches, I used it.

I used to be such a workaholic--I never spent any time on things that I enjoyed apart from work. There was a time that my only hobbies were work-related. So it's been really precious everytime I find something that is so far from work related that I love to do. I also love the fact that it was a childhood memory that got me pickling, and I love the fact that I’ve been finding great fresh local vegetables in my own neighborhood in Brooklyn to make them.