Pickled Heirloom Baby Carrots

Market Baby Heirloom Carrots

I have never managed to grow carrots in my country garden, so when I saw these beautiful baby carrots at the market this Saturday I bought them immediately.  The reds and yellows and oranges of the heirloom carrots were so vibrant that I wanted to preserve them and save some for the winter.  

2 bunches of baby carrots
2 small cloves of garlic
2 small Thai hot peppers
1 1/2 cups of cider vinegar
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp of pickling salt
2 tbsp of finely chopped fresh oregano

Cut tops off of carrots leaving about a half inch of the green stem on the carrot.  Carefully scrub the carrots clean with an abrasive cloth.  Sterilize 2 - 8oz jars.  Place a pepper, a garlic clove, and half of the oregano in each of the jars.  Carefully pack the jars with the scrubbed carrots with the point down.

Bring vinegar, water, sugar and salt to a boil.  Pour over carrots, filling jars to 1/2 inch from the top.  Seal the jars and process in boiling water for 15 minutes.   The red from some of the carrots bled, resulting in the pink pickle juice.

Lemon Pepper Pickled Green Beans

This spring, Denis brought me Haricot Vert seeds to plant in my country garden.  Denis, who has strong French Canadian roots, swears that they are the only type of green bean worth planting. For the past few weeks I have been harvesting a bounty of his beautiful green beans, long straight and skinny.  

I had two favourite recipes for pickled green beans until last winter, when Cathy visited and brought her Dilled green beans which she claims she made from a recipe in a book I gave her twenty years ago. What a memory!!  Now, I have three favourites; in addition to Cathy's Dill version, I also make a lemon and hot pepper version inspired by a recipe in Small Batch Preserves and a horseradish version that has evolved from a recipe I cut from a magazine years ago.

Denis' Pickled Lemon Chili Pepper Green Beans,  and Not Denis' Yellow Beans 

Lemon Pepper Green Bean Pickles

2 pounds of french green beans
2 1/4 cups of cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups of water
1 tbsp of pickling salts
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of pickling spice
3 small red hot peppers.  I like to use the Tai peppers
1 organic lemon
3 one pint preserving jars

Wash and trim beans to fit length of jars.  Mine are 4 inches long.
Peel  6 or 7 thin long strips of rind from the lemon, taking care to include none of the white pith and set aside.

Combine vinegar, water, juice from lemon, salt and sugar in medium stainless steel pan and bring to a boil.  Add beans and bring to boil for 1minute. Remove from heat and drain, reserving liquid.  Bring liquid to boil again.

In sterilized jars, place 1tsp (5ml) of pickling spice, one pepper and a couple of the strips of lemon rind rind into each jar.  Pack beans into jars, standing length wise and pour liquid into jars to 1/4 inch from top of jar. Process for 10 minutes.

Note: the quicker you get the beans into the jars and process,  the greener the beans remain.

Golden Moroccan Spiced Beet Pickles

I make Christmas Spiced Beet Pickles every year and always run out before the next beet season.  As soon as the first beets came out of the garden,  I preserve a new batch. This year, in addition to the more traditional red beets I grow every year,  I also had some golden beets, and thought I would experiment with the golden beets.  The designer in me liked the idea of star anise against the golden background of the beets.  I make a roasted vegetable dish with star anise and cinnamon and thought the combination might work well with beets also.  The first batch was a bit too acidic. Apple cider vinegar and raw sugar rounded the second batch out.

Golden Moroccan Spiced BeetPickles, with Christmas Spiced Red Beets behind

Ingredients for Golden Moroccan Spiced Beet Pickles

• 2 pounds of golden beets
• 2 cups of Demerara sugar
• 2 cups of apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 of a cup of water
• 2 cinimon sticks
• 4 star anise
• 12 pepper corns
• 4 small bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons of pickling salt
• 4 one pint preserving jars

Prepare beets, cutting off tops to within an inch of the beet, leave root attached. Put in stainless steel pot and bring to boil,  reduce to simmer and cook for 25 to 50 minutes, until cooked.  Mean while, sterilize bottles, and put  1/2 a teaspoon of pickling salt, 3 pepper corns, 1/2 a cinnamon stick, a bay leaf, and one star anise in each bottle.  

Remove beets from water and rinse under cool water.  Peel beets and cut into bite size pieces. Tightly pack bottles with beets, to within 1/2"of top of bottle. 

Combine water, sugar and vinegar, in stainless steel pan and bring to boil.  Fill bottles to within 1/4 inch of top with syrup and put lids on bottles. Process for 30 minutes.

Cool and store in dark place.  Best after two weeks.  

Note: for my red Christmas beets, substitute 4 cloves and 2 all spice berries in each jar for the star anise.  I also use white sugar and white vinegar, rather than the demerara sugar and cider vinegar. 

Pickled Asparagus with Lemon and Pepper

As spring progressed to summer and the asparagus season looked like it might be coming to an end,  I was running out of time to preserve asparagus.  At the same time my spring onions were prolific.  

Pickled asparagus with lemon and pepper

• 2 bunches, about 3" in diameter of freshly picked asparagus
• 4 to 6 spring onions including white part of stock,  (I grow multipliers in my garden which are perfect at the same time that the asparagus is ready to harvest) Alternately, often, young garlic with stocks are available at the market at his time of year
• 2 tablespoons of pickling salt
• 1 1/2 cups of white vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups of white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup of water
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• juice form 1 lemon
• thin lemon slices
• thinly sliced lemon peel 
• pepper corns

• 2 wide mouthed 1 pint preserving bottles, sterilized

Cut asparagus to 3/4" shorter than bottle.  Pack bottles with asparagus spears with tip down.  Include a two or 3 early spring onions including white part of stalks and 3 or 4 slices of lemon in each bottle. Add 1 teaspoon of pepper corns  and lemon peel to each bottle.In non reactive pot, bring vinegars, salt and sugar to a boil.  Add lemon juice.  Fill bottles to within 1/2 inch of top.  Screw on lid and process for 10 minutes.  

Pickled Wild Leeks or Ramps

My daughter came up north this weekend, and since there were still morels on the front lawn, and lots of wild leeks in the woods, suggested a repeat performance of last week's dinner, complete with cheese.  Because Claire has been off dairy lately, I hadn't anticipated this and was short of Parmesan cheese.  This tuned out to be one of those happy accidents because this week's risotto turned out to be better than last week's.  I am not sure about blog etiquette, however, I have gone back and adjusted the risotto recipe to reflect the reduced cheese.

When digging leeks for the risotto, I noticed the first of the buds were starting to form on the ramps.  This is the first sign of the end of the leek season. Time is running out to preserve ramps, so picked Ramps became the weekend project.

Pickled Wild Leeks (Ramps) will turn a pale pink as they age

I like to pickle the leek bulbs with no seasoning, to allow for more flexibility when using them later. I save the leek greens to use in salads or sauté and serve as a side.

Ingredients

• 50 to 60 wild leeks
• 1/2 cup of white vinegar
• 1/3 cup of rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 250 ml wide mouthed canning jars

Clean wild leeks and cut off greens just above the bulb. Save greens for another use.
Place leek bulbs in a sterilized jar.
Mix vinegars, salt and sugar together in a stainless steel pot and bring to the boil.
Fill jar to 1/2" from top and screw on lid.
Process jar in boiling water for 20 minutes. Tighten lid and store in a dark place until ready to use.  These are best after a couple of weeks.


If you are pickling more than a few bottles, experiment with different spices in some of the bottles.  A half teaspoon of picking spices with a small Tai chili pepper in each  bottle works well.  


And it goes without saying that it is very important to only harvest a very small portion of any wild leek patch, as they take years to develop.  I have read, I forget where, that a large leek bulb may be 20 years old.  I transplanted a patch of wild leeks from the country to the city under some large trees, and while they come up every year, the patch is only a tiny bit larger after 5 years.