A Day of Pickling: Homemade Dills, Pickled Radishes, and Sauerkraut

Every once in a while, I get hit with this wave of "DO ALL THE THINGS!"  On this particular day, I had tiny cucumbers--so when I started the day, my only plan was to make pickles. I've made my garlic dill pickles plenty of times--pretty easy peasy.

Maybe too easy.  Because then I was like, "hrm...I still have more free time, and the kid is still asleep....what else can I make???"

We had some red cabbage that needed to be used up, so I thought, "how hard is it to make sauerskraut?"

The answer?  Not hard at all.  Pretty ridiculously easy, actually.

Step 1: Chop up cabbage & add some salt.
Step 2: Give it a massage.

Step 3: Put it all into a sterilized jar, cover it with a full cabbage leaf, press it down, and put it in a dark place for 3 days. Vent once a day so the jar doesn't explode.  

Step 4: Stick it in your fridge and enjoy!

Step 5: Nom on various things, but mostly brats.  Or, just eat it with your hands, like our kid does.

Lil' Man decided to help himself while I was doing my photo shoot.

Then, once I had my jar o' cabbage tucked away in the pantry, I still had some time left (and some random jelly jars), so I thought "well...those radishes in the crisper really need to get used up too."

Turns out, pickling radishes is also stupid-easy.

And they're amazing.  Especially with something that's fatty or sweet (or both) to add a nice contrast of bite.  I made some garlic beef & broccoli lo mein earlier this week and served these on the side. A perfect compliment.

So now we have a fridge full of pickled things.  It's a pretty tasty place to be.

Adventures in Pepper Jelly: aka Smoked Pineapple Jalapeno Refrigerator Jam

As I mentioned in my last post, we were recently bestowed with an ENORMOUS stockpile of jalapenos & banana peppers.  I decided, "hey, I've never made pepper jelly before, and I have a Cajun food blog--I think it's about time!"

And so began my adventure.  Let's just state for the record--I have little to no jelly-making experience. I've made some cranberry-pineapple refrigerator jam which turned out pretty well, but in general, my homemade jam experience primarily involves magical childhood memories of enjoying strawberry freezer jam made by my Nana over warm Amish-made sourdough bread.  So...mostly I just have experience with EATING a lot of fridge & freezer jam.

As with most cooking adventures, I started on Pinterest.  The first recipe I tried resulted in an absolutely beautiful product that tasted lovely...but was the consistency of roof tar.  I couldn't even clean out the jar to try & reuse it.  *sniff* So sad.  

Lesson learned: Not all pectins are the same.  I have a jar of INSTANT pectin SPECIFICALLY for making fridge & freezer jam, meaning it's not intended to go through the boiling process.  I'm sure if you try this recipe with the RIGHT pectin, it would be fabulous.  

So for Attempt #2, I went straight to the Ball Website to find a pepper jelly recipe for my type of pectin.  And I did!  We decided to tweak this just a little bit: instead of green peppers & canned chilis, we went with our fresh jalapenos, and we grilled the pineapple & jalapenos first to add an extra layer of flavor.  

Lesson learned:  You are not as bad@ss as you think you are.  Remove at least SOME of the seeds before you puree.  We ended up having to puree more pineapple and add in a bunch of pineapple juice in order to bring this down to an edible level--and even then it was really ONLY tolerable with cream cheese to kill the capsacin.

THIS is exactly why I only make one jar of things, rather than a whole batch.

So...we made ONE MORE BATCH, using all our lessons and tinkering, and THAT'S what I present to you today.  

(Served over cream cheese for our most recent work potluck luncheon.)

INGREDIENTS (per 8oz [pint] jar):
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp INSTANT Pectin (for fridge/freezer jams)
About 8 oz of pineapple slices (we did use canned for our last batch and it still tasted fine)
3 jalapenos, seeds & ribs removed (you can leave the seeds in one if you like heat)
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2-1 tsp Liquid Smoke (optional, to taste)
Pineapple Juice (as needed--grilling removes some of the moisture so you may need to add a little juice to get a full jar)

DIRECTIONS:
Have a clean, sterilized pint jar ready (as always, we used EasyClean, but you can also use your dishwasher or any of the other sterilization methods)
Grill your pineapple rings & jalapenos until they have a light char.
Stir the sugar and pectin together in a medium bowl, set aside.
Add your pineapple, jalapenos, lime juice, and Liquid Smoke to a blender or food processor and pulse until finely chopped.  Then pour the mixture into the bowl with the sugar/pectin and stir for 3 minutes.  Taste & decide if you want to add more of the Liquid Smoke (a little goes a LONG way, but we think it ups the smoky flavor from the grill).

Transfer the jelly into your pint jar, and add a little pineapple juice if you need in order to get a full jar, and mix well.  Stick in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to thicken.  You can keep it in the fridge for about a month or in the freezer for a year.

Refrigerator Pickled Banana Peppers

Some of our friends recently moved into a house with a small garden.  It's currently overflowing with tomatoes, jalapenos, banana peppers, basil, cantaloupe, and some really randomly huge cucumbers (we're still not sure if they're SUPPOSED to be that big or if they just sat on the vine too long without being picked).  

We GENEROUSLY volunteered to help them get rid of some of the peppers (because we're good friends like that).  First, I used a modified version of my Garlic Dill Pickle recipe to make a small jar of pickled jalapenos (left out the dill, but the rest of the recipe is the same).  I also made some pepper jelly (we'll discuss that next time--it's a whole adventure worthy of it's own post), and then diced & froze the rest of the jalapenos for future cooking.

The banana peppers we decided to pickle as well--but The Hubs requested a "no frills, just basic" pickling recipe for those.  So we kept it super simple.  Also, I LOVE that the peppers started to turn colors a bit before I had a chance to slice & pickle them---these colors are so beautiful & just SCREAM early fall!!!

We had about half a pound of peppers and it made about one quart-size jar.

INGREDIENTS: (makes 1 quart jar)
1/2 lb of sweet banana peppers, sliced
1.5 cups white vinegar
1 cup water
1 Tbsp salt (kosher if you have it--if not the pickling liquid can get a little cloudy)
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 clove garlic, minced (if you have pre-minced jarred garlic, rinse the oil off first)
1/4 tsp citric acid (helps keep the pickles crisp)

DIRECTIONS:
Sterilize your jar(s) and lid(s)--we use EasyClean just because we have it & it's quicker than doing hot sterilization.
Once clean & dried, add the sliced peppers, garlic & citric acid to the jar.
In a small pot, heat the vinegar, water, salt and sugar just until the solids are fully dissolved--you don't need to boil it.  Then let the liquid cool to room temp.
Pour the pickling liquid over the pickles--it should come up to about 1/4-1/2 inch from the rim of the jar.  Add the lid and shake to distribute the garlic & citric acid.  Then place in your fridge!  

Let them brine for at least 24 hours before eating, but the longer they sit in the fridge, the better they'll taste!

Cranberry-Pineapple Refrigerator Jam

I can’t seem to commit to full-on canning & preserving.  I like the idea, but really, our pantry is full enough with random jams, jellies & salsas, and a lot of the time, I don’t want to make a full batch of something, using a new recipe, and then find out it sucks.  So I like that Ball offers these little packets of “small batch” pectin so you can make two half-pint, or one full pint jar. 

Cranberries are super-cheap this time of year, so I tend to stock up.  There’s at least two bags in the freezer right now, waiting to be turned into sauce or gooey butter bars, or who knows what.  But I also just made some of this cranberry-pineapple jam and was pretty pleased with the results.  Since I made only one jar, I can put it straight into the fridge and not have to worry about preserving it for shelf-storage.

INGREDIENTS: (makes one pint)

• One packet of small-batch pectin
• 1 1/3 Cups cranberries
• 1 Cup of crushed pineapple with juice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 Tablespoon orange juice
• 1/2 Tablespoons orange zest
• 3/4 Cup sugar (to taste—I like my jam to be a little tart)
• One sterilized pint jar (I use Easy Clean)

 

DIRECTIONS:

Pretty easy stuff--combine the cranberries, pineapple, juice, zest, nutmeg, sugar, and pectin in a pot & stir over low heat. Continue stirring  until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to boil.

Then, crush the fruit in the mixture with a potato masher over medium heat on the stove; let the jam boil for approximately 15 minutes; longer if you want a thicker jam.

If you plan on using right away, you don’t have to worry about doing a water bath or freezing. 

Makes a mean PB & J!