Pickles

I love pickles and pickled things. Betsy too. It's a given we order oshinko if we're at a Japanese restaurant. It would be rare to look in our fridge and not find at least a quart of full sours and at least one kind of kimchee, plus lime pickles, etc etc.
We've made the fast Momofuko style pickles a lot.
So when Bittman published this article
http://goo.gl/jwKq9H
in this past weekend's NYT magazine, I knew what I was doing Sun afternoon.
I did 3 - the curried cauliflower, the miso eggplant, and the bagna cauda (using green beans, fennel, radishes).
The cauliflower was my fave, truly a do again. I like the eggplant too, though it's salty enough that I can eat just one at a time. The only one I was a little disappointed in was the "bagna cauda" but that might have just been the beans- not exactly the season. Flavors are good in fennel and radishes, but beans absorbed less flavor.
Overall a lot of flavor with very little effort.
I think next up carrots w/cumin, and daikon in miso.
Any other pickle fans?

Hi Dale

I mentioned in another topic that I'm addicted to Claussen Minis. And when they are gone I buy a Kirby cucumber and cut it up and leave it in the brine from the minis -- after 24 hours you get a light refreshing garlic dill, and they continue to get stronger and better.

Your mention of cauliflower reminded me of Persian torshi -- these are generally a feature of good Persian meals and various vegetables are involved. Cauliflower is generally one choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tursu

I'm reading (really listening to) Mark Kurlansky's book "salt" and he gives an interesting perspective on pickling, that book constantly makes me want to go shopping for different salty things to eat!

I saw that article too and thought of making some of them, but haven't gotten around to it.

I'm also a big fan of 'pickles', but mainly the quick kinds. Depending on the season I mainly do cucumbers, carrots or red cabbage. Carrots and cucumber are great for the color, but also the texture. We eat a lot of beans/lentils/tofu with various grains, so pickles are nice refreshing ways to add crunchy bright elements to the meal.

Recently have started buying kimchi from the Asian supermarket and that has also become a staple in our refrigerator. Full of flavor, easy to add to a meal, and no funny artificial ingredients.

[Jenise]

Major fan of pickled things, too. Grew up in a family that all had the sour palate, something I didn't fully appreciate until I married a man who most decidedly did not. Bob's been weaned over to my side after several decades of marriage, but it was slow going at first!

In my fridge right now: watermelon rinds (I made), kosher green tomatoes (I made), Indian mango pickle, some long curly Italian peppers, Mama Lil's pickled peppers, and kimchee. Will have to check out the Mark Bittman article--thanks for the tip and the report.

Love pickled things!

My mother said that one of my first words was "olive".