How to Pickle It

As soon as recipes use words like ‘sterilise’ and ‘ferment’ I rule them out as a possibility due to my lack of attention to detail (i.e. that time I tried to make ginger beer and it turned into a funky alcohol that hissed every time I opened the bottle). BUT, pickling is actually so easy and the best thing is that you can have a variety of foods with a lengthy shelf life, which = less waste. Plus, if there’s something you like that won’t be in season soon, you can pickle it and save it for a rainy day.

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You will need:

• 2 x jars (3 ½ cups each)
• 4 cups water
• 4 cups vinegar
• 6 tbsp kosher salt (AKA big grain salt, not iodised)
• 6 cloves garlic
• 4 medium size cucumbers
• 5 brown onions (if you can find pickling onions go for it but brown onions worked fine)
• Some dill
• A few bayleaves

Basically, you can use any size, just keep the water/vinegar/salt ratio the same.

Step 1

Sterilise your jars by leaving boiling water in them for about 10 minutes.

Step 2

Prep your ingredients. Peel garlic, slice cucumbers, peel and slice onions.

Step 3

Put ingredients into jars. Cucumber with garlic and dill in one, sliced onions with bayleaves in the other. Pack the ingredients in tightly.

Step 4

Prepare your pickling brine. Put water, vinegar and salt in a frypan until it’s boiling. Leave for a couple of minutes then pour into jars, leaving 1cm or so space for air at the top.

Step 5

Put the lid on. If you want to seal these especially tightly you can put into a pot of boiling water until the lid tightens.

Other combinations:

Pickled garlic with dill seeds
Beetroot with peppercorns
Red peppers with garlic and peppercorns
Strawberries with sugar, cinnamon and vanilla essence