The Pickle Blog

An unknown location in Turkey.

About five years ago, my old friend from VH1, Mary Wharton, sent me this picture she took on a trip to Turkey.   To this day, it is the image on my desktop computer.  I find it endlessly interesting… the gentle gaze of the man with the white hair… the exotic and mysterious jars piled high… the metal object (a handtruck?) in the foreground.  I’ve often said one reason I love pickles and pickling so much is that they are so universal… whether you are from Japan, Poland or Louisiana.   Let’s add Turkey to the list.

With dozens of beautiful photographs, the book spans the spectrum of preserving techniques and possibilities.

The first Rick’s Picks cookbook is out.  Williams-Sonoma’s The Art of Preserving features 17 pickle recipes by yours truly (with great assistance from Kate Galassi).   The idea with our contributions was to follow the cycle of the growing season… there are recipes for pickled rhubarb (early in the spring) to pickled brussels sprouts (later in the fall).   It was really a cool thing to work on (and whetted my appetite to write more).   Until June, the book is available exclusively at Williams-Sonoma stores, and then it will be in wide release and, of course, available on our website.   I’ll probably do some book signings at Greenmarket and maybe even at a few stores.  Check it out!

My favorite of the rings is the green one in the lower right.

A nice blogger named Melissa conducted a tasting in the form of an Olympic competiton amongst all of the Brooklyn Flea picklers.  Who won the gold?  You can find out here.

My friends Nathan and Nadine suggested making a batch of a traditional Haitian condiment for the upcoming benefit Preserving Haiti.  So over the weekend I made Pikliz, a pantry staple in Haiti which basically is the love child of kim chee and coleslaw: it has the fiery heat of kim chee, and the appearance of coleslaw.  Pikliz starts, naturally, with cabbage.

Savoy cabbage is a very versatile vegetable.

Cabbage is hardy, affordable and ubiquitous, which is why it is a key element in pickled items in so many cultures.  For my batch of Pikliz I used savoy cabbage, which I think is the best variety.    The cabbage was shredded and sliced as finely as I could get it.   I added ribbons of carrots, made flat and super-thin with a vegetable peeler.  Onions were chopped coarsely and then 6 scotch bonnet peppers were quartered and then chopped in half again.

The basic ingredients for Pikliz are easy to source.

Those peppers really have a major heat component.    Wash your hands thoroughly after finishing the pepper prep or you will feel a biting sting next time you rub your eyes.

The wedge of Scotch bonnet pepper in the middle seems fairly grinning with heat.

Pikiz is a quick pickle… the vegetables were mixed in a large bowl and then blended in a jar with spices and vinegar (the vinegar is where Pikliz departs from kim chee, which has no vinegar).  Two days in the fridge and Pikliz should be ready.   I’ll keep you posted.

Pikliz

6 Scotch bonnet peppers
2 cups thinly sliced or shredded cabbage
1/2 cup thinly sliced or shredded carrots
1/4 cup thinly sliced or shredded onions
4 whole cloves
1 teaspoon salt
8 to 10 peppercorns ( optional )
3 cups vinegar
Instructions:
Snip off the stem of the peppers, cut each into 4 pieces, and keep the seeds. Place hot peppers, cabbage, carrots, onion, cloves, salt, and peppercorn in a quart size jar. Then add vinegar. Close jar tightly and let sit for about 24 to 48 hours before serving.

My first batch of Pikliz will make its debut on Thursday at the Preserving Haiti benefit.

It has been written in these pages that life is salty enough.  Yet, since time immemorial, picklers near and far have loaded up their recipes with tons and tons of salt.  I’ll propose a different approach… a more nuanced and healthier one.  Use citrus notes.  Lemons, limes, oranges and even grapefruits can bring dynamic additions to your pickle’s flavor profile.

The Fantastic Four.

Citrus tends to work on the palate in the way that salt does… it brightens flavors, while also delivering its own specific tangy essence.   And the best thing about pickling with citrus ingredients is that you are not disgracing your insides with a lot of unneeded, unhealthy salt.  Monitoring salt intake is a big deal in general and specifically for folks who are have reached middle age.   We created a guide to our low sodium products specifically for them.  We use lemon juice in Phat Beets, lime juice in Spears of Influence, orange juice in Whup Asp and grapefruit juice in… well, stay tuned and you will see!

The Pickle Club is getting all the New York pickle people together to stage a fundraiser on Thursday February 25th to benefit the Forgotten Children of Haiti.  We’ll be posting more information about the event as it gets closer, but please save the date!

Click here to get all the details.

Preserving has never meant so much.

We got to know Susan and Ralph of Red Hook Lobster Pound at the Brooklyn Flea where their lobster rolls were an instant hit last summer.  And now, just in time for Valentine’s Day, they have assembled an awesome dinner kit of love called Alt.Brooklyn.Valentine, which includes lobsters, The People’s Pickle, and other Brooklyn-based artisan savories.  Get your sweetie a dozen roses and maybe you’ll get a peck on the cheek, but an Alt.Brooklyn.Valentine will get you so much more!

Smooch to you and yours… here are the details:

All you need to bring is love.

Big buckets of crunchy flavor.

We’re getting ready to roll out some of our customers’ favorite Rick’s Picks products in 3.5 gallon bulk packaging, to serve restaurants, bars and antipasto stations at our retail stores.  It’s cool to make big buckets… the methods are slightly different but the results are extremely crispy and delicious.

A brine time was had by all.

We peeled a LOT of garlic… some 20 pounds that we used in these test runs.  One thing that will be a fun sidelight to this is that when we do events, we can offer folks a Stickle… a pickle on a stick for a buck!  Way better than a lollipop.

Many of these pickles will become Stickles.

We made four different varieties: Kool Gherks, The People’s Pickle, Mean Beans and Smokra.   We’ll also be making Phat Beets in bulk as part of this launch.  Bulk up with us beginning in late February or early March.

Recently, I told the story of Rick’s Picks to Fox News… it will air next Monday, February 1 on their evening news program with Sheppard Smith some time between 7 and 8 PM EST. You can also see it here.

A dill flower at its fragrant peak. The wasp appears to agree. That's the wasp in the photo AND the wasp writing this caption.

Most people see dill flowers and think of snowflakes. For me, it’s the other way around.  But hey, I am a pickle guy, right?  There’s some exciting dill flower news developing up near Utica.  Luke George, who grows the beans Upstate we use for Mean Beans and Windy City Wasabeans just called to say he is going to have a significant amount of greenhouse space free up around Memorial Day.  So we are talking about growing a gigantic amount of dill flowers in the greenhouse for all the pickles that need dill.  Getting the peak moment of dill flowers and fresh produce to line up is not something that nature allows to happen as often as we would like, so Luke’s greenhouse plan is a great development for Rick’s Picks.  Stay tuned.