Events and Updates

The most picklest day of the year is upon us once again!  This year, we want to pay tribute to the highly organized, definitely wacky Nancy Ralph, the impressaria extraordinaire of Pickle Day and Founder of The New York Food Museum.

Nancy has labored tirelessly to build an awesome event for all the pickle people and in its ninth year it is a must-attend for the condiment-obsessed and even those who merely dabble in pickles.  This year, Rick’s Picks will be rocking some new merchandise, including a Smokra t-shirt that will be a potent fashion statement for those lucky enough to grab one.  We’ll be serving up Handy Corn quesadillas with our close pal Anne Saxelby and queueing up to get some fried Smokra next door at the Whole Foods Market tent.  We’ll be talking pickle-making and working with local produce in season at the Greenmarket tent.  And of course, all of our pickles we be available to try and to buy.  Give the gift of pickles to someone you love… and that someone just might be you.

Click here for the event details.  See you there!

This is my friend Tom, who I met through CaptainMoss (Tom is his uncle).  Tom writes about food an is an all-around dialed-in guy when it comes to the finer things of the eating and drinking persuasion.  He showed up at Greenmarket on Saturday with a recipe, which looks so good I’m posting it before I even get a chance to make it.  Tom knows the way to my heart… he makes his soup with Phat Beets!  It’s a soup to serve cold, so make it quick before the last gasp of summer’s swelter is outta here.

Choldnik

(Chilled Polish Buttermilk Soup with Phat Beets, Cucumber and Dill)

4 cups chilled buttermilk

3/4 cup sour cream, plus 1/4 cup for serving

1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste

1 15-ounce bottle of Rick’s Picks’ Phat Beets, including the brine

1 peeled, seeded and chopped medium-large cucumber

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, or more to taste

Whisk together buttermilk, sour cream and salt in a large glass bowl, then stir in the remaining ingredients.  Chill at least 15 minutes before serving.  Season with additional salt if needed, and float a dollop of sour cream on top of each serving.

This is Deborah, one of our best customers at Union Square.  She consumes, by her own admission, a jar of The People’s Pickle “every other week”.  My response: what takes you so long?  Last night we polished off two jars while watching the game (before halftime).  Seriously, Deborah has promised to share some of her special recipes for using Rick’s Picks in her cooking.  For that, we are offering her a The People’s Pickle t-shirt.  Deborah, are you there?   The community is awaiting your inspiration…

On my way to Greenmarket this morning, the Police’s “Message In A Bottle” came on the radio. I’ve always been of the opinion that the history of rock music does not have to include a lengthy chapter on Sting and Co., but having not heard the song in a while, I paid attention.  Whether you like the band or not, it is hard to dispute that as a trio they have extremely excellent and complementary interplay.  Andy Summers’ shimmery guitar figures, the reliable thump of Sting’s bass and Stewart Copeland’s complex activity at the drum kit are balanced in a superb fashion.   The individual players display nuance and artistry, but always at the service of the song.

The power of threes is all around us.  I’ve always said “one” is an idea; “two” is a concept; “three” is a campaign.  You can prove anything with three good examples. Then there’s the triangle, a sturdy form of geometry and essential to construction in the world of architecture.  Shelf-stable pickle-making has its own relation to trios, triangles and threes.   Everything we make has a primary vegetable, secondary spices, and a vinegar brine.  The elements may be different, but the result (when done rightly) is always the same: balance, interplay and harmony.

I have no plans to go online in search of a vintage Zenyatta Mondatta t-shirt, but I thank The Police for stirring these thoughts, which swirl around like a whisk in a bubbling pot of brine.

I’ll be hosting a demonstration of pickle-making this Saturday September 6th at Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket this Saturday at 11 AM for about an hour.  Last year, we made a recipe for pickled string beans called Dilly Beans.  It was a blast making pickles al fresco!

The pickle we are going to make, sliced dill pickles, is a classic recipe and was the first pickle my Mom and Dad taught me how to make back in the day up in Vermont.  Here they are on a festive fall day a few years ago.

Sliced dill pickles are a great point of entry into the whole home canning universe.  If you are in Brooklyn this Saturday, come check it out.  And if you are not, here’s the recipe we are going to make:

Holly and Dan Field’s Sliced Dill Pickles

Wash 4 pounds of pickling cucumbers.

In each of 6 pint jars, put:

(1) 3 dill heads (or 1 tablespoon dill seed and several fronds dill leaf)

(2) 4 cloves garlic, peeled and halved

(3) 1 tablespoon pickling spice

(4) 6 whole black peppercorns

Bring to boil 3 cups of water, 3 cups of vinegar, and 6 teaspoons of kosher

salt.   You may need more of this mixture and should have extra on hand.  Also:

make sure to have the liquid at a roaring boil when placing the mixture in the

jars.

Pack the cucumbers tightly into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headroom, and adjust the

lids.  Place the jars immediately in the boiling water bath.  Process for  7 minutes.

Tighten lids but no need to overtighten.

Lid is good if if it doesn’t “pop” when you press down on it the next day.

The bounty of available top-quality local produce right now makes this a great time of the year to do pickle experiments.  Last year we introduced a pickled jalapeno called Heat Seekers.   They’re fiery and plump, and they’re fun to eat when you are in the mood to super to super-spice something in a super-sized kind of way.  But in thinking through some classic jalapeno applications, it occurred to me that something in more of a portion-controlled format might be an improvement.  So I set out to create a new jalapeno pickle in sliced rings.  I started with these beauties from my Greenmarket friend Bill Maxwell.

Sliced into rings, they reveal beautiful seed patterns, like a cross between a bicycle wheel and dragon’s teeth.

I’ve been shaving a lot of vegetables into ribbons lately, primarily zucchini and carrots.  It is a very effective technique when the veggie in question is playing a complementary role in the final product.   For the new jalapeno rings, I made carrot ribbons, added them to the mix and admired the way that they swirled and undulated around the bowl.  Visual appeal is something I always try to keep in mind when I am conducting pickle experiments.  If it looks good AND tastes good, that’s a real winner.  This photo is blurry for some reason, but you’ll get the idea.  It might make a nice screen saver for your desktop.

I’m thinking of calling this new pickle Jalapeno Pleasures.   Kinda says it all, right?  Stay tuned… if the home kitchen test batch comes out the way I think it will, there will be a new product on the website before you know it!

Pickling embraces all of our senses.  We smell our spices.  We touch our vegetables to examine their texture.  We delight in the visual appeal of our final products.  And tasting?  That’s the best part.  But what about sound?  My personal experience of home canning has been defined over the years by a fairly short list of records that I revel in listening to while pickling.  Certain records just get you in the spirit.  My all-time favorite artist to pickle to is the late, great zydeco star Beau Jocque, who died a few years ago way too young.  Any one of the records he made with his band the Zydeco Hi-Rollers will be a great way to set the mood.

Quite a few selections are live recordings, as I’ve found the steamy heat of pickle-making tends to lend itself nicely to live stuff.   Having said that, as you form your own playlist, don’t forget you need some cooldown music, too… literally and figuratively.  Some of these records in my list are no doubt familiar… and hopefully some of them are not.  If you think of something you like to pickle to, share it in the comments!  Here’s the list of my Top 10 Records Every Home Canner Must Own.  OK, I went a bit nuts and listed 43 discs…

Beau Jocque, Pick Up On This!

Albert Collins, The Complete Imperial Recordings

Albert King, Funky London

Allan Toussaint, From A Whisper To A Scream

The Allman Brothers, Eat A Peach

Aretha Frankin, This Girl’s In Love

Average White Band, Person To Person (Live)

Bob Dylan, At Budokan

Bob Marley and the Wailers, Natty Dread

Cannonball Adderly Sextet, Live in San Francisco

Charles Earland, Black Talk

Chocolate Genius, Black Music

Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers, Any Other Way To Go?

Cornershop, Handcream For A Generation

Cracker, Kerosene Hat

Curtis Mayfield, Live!

Daryl Hall and John Oates, Greatest Hits

David Bowie, Live At The Beeb

Donald Byrd, Electric Byrd

Donnie Hathaway, Live

Dr. John, Dr. John’s Gumbo

The Faces, A Nod Is As Good As A Wink… To A Blind Horse

Freddie King, My Feeling For The Blues

Funkadelic, Let’s Take It To The Stage

The Greatful Dead, From The Mars Hotel

Hound Dog Taylor, Deluxe Edition

Jayhawks, Tomorrow The Green Grass

John Coltrane, A Love Supreme

Joni Mitchell, Court And Spark

Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Private Waters In The Great Divide

Latin Playboys, Dose

Les McCann and Eddie Harris, Swiss Movement

Little Feat, Waiting For Columbus

Los Super Seven, Canto

Mark Ronson, Version

Medeski, Martin and Wood, Combustication Remix

Miles Davis. E.S.P.

The Modern Lovers, The Modern Lovers

NRBQ, God Bless Us All

Roberta Flack, First Take

The Rolling Stones, Get Yer Ya-Yas Out!

Slim Harpo, The Best Of Slim Harpo

Sonny Rollins, A Night At The Village Vanguard