Archive for the ‘pickle making observations’ Category
wedding favors from rick’s picks via martha stewart
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Leave a Comment Last night in the mail I got the “save the date” for my buddy Adam and his beautiful bride-to-be Jessica’s wedding. Adam runs our warehouse in Long Island City, where we currently have over 100,000 jars carefully stored for the coming months. So if Adam needs pickles for his wedding, all he has to do is ask. Other folks with nuptuals in the offing might want to consider this cool wedding guest gift that we partnered on with our friends at Martha Stewart Weddings… custom gift-sized pickle jars!
These petite versions of our top-selling pickles make great wedding favors.
These pickles come in 8,9 and 12 oz. sizes and naturally Martha’s team has a bunch of great suggestions on how you can personalize the jars for your special day. Minimum order is 100 jars and for this type of custom order we need a lead time of 60 days. If you are interested or have any questions email us at contact@rickspicksnyc.com or give us a shout at 212 358 0428.
speaking in public
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Leave a Comment This month has brought a couple of unusual opportunities to speak in public. Last week I was asked to go to Chicago to a participate in a fundraiser for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Lisa’s involved in a wide range of excellent initiatives… check out her site.
The current and future Attorney General of Illinois, Lisa Madigan.
I was there to prepare a spread of pickled treats (some of the ones I made are here) and to talk a bit about pickle-making and what is interesting and relevant about it in a social context. I focused my remarks on the way that pickles reflect what is best about our country. We are a nation of immigrants, and practically every culture brought some form of pickling, drying, salting, canning or fermenting into the mix. When David Dinkins ran for mayor of New York, he characterized the population of the city as a “gorgeous mosaic”. It’s a phrase I’ve always liked and it certainly applies to the nation as a whole. Our gorgeous mosaic of Japanese, Poles, Mexicans and countless others breathe life into our food system with their unique forms of preserving. At Rick’s Picks, we try to reflect the wide range of influences in our product line. Our newest pickle, Hotties, will be out in about a month and a half and it features a delectable spicy brine of Sriracha and dried habanero powder. A little Vietnamese influence by way of California, and a fiery jolt from South of the border.
Rick's Picks presents Hotties. Coming soon to rickspicksnyc.com and markets everywhere.
The second speaking opportunity is upcoming. My 25th college reunion is Memorial Day weekend, so I’ll be heading back to New Haven to revisit my bright college years at Yale.
Boola Boola.
I’m going to be on a panel discussing entrepreneurship and the challenges of making a mid-life career change. Running a business like Rick’s Picks requires energy, commitment and patience, no question. But one thing that I only came to understand once I made the switch from a stable career in television to start my fledgling enterprise is the need to be comfortable “floating”. By this I mean functioning (and hopefully florishing) in a state where numerous things are uncertain at the same time. The easiest way to understand this to think about vegetables. In 2009, we made our annual production plan based on what we forecasted we would need for the next 12 months. And then it rained for 25 out of 30 days in June. Thus the growing season throughout the Northeast was delayed and/or compromised and we had to be wait for things to come, hope they would still be up to our quality standards and at reliable prices, and then make a tremendously greater number of pickles in a much shorter window. As the rain fell in June, I could see the problem coming, but I trusted it would work out, which it did. That’s what I call floating. I’ll do a second post when I get back from Yale about some of the things my fellow entrepreneurs shared.
night of 1,000 ramps, aka the rampage
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Leave a Comment The other night was the fourth or fifth annual Night of 1,000 Ramps, aka The Rampage. For those of you not familiar, ramps are a fern-like root that grows wild on the forest floor for a short period during Spring. Like a scallion in appearance but with an earthy depth of flavor, ramps were considered until recently to be only suitable for poor folk, who forgaged for them where they could. Well now here in NYC, chefs are tripping over each other to get enough supply and the ways they are using ramps are incredibly diverse. Ramp pesto, ramps in pasta dishes, cream of ramp soup, ramps this, ramps that. Me, I like to pickle ramps. This probably comes as no surprise. Nor are you likely to be surprised that I call our finished finished products On Ramps. Our Greenmarket buddy Rick Bishop always has the best ramps and he set aside two flats for us this year, then threw in an extra ten pounds of so for good measure.
Rick Bishop with a the well-earned results of lengthy foraging. The man has a cool first name and some top-quality ramps.
Making pickled ramps is a labor of love. Let me be very clear about that. Here is a little perspective: with 5 friends working for a total of 20 cumulative hours, we made 70 jars of ramps. In the same number of real time hours, we can make about 2,500 jars of Phat Beets. My secret to a productive evening of making On Ramps is to invite over eager friends and make sure they always have a cold Tecate in their hands. The photos of the evening have an amber wash to them which is due to a faulty white balance choice by yours truly, but there’s also an instant archival effect that you get also.
Sarah, me, James and 50 pounds of ramps.
What really takes the time with ramps is the cleaning. First you trim the green leaves off of the tops (and save them to saute or make the aforementioned pesto) and the wispy roots off the bulbs.
This process is so meticulous it makes Pointilist painting look like finger painting.
The result should be a four-inch specimen, pearly white at the bulb end and richly purple at the top (four inches is the desired length because that is how much vertical space you have to pack vegetables in a standard pint Mason jar).
You know what they say about many hands and light work. In the background, Andy appears to be using his hands to google "efficiencies in ramp peeling"
One of the great things about pickling ramps is that they lend themselves to a diverse number of brines. In the past, I’ve used a white wine vinegar brine with muddled green peppercorns and coriander to bring our the sharp savory aspect of the plant. This time, I fashioned a brine that evokes the the other side, the lingering sweetness in ramps. I used white vinegar, dried hibiscus and muddled pink peppercorns.
Everything but the brine.
An added benefit of going this route is the dried hibiscus transmits a beautiful rosy coloration to the brine. They would be an excellent Valentine’s Day gift, if they ever lasted that long.
Finished beauties in formation.
Ramps are sufficiently time-consuming that it is impossible to imagine ever making them in a commercial scale. But I kind of like that aspect… they are almost like a secret handshake between a chosen few.
If I look like it is 1:30 in the morning, that is because it is 1:30 in the morning.
come and try a stickle
The Stickle is composed of two elements. A pickle and a stick.
Welcome the Stickle! It’s a Rick’s Picks Kool Gherk pickle artfully mounted on a popsicle stick. It’s a happening, grab-and-go snack and you can be one of the first to have one tomorrow, when the Stickle makes its debut at the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene. I’ll be on hand making Stickles from scratch (I’ve been practicing). And the best news… the Stickle only costs a buck. Big flavor, low-sodium snacking. See you there!
pickled, potted and canned
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My friend Larry gave me this interesting book as a present. It’s called Pickled, Potted and Canned, and unlike a lot of other books on pickling which focus just on recipes, this is a social history and more. As it says on the back cover, it is “a rich and lively narrative of the art and science that forever changed the face of civilization and world trade: food preservation”. Weighty words, but there’s a lot of truth idea of food preservation having such a central role in the evolution of society as we know it. I have yet to crack the book, but it looks great and I’ll write a review here when I am done.
O, baby!
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We are in O: The Oprah Magazine in the current April issue. Oprah’ s Eater’s Digest (p.96) highlights The People’s Pickle… and notes accurately that its flavor is “pure nostalgia”… traditional garlic dill. We were pleased to see mention of The People’s Pickle’s other main virtue: it is low sodium. That’s a big deal for the millions of folks out there watching their salt intake. Many thanks for the shout out, Oprah. Let us know if we can do anything for you. Hmmm… the Rick’s Picks Effect… not sure it has quite the same ring…
my desktop image
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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.
our first cookbook is out
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!
brooklyn pickle olympics
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.
pikliz (haitian relish)
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Comments (8) 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.
