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Posts Tagged ‘bread and butter pickles’

Pickle Bread

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on March 9, 2011| 28 Comments »

Waste not, want not…

I had quite a bit of  pickling liquid left over from our last batch of cucumber pickles, and  I was loathe to just throw it out (after all, it was good white wine vinegar and brown sugar).

Thankfully, Dan Lepard dislikes wasting things as much as I do.  In The Handmade Loaf, he offers a selection of recipes for reusing leftovers in various loaves.  Dan has breads which use the whey from cheese making, excess cooked rice, the glass of wine left in the bottle, and best of all on this occasion, leftover pickling liquid.

Dan’s original recipe isn’t really for a sweet pickling solution like the one we used, but I decided to try the loaf anyway.  Here’s the formula I used:

  • 200g dark organic rye flour
  • 300g white bakers/bread flour
  • 350g pickling liquid (strained)
  • ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 10g dried yeast

The resultant bread is a sweet, tangy, very dense rye loaf, reminiscent in flavour of the pumpernickel rounds my mum used to serve hors d’œuvres on when I was a child.   It was delicious with butter and, not surprisingly, our cucumber pickles.  Pete also thought it would be excellent with cream cheese.

I had it toasted for breakfast with Linda’s recipe for button squash egg-in-the-nest. The pickle bread made very tasty but unusual dipping soldiers!

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Bread and Butter Pickles

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on March 5, 2011| 34 Comments »

I’m a bit of a pickle fiend, so when Diana gave me surplus cucumbers and zucchinis from her garden, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try my hand at making some at home.

Linda emailed me her fabulous bread and butter cucumber pickle recipe (which in turn came from a lady named Margaret) and so far I’ve made eight jars.  Linda tells me they’ll keep for ages on the shelf, although I doubt they’ll last a month in our house!

In a large mixing bowl, combine:
  • 6 cups thinly sliced cucumber
  • 500 grams (1.1 lbs) of peeled and thinly sliced onion
  • 1 shredded green capsicum
  • ¼ cup of fine sea salt

Allow to stand for three hours, then rinse well with several changes of cold water.  Note: I used a mandoline to slice the onion and capsicum, but thinly cut the cucumber by hand.

In a large stainless steel pot, combine:

  • 2 cups (420g) brown sugar
  • 2 cups (500g) of mild vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
  • 2 dessertspoons (15g) of mustard seed
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, or a teaspoon of grated fresh
  • a pinch of ground cloves
Heat gently until the sugar is dissolved, and then bring the mixture to the boil for five minutes.  Reduce the heat and add the well-rinsed cucumber, onion and capsicum.  Heat gently to just below boiling point, stirring gently from time to time.  Be careful not to allow the pickle to boil.

Sterilise four 300ml jars and carefully fill with the pickle, ensuring the cucumbers are completely covered in pickling solution.  Seal while hot.

. . . . .

This giant golden zucchini…

…produced five jars of delicious pickle. Only four are shown below, as I’d already given one to Maude before the photo was taken.

I followed Sally Wise’s recipe (the link is here), using white wine vinegar and all of the giant zucchini above. The sweet mustard pickle is a little reminiscent of corn relish in flavour, and matched perfectly with  fresh ricotta, cheddar cheese and prosciutto for lunch today!

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