Pickling, the old
generations used as a way to reserve food of out of season use such as in the
winters. Nowadays, people don't need to pickle food for reserving; however, we
still enjoy making pickles because of the resulting flavours. Pickles need time
to process and could be made with different ingredients, such as salt and
sugar, both of these have anti-oxidant efficacy that could prevent corrosive in
food. We usually see pickled cabbages, pickled cucumbers, and pickled olives in
markets. Actually, pickling food is not a difficult task. Therefore, I decided
to give pickling green beans a try.
Ingredient (Ann, 2013):
Green beans ---------------1 pounds
Jalapeño peppers ---------2
Small sweet peppers -----3
Garlic -------------------------1 head
Vinegar -----------------------1 1/4 cups
Water -------------------------1 1/4 cups
Pickling salt -----------------2 tablespoons
Tools:
Jars with lids and rings-----2
Small stock pan--------------1
Direction:
1. Prepare boiled water
in stove and place jars, lids and rings into small stock pan for
sterilizing.
2. Place all green
beans, jalapeño peppers, sweet peppers, garlic in to sterilized jars with
lids
and rings. Making all ingredient tightly.
3. In a saucepan, bring
the vinegar, water and pickling salt to a boil. Then pour the vinegar
mixture
into beans in the jars until 80% full and top with lids and rings on.
4. Prepare water bath
around 185 F degree. Place whole jars into water bath
around 30 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat and
leave jars in the water about 10 minutes.
6. Remove the jars from
water bath and let the jars cold until they seal. Keep the rings
on for 1
day and then take off rings before storing.
Finally, I could
enjoy my own pickles! Different from when the beans were still fresh, they
became dark green in colour instead of bright green. Although I could smell the
sourness when opening the jars, it isn’t so strong that one couldn’t stand it.
This isn’t exactly surprising because it was made with vinegar. What took
me by surprise was the texture of the pickled beans; unlike how I first
expected, they are pretty crispy and not soft, which I quite enjoy. Moreover,
it was a little bit spicy when I took the first bite but sourness and saltiness
are in large part of the taste.
Now I think I am able to
create my own recipe with the green bean pickles I made.
My recipe:
Green bean pickles
---------5
Tuna in water, canned -----1
Red onion
-------------------2 tablespoon
Celery
-----------------------1 medium stock
Olive
oil---------------------1 teaspoon
Lemon, peel and juice
----to taste
Salt / Black pepper
--------to taste
Unsalted soda cracker
----10 pieces
Direction:
1. Chop green beans, red
onion and celery into dice. Grind lemon peel. 2. Mix all ingredients into a large bowl. Serve with soda crackers.
I felt so satisfied
and content when the mixture of food filled up my mouth. The overall taste of
finished product has multi-layers of taste including the tanginess combined
with the sourness brought by the pickles and lemon juice, as well as the sweetness
came from the tuna. Besides, adding diced celery and red onion to this pickle
dish really increased crispiness.
Pickles are good for adding
more flavours into food. Apart from sourness and sweetness, it sometimes also
adds in some savoury flavour to the dish. From pickling the raw vegetables to using
it in an actual dish, I consider this to be a wonderful and successful
experience. However, I think I will include other ingredients, such as hot
chilli pepper, to my pickled vegetables since I was expected it to be
spicier.
I totally enjoyed the
entire process and am happy with the final result. I also obtain some valuable
knowledge and experience of pickling vegetables. As a result, I will definitely
keep the recipes in my book and I will continue to explore more varieties to
further perfect my creations.
Reference:
Ann. (2013, n.d.). Crisp & Spicy Pickled
Green Beans. Retrieved from http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/crisp-spicy-pickled-green-beans/
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