Emeril's Homemade Sweet & Spicy Pickles

Yesterday Alyssa and I made Emeril's Sweet & Spicy Pickles. They are a favorite of Alyssa's. They remind her of 'Wickles', a very popular brand, but she thinks these are even better! The recipe calls for 3 lbs of Kirby Cukes and it serves 4 pints. We decided to triple it! (We did each batch separately though). *** NOTE: We don't use the 24 dried cayenne peppers for this. I've heard it's not that hot using them but I don't want to even go there. We put one teaspoon of red pepper flakes into each recipe instead.
It's an easy recipe, just a bit time consuming.

You start by washing and then slicing the cukes.
Add the sugar and water to the bowls
Add the onions and red peppers. The peppers aren't in the recipe but we think it makes the look pretty so we add them!
After soaking for 2 hours, run under water to get rid of the salt water mixture.
Mix up the rest of the ingredients in a pan, then add the cuke mixture. This was the most tedious part. It calls for 10 TABLESPOONS of chopped garlic for each recipe! So I had to peel and chop 30 TABLESPOONS worth. P - U !!!!
Fill the jars, seal and process in a water bath. DONE!!!! Now you have to wait 2 weeks for them to work their magic!

Emeril's Homemade Sweet and Spicy Pickles

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2005

NOTE: When selecting cucumbers for pickling, there are a few things to remember. For crisp pickles, choose ripe, pickling cucumbers, which are shorter and chunkier than regular eating cucumbers, which tend to be longer and smoother. Ripe pickling cucumbers are darker green, firm, and not "bloated." They should have plenty of spiny bumps on the outer surface. Overripe cucumbers make mushy pickles. They tend to have yellow or white streaks or spots and their surfaces are smoother. Choose pickles that have not been coated in wax, as the pickling brine cannot penetrate through the wax. The fresher the cucumbers, the crisper the pickles will be. For best results, try picking your own cucumbers from a local farm or farmers' market.

Prep Time:

40 min

Inactive Prep Time:

338 hr 0 min

Cook Time:

15 min

Level:

Intermediate

Serves:

4 pints

3 pounds pickling cucumbers, sliced into 1/4-inch thick slices

2 cups sliced onions

1/2 cup pickling salt

6 cups water

3 cups white vinegar

1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar

3 1/2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

4 whole cloves

10 tablespoons roughly chopped garlic

24 dried cayenne peppers

2 teaspoons 100 percent Natural Pickle Crisp, optional

Place cucumbers, onions, pickling salt, and water in a large, non-reactive bowl. Cover and allow cucumbers to soak for 2 hours. Drain the water from the onions and cucumbers through a colander and rinse well for 5 minutes. Drain well and set aside.

Combine the vinegars, sugar, mustard seeds, turmeric, cloves, garlic, and peppers in a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and add the cucumbers and onions. Bring to a simmer and remove the saucepan from the heat.

Fill each of the hot sterilized pint-size preserving jars with the pickle mixture, dividing them evenly, and enough of the liquid to come within 1/2-inch of the top. Add 1/2 teaspoon of Natural Pickle Crisp to each jar, if desired. With a clean damp towel, wipe the rim and fit with a hot lid. Screw on the metal ring just until the point of resistance is met. Process the jars in a hot-water bath for 15 minutes.

Using tongs, remove the jars, place on a towel, and let cool. Test the seals by allowing the jars to stand at room temperature overnight or until the lids pop. Tighten the rings and store in a cool dry place. Let the pickles age for at least 2 weeks before using.

GARLIC SCAPES... A NEW CULINARY WONDER!

On our trip last week to Ithaca, NY, we stopped off at our favorite Farmers Market... The Ithaca Farmers Market. http://www.ithacamarket.com/
We always find something new there to try and this time was no exception. We happened to notice people checking out and buying these curly looking scallions (or so we thought). They were buying a TON so we knew they couldn't be scallions because what do you do with a TON of scallions. We kept walking around and found another 'farmer' that had these interesting curly things. We asked him about them. He explained that they are Garlic Scapes... the stems and seed heads of the garlic plant. For about 2 weeks in June, they curl and that's the perfect time to pick them. He explained that if they don't look like a pigs tail, they aren't ready! He said that people can't get enough of these things! They saute them, pickle them and make pesto with them. Well, PJ and I LOVE garlic so we HAD to get some of these and give it a try. It was too early in the week as we weren't going home for 5 more days so he told us where his farm stand is and he'll pick some Tuesday night for us. We ended up buying 5 POUNDS of these things. I LOVE canning so my plan was to make pesto and pickle some.

The recipe we use for making pickled scapes is the Dilly Beans recipe found in the Ball Blue Book.Quite a few blogs recommended this recipe. I read that these taste best after 3 weeks of being in the brine so I actually haven't tried them yet!

DILL PICKLED GARLIC SCAPES

2 pounds Garlic Scapes
1/4 cup canning salt
2-1/2 cups vinegar
2-1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, divided
4 cloves garlic, divided (I did NOT add these. The Scapes are strong enough in flavor!)
4 heads dill, divided

Trim ends off green beans. Combine salt, vinegar and water in a large sauce pot. Bring to a boil. Pack beans lengthwise into hot jars, leaving 1/4” head space. Add 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 clove garlic, and 1 head dill to each pint. Ladle hot liquid over beans, leaving ¼” head space Remove air bubbles. Adjust two-piece caps. Process pints and quarts 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Yield: about four pints.

Then I made Pesto with a bunch of Scapes. This was VERY strong in taste and hopefully will calm down after a while. I froze all of the jars except one, which is in the refrigerator. I've read that people love mixing a little with mayo to make a spread with it .

Garlic Scape Recipes: Garlic Scape and Almond Pesto
Ingredients

• 10 garlic scape (finely chopped)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (finely grated)
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup of toasted almonds
• Kosher salt or sea salt

Procedure
Mix the finely chopped garlic scape, Parmesan cheese, almonds and half of the olive oil in a container of a food processor. Blend the mixture and see if more olive oil and Parmesan is required and add the same. You can decide upon the texture of the pesto the way you like it. Season the mixture with salt. You can also add a bit of fresh lemon juice just before serving. You can preserve this garlic scape dish in a refrigerator for a couple of days. All you have to do is place the mixture in an airtight container.