Curry Pickles

I have been making these curry pickles for nearly 30 years.  But although I really like them, I have been lazy in the recent past and it has been a number of years since I made any.

This weekend I got a wild hair and decided to try them using a shortcut.  Rather than trying to find pickling cucumbers (probably a tall order this time of year), I bought a couple of big bottles of dill gherkins from Costco and repurposed them.

The recipe calls for aging them for three months to reach full flavor, but I'm sure that I will open one jar up in about a week to see if the conversion process is going to work.  If not, I guess I will look for some pickling cucumbers a little later this year.


Curry Pickles
For best flavor, age pickles for three months before opening. Excellent with cold pork, chicken or roast lamb.
Yield: about 7 pints

Ingredients
8  lbs slender, small cucumbers, well scrubbed

2 1/2 quarts  cider vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup coarse salt
1/3 cup dry mustard
1/3 cup curry powder
1/3 cup pickling spice
1/4 cup mustard seed
1 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground red pepper

How to Make

1. Bring large amount of water to boil in stockpot over high heat. Meanwhile, trim all stems and blossoms from cucumbers, discarding any cucumbers that are soft.

2. Add cucumbers to boiling water and blanch 30 seconds. Drain well; pat dry. Pack tightly into clean, hot jars to 1/2 inch from top.

3. Combine remaining ingredients in stockpot and bring to rapid boil. Ladle enough hot brine into 1 jar just to cover cucumbers. Run plastic knife or spatula between cucumbers and jar to release any air bubbles. Clean rim and threads of the jar with a damp cloth. Seal jar with new, scalded, very hot lid. repeat with remaining jars.

4. Transfer jars to gently simmering (180°F to 190°F) water bath and process for 10 minutes. Let jars cool on rack. Test for seal. Store pickles in cool dry place.

Loni Kuhn

 A Complete Guide to the Pleasures of Preserving, Bon Appetit / September 1982 p.80

Bourbon and Ginger

Bourbon and Ginger Ale is a good old standby when you're too lazy to make a real cocktail.  And it feels right, too -- I have vague recollections of the men I looked up to when is was little drinking them.  "I'll just have a bourbon and ginger", they would say, and it must have stuck way back there in my earliest memories.  I still have one on occasion, but my tastes now go to something a little more adventurous, a bit more spicy.


So I recently tried a couple of recipes I came across in a site called Creative Loafing Tampa, which I think must also be the name of one of those rags that you find in the little free racks by the real estate flyers in restaurants and mini marts.  Amazing what you can find with Google.


Both recipes use bourbon or rye (please don't use any of the good stuff for these -- they have enough citrus and sweet to offset anything but serious rotgut).  They are both really good, one surprisingly so, since it calls for maple syrup for the sweetener!!!

Ingredients for the Nor'easter.

I put both recipes together on one page because I thought you might throw the Nor'easter recipe in the trash without even trying it, like I just about did.  (Sounded just about as bad as recipes that include Southern Comfort or Malibu Rum, but I digress.)  Anyway, by the name, and the fact that it uses maple syrup, I will attribute the recipe to some creative sole in Maine or maybe Vermont.   And in combination with lime and a nice spicy Ginger Beer, the maple flavor  makes a very nice cocktail.  I hope you will give it a try and let me know what you think.

Ingredients for the Cablegram.

The other drink is called the Cablegram and it sounded a bit tastier before trying it.  Still tart from citrus, this time lemon, and spicy from ginger beer, and I like it a little better than the other one.  


Both cocktails are keepers, so don't go cutting the Nor'easter off the page when you print these out.

Hemingway Daiquiri Update

Here is an update on my previous post about the Papa Doble (Hemingway's Daiquiri).  This new Hemingway Daiquiri recipe, from a post in the Houston Press by John Kiely, is less sweet, more tart, and a lot better than my previous recipe.  I think an excerpt from Kiely's post describes the experience very well:

Whoa. The Papa Doble shut down my face for a long 10 seconds, and put my tongue's sour buds on blast. The second taste wasn't much easier, but halfway through, I enjoyed it, and by the end, I preferred it.

Why so tart? Hemingway's father suffered diabetes, so Ernest simply avoided sugar in his drinks. Brilliant move, at any rate. Once your palate adjusts to a lower level of sweetness, the flavor of liquor and other ingredients take up the slack, usually resulting in a better cocktail.

I went through my menu of sixty-nine cocktails, removing sweetness wherever possible, but ironically, not so much from the Hemingway Daiquiri, just half of a teaspoon of simple syrup, as Maraschino keeps the tartness at bay. Thank you, Ernest Hemingway.

I think this is now one of my favorite cocktails...