I usually don't save the brine when a jar of pickles is done. But this time, I saw a trick in More with Less that worked great.
The recipe called for lightly cooking carrot sticks before putting them in a dill pickle brine to marinate as fridge pickles.
Well, I took a shortcut by putting the carrot sticks directly in the brine, directly in the microwave and nuking until the brine was steaming. One of the primary features I look for in a microwave is interior height so I can stick canning jars in there on occasion.
Then I allowed the hot jar of carrot sticks to cool on the counter and refrigerated them. They didn't even last two days because they were so popular.
Any other clever ideas for pickle brine?
10 comments:
I use pickle juice in salads as dressing, although I have family members that drink it. Sweeter pickle juices (like watermelon rind & cherry) get blended into cocktails (or mocktails for my daughter.)
What?! Doing this. Like today. I have dill bean juice in the fridge.
Becky, give me some examples of mocktails, please. My husband would love a real one, but I don't. So I'd like more info and some recipes!
For mocktails, my daughter combines watermelon rind pickle juice with whatever sparkly water we have on hand (either sparkly, soda or tonic water) and a twist of citrus fruit, like orange or lemon. My watermelon rind pickle juice is more like a syrup, so it doesn't need any sugar, although she has mixed it with ginger ale before.
I use the pickled cherries (from Food in Jars) for an updated twist on Manhattans - bourbon or rye with a few cherries and a splash of the juice.
I cut up fresh cucumbers, put them in leftover brine from the pickle jar. Place in fridge a few days and you have fresh tasty pickles.
I love this trick and am ready for Tom to finish up the jar of pickles so i can try it myself.
I love all these ideas even though I can't eat much in the way of pickles anymore due to acidic stomach ... but my husband can!
I must say that have never learned to like pickles. Our kids and husband all like it. I am trying to avoid using the microwave, I read somewhere that it's not so good for you health to eat things that have been microwaved. I feel sorry that I didn't save the article. I think it was in a health newsletter. However I need it and sometimes I still use it anyway. Moderation is the key I suppose.
I put hard boiled eggs in mine. They are great potato, tuna or egg salad.
Angela, some people think that because a microwave oven uses radiation that it can cause health problems. This is not true. There are different kinds of radiation; the kind microwaves use is not harmful to human health. The only problem they could cause is burns from overheating the food.
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/radiationexposureandcancer/radiofrequency-radiation
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