Easy Pickling: Delicious, Fermented Pickles for Idiots

Little pickled tomatoes on the left, and Anahiem peppers on the right.

First off, I am not going to tell you that you'll be healthier, your gut will function better, and your immune system will flex its muscles all winter if you eat fermented foods. I will tell you that they are one of the best things you'll ever eat, and that you can probably get a big jar of pickled carrots or green tomatoes, or baby cukes going in about 5 to 10 minutes.

You don't need any fancy crocks, special jars with airlocks or any thing other than kosher salt, a clean quart canning jar, water, some spices and garlic you probably already have, and enough clean, firm smallish or sliced vegetables to fill a jar. It's been done for centuries, and trust me, our grannies didn't buy pickling tools off a fancy website. They used what they had, and so should you. They used fermentation for two reasons: it preserved the harvest, and it tastes good. This easy method I'm showing you is lactic fermentation in its simplest form. Idiot proof.

Right before our first frost, I picked of a lot of too small green tomatoes, and Anaheim peppers. Not good to eat or cook with as is, but waste not, want not… They are now becoming wonderful, easy, fermented pickles and I just use whatever I have in my kitchen: kosher salt, water, jars, coriander seed, garlic…don't let the food gurus scare you off. Pickling is pretty much idiot proof. Carrot sticks, baby cukes or sliced cukes, whatever you have can become something entirely new. If you can stir salt into water, you can do this. I'm sure, once you make your first batch, you'll be hooked. Just remember you can double, or even triple your batches, using the proportion of 1/4 cup of kosher salt  to 4 cups of water.

Here's how:

Into a bowl, measure 4 cups of water. Dump in 1/4 cup of kosher salt, and stir furiously until it dissolves. You just made a brine.

 Into a clean quart canning jar, pack your sliced carrots, or baby green tomatoes, hot peppers or whatever you want, tossing in the occasional peeled garlic clove, and a few pinches of your favorite spices, like coriander seed, dill seed or cumin seed and even a few cloves or bay leaves between the layers of veg. You can layer in a few small, hot peppers if you like spicy. The veggie pieces should be bite size.  Pack it full, right up to the shoulder of the jar. If you put the smaller pieces in the bottom, and the bigger at the top, fewer of the small pieces will float up out of the brine. Go find a smaller jar, or a bowl or a ramekin that will fit into the mouth of the jar and give it a good scrub.

Place the jar in a coolish spot, and set it in a pan or a tray to catch any overflow. Now, pour in the salt - water mixture-- your brine, right to the tippy top, and set the little container you scrubbed into the top to keep your vegetables submerged. If you have extra brine left, keep it in a jar to use to top up your pickle if it evaporates too much.

Check your pickle jar every day, and it should be sour enough to eat in a couple of weeks…or wait longer. remember that the colors of things will change a bit, green vegetables will dull a bit. Remember those wonderful sour pickles in the barrel in your favorite deli? Make sure the vegetables are always submerged. A little mold  floating on top is OK,  you can skim it off and top up the jar with the leftover brine. If it really smells awful, or goes moldy down in the jar, toss it all and chalk it up to experience. Use common sense; if it looks or smells bad, toss it. I like to label my jars with the start date, nothing elaborate, just a piece of masking tape and a waterproof marker.

I generally go about 3 weeks before I screw the lid on the jar and pop it in the fridge. I like my pickles cold, and it's all I can do to wait to taste the results. So freaking good!

Easy Flavor Booster: Moroccan Style Preserved Lemons

I have probably spent close to the price of a nice pair of Jimmy Choo's on jars of preserved lemons over the last 10 years. It's one of those things that are so easy to make at home, but the jars are so exotic, and the lemons such flavorful additions to all sorts of dishes that I really just had to share my recipe with you. Generations of good cooks in Morocco  make these regularly, and there are as many methods and recipes as there are cooks there. This one is very basic, you can search the web for countless more. My friend Amy took one look at the jar on my counter and told me "I need that recipe!".

When I have preserved lemons ready to use, I'll likely sneak them into anything I can: chicken or fish dishes, vegetable salads, marinated olives, they add a über lemony salty tang that is the absolute ultimate flavor booster. The major ingredients are lemons and kosher salt. The only other real ingredient is time, since it takes about a month for these to be ready to use. They'll keep a long time in the fridge after they ferment for a month, though. I like to add a few cloves and some broken cinnamon sticks. On occasion I add whole dried chili peppers, but since I have none left from last years garden, there are none in my current batch.

Please use organic lemons if you can, since you are eating the skin of preserved lemons. And kosher salt since it has no additives. I use the pulp and the skin generally of the preserved lemon, and just remove the seeds in things I will cook, but more often in salads and dressings, just the rind. Because they are really salty, always rinse them before using and scrape out the seeds, then mince or sliver finely. 

If you are at all into the fermenting scene, like me, you already know the basics of prepping your tools and jars, making sure everything is clean, clean, clean. I used a quart canning jar for this, sterilized in boiling water. Depending on the size of your lemons, you may need more or fewer lemons, or you may need just the juice of the last one or two to finish filling your jar. Consider keeping the largest lemon you have as the last one; you can use it to wedge into the mouth of the jar, under the shoulder to hold the rest in place. I write the date and contents right on the lid so I'll know when my lemony masterpiece is ready to eat.

Moroccan Style Preserved Lemons fermenting on my kitchen counter.

Moroccan Style Preserved Lemons

For a 1-quart standard canning jar

8-9 lemons, scrubbed
kosher salt
1-2 cinnamon sticks, broken
4-6 whole cloves.
1-2 whole dried hot chile peppers, opt.


 Pour a cup or so of kosher salt into a bowl. Put about a tablespoon of salt into the bottom of your jar and a clove and a bit of cinnamon stick. If your lemons have "knobs", trim them off so your lemons are perfect ovals or rounds. Stand a lemon up lengthwise, and slice it almost in half stopping about a half-inch up from the cutting board. Turn the lemon 90º, and do the same, making a cross cut, nearly but not quite cutting through so you have almost quartered it lengthwise. If you look down on a cut lemon it'll look like a 4-petaled blossom.

Pack a heaping tablespoon or so of kosher salt into the cut lemon and drop it into the clean jar. Do another, and then press down on the lemons with the handle of a wooden spoon to squeeze out as much juice as you can, drop in more spices, and a dried pepper if using. 

Continue layering salt filled lemons and spices, and pressing until the jar is full to the top, wedging in the last lemon. This should be your biggest lemon. Wedging in the last one helps keep them all in place under the salty juice.  Add another tablespoon of salt over the top and if the last lemon isn't covered with juice, squeeze out juice from your extra lemons so there is juice covering the lemons completely. Cap the jar with the sterilized lid, and leave at room temperature for a month, then refrigerate. Your  preserved lemons are ready to enjoy.