Pickles + Preserves – Page 3 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Pork Chops with Fresh Cherry Chutney

What to do with eight pounds of cherries? After our trip to Dutchess County, I wanted to use some of the cherries we picked from Barton Orchard in some kind of sauce. There’s no avoiding using cherry preserve in this recipe–it helped make the fresh cherries a little more sweet than tart. The allspice and the cumin gave the chutney a really nice flavor. I added some chili flakes just to give it that small spike in taste. I think I’ll make more chutney now with the summer fruits in the market.

Ingredients:
6 pieces boneless pork chops
2 cups fresh cherries
3/4 cup of black cherry preserve
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp of ground allspice
1 tsp of ground cumin
red pepper flakes
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Pit cherries. Using the flat side of a large knife, press on the cherry gently until it splits open while covering with your other hand so there isn’t juice spitting all over the place. Pull out the pits.
2. Make cherry chutney. In a small bowl, mix cherry preserve, vinegar and allspice. Set aside 1/4 cup of mixture to glaze pork. Then in a saucepot, sautÃ© onions until transparent. Add pitted cherries, red chili flakes and the rest of the cherry preserve mixture. Boil in medium-low heat until thick, stirring often. Season with salt.
3. While making the cherry chutney, sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper. On a hot grill, cook pork for about 8 minutes on each side. Brush the top part of the pork with some of the cherry glaze you set aside. Turn to cook the other side and glaze the other side as well.
4. Transfer to a plate and rest for about 10 minutes. Serve with the fresh cherry chutney.

Preserved Lemons

A month ago, my neighborhood supermarket had a lemon sale. I bought a wholeload but didn’t really know what to do with a lot of them except to preserve them for a future chicken tagine dish. I was already pickling like a maniac, so why not?

Ingredients:
4 whole lemons
juice of 4 other lemons
about 3 cups of salt

1. Make criss-cross slices on the two lemons without cutting through. Salt each lemon generously.
2. In a pickling jar, pack one lemon at the bottom. Then layer with salt. Pack the next lemon tightly and again, layer with salt. Do this for all four lemons and make sure all of them are surrounded with salt. Pour in lemon juice and cover tightly.
3. Store in the fridge for a month, flipping the jar over every week to ensure that all the lemons are submerged in the pickling juice.

Achara, Filipino Pickles

I don’t really use a food processor because one of the things I love about cooking is the actual process of getting all the ingredients together and preparing them for the actual cooking. But for this Filipino pickles recipe, or achara, I was thankful that my mother owned one. I chopped the papaya and the carrots in smaller chunks and passed them through the machine to grate. Just make sure that you squeeze out excess water after grating them using a cheesecloth. The pickling juice should be the only liquid in your jar.

To make this even more Filipino, I bought a small flower cookie cutter for the carrots. (Filipinos love playing with their food!) The red bell pepper and the onions were chopped by hand. I don’t have exact measurements for the vinegar or the sugar. Start off with enough vinegar to cover the vegetables in the pot, but it’s all up to you to balance the sweet and sour taste in the end. Season with a little bit of salt to taste. Heidiologies, this is for you.

Ingredients:
1 green papaya, grated
2 medium carrots, some grated, some cut into flowers
1 red bell pepper, julienned
a handful of pearl onions, peeled, sliced thinly
half a head of garlic, minced
1 large knob of ginger, peeled, sliced thinly
vinegar
white sugar
salt

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and let simmer until carrots are soft, about 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool before transferring to a jar.

Rib-Eye Steak with Red Onion Pickles

Tony tore a page off his psychiatrist’s copy of Departures magazine before he got kicked out of her office. The page had a steak recipe on it. And after the bloodbath in The Sopranos last night, I could only think of eating a thick rib-eye steak for dinner. After an hour of push-ups, lunges and sprints in Central Park, I walked to the Fairway supermarket to pick up a $26 rib-eye steak. I will never know what recipe Tony wanted to replicate, but maybe Carmela will put these red onion pickles on the side.

Ingredients:
1 pound rib-eye steak, excess fat trimmed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
olive oil, salt, pepper

For the red onion pickles:
2 large red onions, peeled, sliced into thin rounds, separated into rings
1 bunch of red beets
1 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
salt

1. Pickle the red onions ahead of time. In a saucepan, cook the beets in boiling water until tender, about 30 minutes. When the beets are cooked, remove from the pan. Save 1/2 cup of the beet juice in a large bowl. In this bowl, combine the red wine vinegar, sugar, salt and 1 cup of water. Add the onions to the bowl and make sure they are completely submerged in the pickling liquid. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
2. Rub salt and pepper all over the steak. Drizzle with some olive oil. Using a knife, make several slits on one side of the steak and insert garlic pieces. Set aside until ready to cook.
3. Heat an oven-proof frying pan. When the pan is hot enough but not smoking, sear one side of the steak for about 8 minutes. Slowly lift with a pair of tongs and turn over to cook the other side for another 6 minutes. Transfer the pan to the oven and broil on high for another 5 minutes or until medium-rare.
4. Remove the steak to a chopping board and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice against the grain when ready to serve. Top with red onion pickles.

Pickled Scotch Bonnet Peppers

It always tempts us: that clear, glass jar stuffed with peppers, carrots and onions, drowned in vinegar. We know it’s going to hurt, but it’s one of those things we can’t help but eat when we’re on some island in Central America. The coasts of Belize, Costa Rica and most recently, Nicaragua, reminded us that African slaves were imported by the Spanish to fulfill their labor needs. Slave traders supplied the colonies with their human cargo, and as they intermingled, they formed ethnic groups like the Creoles. The settlers adapted to their new homes and passed on their beloved cultures and histories to the next generations.

Scotch bonnet pepper is just one of the ingredients that make Creolan food livelier than the rest. They are related to habaÃ±eros, only they “cause dizziness, numbness of hands and cheeks, and severe heartburn” when eaten raw. When I made jerk chicken, I had to wear disposable gloves before I handled them to avoid trouble. But there is no gain without the pain, so I attempted to make my own and relive our time on the islands. A day later, I served it on the side with roasted pork ribs on the bone, and the rest of the night was, well, spent at home. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Ingredients:
2 palm-fulls of scotch bonnet peppers, some halved
1 large white onion, thinly sliced
1 medium carrot, cut in matchsticks
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small knob of ginger, peeled, sliced thinly
white vinegar
salt

1. In a sauce pot, simmer the garlic and ginger in the vinegar with some salt. Add carrots and peppers. Keep the fire low and stir ocassionally to avoid the vinegar from boiling.
2. When vinegar is somewhat reduced, remove the garlic and discard. Taste the liquid at your own risk. Season with some salt. Turn off the heat and let cool before transferring to a glass jar. Keep in room temperature for at least eight hours and then refrigerate to preserve. Serve a small portion when needed.