Pickling the Harvest, Foods I can't find in France

One of the hardships those of us who live 'abroad' are assumed to endure is the lack of certain foods.  What those foods are and their relative importance depends on the person.  The most common 'missing' food is sour cream.  It's true that we cannot get sour cream in this primitive backwater but we can get creme fraiche, fromage blanc, fromage frais, quark and Greek yogurt; any and all of which are a refinement on good old sour cream, depending on your use.  Another is peanut butter.  We used to buy a lovely organic peanut butter but now all we can get is Skippy.  But has anyone tried Nutella?  Plain old peanut butter will never be the same. The only thing that I truly miss, and have not found even a close substitute for, is American Kosher Dill Pickles.  So, an entrepreneur at heart, I make my own.   I grow the little pickling cukes (which every French farmwife does) and my own dill (which they don't).  The French pickle is more vinegary and doesn't have the dill and garlic that I crave.  I will freely admit that I am a dill pickle addict.  When we lived in Andorra, and had no garden, the first thing I would buy when I visited the U.S. was a big jar of State Fair Kosher Dills.  I wasn't known for sharing.  Last year I 'put up' 40 jars of pickles.  It was enough.  I'll share.  Here is my family recipe, with my French modifications, of course.  If you want to try these and have never/don't know how to make pickles, send me an e-mail and I'll give you the other 'processing' instructions. 

For each quart jar (or in my case, ¾ litre)

1 slice onion
1 ½ cloves garlic
1 head of dill (if mine is ready, which it’s not at the moment) or 1 tbs dill seed, or 3 tsp dill weed (which is what I am using – can’t get dill seed here, either)
1 tbs pickling or sea salt (do not use Iodized or rock salt)
1 tbs sugar
1/8 tsp alum (another thing I can't get here.  I bring from the U.S. but it's not really necessary)
1 tsp pickling spice or
   4 juniper berries, ¼ tsp mustard seeds, 1 tiny, dried, hot red pepper (about ½ inch long), ¼ tsp black peppercorns and 1 small bay (laurel) leaf, broken

Put all of the above in a jar. Tightly pack in the pickling cukes.  Pour over

½ cup white vinegar

Fill with boiling water, put hot rubber ring on, seal and process, boiling water bath, for 15 minutes.

I make them as I pick them, so I do 2 or 3 jars every other day.  They are ready to eat in 2 - 3 weeks but are best if you wait at least 6 weeks.  Mon mari loves the pickled onion and garlic ;)

For more ideas on preserving summer foods check out my website Preserving the Harvest

Comments

[Riana]

YUM! These look delightful!!!!

[Tracey in IN]

I love pickles of all types--I love Cornichons, but I couldn't give up my dill pickles for them! My grandma used to make sweet pickles that were blue, and had whole mustard and other types of whole spices in them. They were a huge hit at every family gathering. She no longer remembers the recipe, and apparently never wrote it down...one of these days I'll find it.

Smile,s
Tracey