A simple pickle recipe that's great for pickling broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, onions, cucumbers, and more!
I love cookbooks and I hoard them pretty obsessively. Although, I’ll admit, I have a hard time following recipes from start to finish. Which is why I love the premise of Kate Payne’s new book, The Hip Girls Guide to the Kitchen. It’s a “hit the ground running approach, seeing as you need to eat three times daily whether you’ve mastered your kitchen or not.”
It’s full of, really, everything you need to know to be pretty successful in your kitchen – from how to set up your pantry to how to put meals together intuitively and economically. (Also she’s gluten free, so she includes tons of dietary options). She offers suggestions for what to buy in bulk, (and what not to), tips for buying kitchen tools from second hand stores, plus tons of clever “hip tricks” along the way. (For example: did you know you can buy a refurbished Vitamix blender for a fraction of the cost? …me neither).
She’s truly your friend in the kitchen and her writing is charming, witty, and just fun to read. Some of my favorite sections are:
Equip your Ship: Setting up your kitchen without winning the lottery
Methodology & Madd Skills: Learning how to cook without books or your laptop
Kitchen Kick-Ass: Tapping into your inner depression-era granny
Using Stuff Up: Preserving projects any beginner can handle
Since I’m clearly a beginner at preserving projects, I instantly gravitated to her recipe for Any Vegetable Vinegar Pickles. Any recipe that has “any vegetable” in the title, is my kind of recipe. I chose cauliflower, broccoli, red onions, radishes, and cucumbers along with a few various spices. Her brine recipe was quick and easy to make. The hardest part is the waiting – she suggest stashing them in the back of your fridge and not touching them for at least a week, although she says 2-3 is the best. (We’ll see if I can hold out that long!)
Click here to go buy her book!
Also, be sure to check out Kate’s blog, as well as these fine fellow bloggers who have also written posts about the book: Food in Jars, Healthy Green Kitchen, Local Kitchen Blog, Autumn Makes and Does, Punk Domestics, Spinach Tiger, and Local Savour.
the giveaway is now closed, a winner has been notified
any vegetable vinegar pickles
- any vegetables you like (I used cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, onions and radishes)
- fresh or dried spices (I used peppercorns, cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, & caraway)
- 1 cup any kind of vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
- 1 cup filtered water
- 1 tablespoon kosher or any non-iodized salt
- optional: 1 teaspoon sugar
- Wash and cut up your vegetables and pack them into a clean jar.
- Add between ¼ - ½ teaspoon of whole dried spices.
- Combine vinegar, filtered water and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Put your just boiled brine over the vegetables in the jar.
- Wipe any vinegar spills from the rim with a clean towel and put on the lid.
- Hide the jar in the back of the friedge for at least a week. Two weeks is better, three is best.
- Keep them in the fridge for up to 6 months.
I used these Ball jars (and also the smaller version).
recipe published with permission from Harper Collins.
Wow!!!!! This post makes me think why i never thought of making pickles before! Sooooo delicious ! Can’t wait to begin with my pickle making experiments!
A couple of years ago I started using Evernote to store my favorite recipes. It’s really handy to be able to refer to it when I’m at the grocery store.
I’m not sure if this qualifies as a tip but two things I’ve learned in the kitchen: don’t pressure yourself to have to cook something “fancy” every night and if you’re struggling to come up with recipe ideas with a fridge full of odds and ends, google it! I’ll google the ingredients that I have, say “sweet potato, lentils, peas” and poof! Tons of recipes like stews, vegetarian chilis, loaded sweet potatoes, etc. I’ve used this so many times at the end of a work day when produce needs to be used up and my brain doesn’t have any ideas.
What a fun, useful, and creative book! My main kitchen trick is washing, drying and storing all greens so they are ready for lunches, dinners, etc. Saves time and there is no excuse to not use/eat them.
I do this once or twice a month. I peel a humongous pile of garlic, whirr it in the food processor so that it is minced. Flatten it out in a ziploc bag, make indentations with a chopstick so I can break of 2 inch squares after I freeze it. Then I have fresh/frozen minced garlic whenever I want!
My best tip is kind of “borrowed” from Rachael Ray and it’s to use a “garbage bowl” when you are preparing a meal. When I have something that requires the peeling of different vegetables, eggs, etc. I just peel the vegetables and let the peelings fall in the garbage bowl, throw the eggshells into it, etc. and then dump the whole bowl into the trash when I’m done. So much better than having to make multiple trips to the garbage can or pulling the garbage can over to me and having it in my way when I’m moving around preparing the meal.
My biggest kitchen trick is getting dinner on the table while simultaneously making sure my 16-month old is entertained and safe.
This recipe is exactly with I’ve been looking for-thank you!
My kitchen tip is to tape recipes for frequently made items inside of cabinets near where you are prepping them. I have the family bread recipe, a pizza dough recipe, guidelines for cooking grains, beans, and polenta, and a cottage cheese pancake recipe posted inside the cabinets near my stove. Not only are they handy when I am having a forgetful moment, but they are there for any helpers to use.
I also like to keep a running list of what we eat for dinner each week. After a couple of months, if I am in a rut or a mood that I don’t know what to cook, I consult the calendar to get ideas.
I love using lemon juice in my water, but I hate throwing out the juiced lemons. So before discarding the lemon, I de-rind the lemon and freeze the lemon zest to add to recipes! I can then throw them into my compost feeling guilt free!
Really cool project. I am more of a cooker and am just easing into baking, so I have no experiences with pickling anything, but this seems like a great little project to test out. Adding Payne’s book to my amazon list!
rae of love from berlin
Zap lemons for 15 seconds in the microwave to get the most juice out of them.
i make big batches of dry beans and freeze them. i also freeze lots of other stuff like fruit and other food.
My favorite kitchen tip is much less of a ‘tip’ and much more of a reminder: Quality, not quantity. Sometimes, it’s the smallest, most delicately prepared dishes that play on our tongues the longest, rather than buoyant and lavishing feasts. And, of course, quality ingredients are of utmost importance, so even if they’re hard to obtain, it will most likely be worth the extra bit of trouble. Little differences go a long way in the culinary world!
Memorize a basic chicken or beef stir-fry recipe and then change it up according to the seasonable vegetables available at your local farmer’s market.
I follow the jamie oliver train of thought of adding flavor and complexity to simple dishes by pickling or marinating or toasting or roasting pretty much everything. I give the side eye to any recipe that just tosses everything into liquid 🙂
Preaching to the choir! Love anything pickled and I love cute books like this!
Love pickling without the fear of salmonella, these look so yummy!
My best kitchen trick is to clean out glass jars (from nut butters, coconut oil, etc.) and re-use them to make easy salad dressings by just adding ingredients and shaking until mixed.
What a lovely (and obviously hip) cookbook!! My favorite and most useful kitchen tip is this: When you’re about to mince garlic (and you’ve already got the papery skin removed) splash a little water onto your fingertips and your cutting board. This stops it from sticking tenaciously to your fingers and knife as you cut!! Thank you so much for the giveaway opportunity!! 🙂
Lovely giveaway. I have to agree about reading the recipe all the way through before starting…messed up many times!
And yes also have two sets of measuring spoons! (or at least pick up an extra tablespoon & teaspoon at a thrift store)
Just so you know, this is my favorite food blog 🙂 In the kitchen, I love to blend my own teas. I have a nice little square corner shelf full of mason jars filled with various herbs and spices for tea and cooking. Everything is clear, labeled, and in the open, so it all actually gets used!