Capturing the tastes of the season

McClatchy Newspapers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Grief and guilt rule Dot Weller’s life after she accidentally kills her mother-in-law with home-canned beans. The once-bubbly housewife in “Larry’s Party,” a novel by Pulitzer winner Carol Shields, suffers a lifetime of depression and agoraphobia — all because she failed to get an airtight seal on a jar.

It’s the possibility of manslaughter — plus fears of chemistry and tipped vats of scalding-hot water — that keeps many people from “putting food by.” What a revelation to learn that it’s possible to make pickles without the bother of hot-water baths and botulism!

Much of the produce flooding farmers markets this month can be turned into “quick pickles.” Fruits and vegetables are cooked briefly before mixing them with a spiced vinegar solution. The finished pickles will remain good in the refrigerator — not the root cellar — several days to several months.

Flavor profiles run the gamut, from sweet to tangy to downright fiery. “A pickle’s punch should not be pulled. Otherwise it becomes something else: a salad,” write the authors of “Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes With Big Flavor” (Chronicle Books).

Many of the pickles are beautiful — the taste of summer captured in colorful chunks and punctuated with mustard seeds, whole cloves, wisps of dill. When artfully arranged in clear glass jars, they make perfect gourmet gifts for the summer hostess.

Pickles have long garnished humble hamburgers and barbecued meat sandwiches. Increasingly, though, they are showing up in high-end restaurants as Kansas City area chefs tweak the down-home favorite.

At Bluestem restaurant, executive chef Colby Garrelts serves giardiniera, or Italian pickled vegetables, with a beef tartare appetizer and a halibut and white bean entree.

Cut to the taste

“When foods are really rich, the vinegar and spices of pickles cut through all that,” says Garrelts, who pickles everything from radishes to celery. “They add dimension to many dishes.”

At Room 39, chef Ted Habiger pickles anything that’s in season, including ramps in spring and wax beans in summer. The acidity of pickles is a necessary complement to the sweet and salty elements on a plate, he says. On Room 39’s pork loin sandwich, for example, Habiger’s house-made pickles balance the salty pork and sweet caramelized onions.

“Pickles are almost like a cleanser. They make everything feel not so heavy in your stomach and make your mouth feel clean,” he says.

Executive chef Joe West garnishes gazpacho with pickled onions at Delaware Cafe. He also serves a “bar snack” plate of pickled seasonal vegetables such as cauliflower, red onions and carrots.

“It’s a really fun way to present vegetables and a great way to utilize produce you already have,” West says. “It extends shelf life.”

Although canning bumper garden crops may have been one of great-grandma’s strategies for coping with the Depression, pickling at home isn’t necessarily a money-saver.

“If you’re not growing your own foods, canning and freezing is not the economical way to go,” says Nichole Burnett, family and consumer science agent for the Johnson County extension office. “You’ll pay more in the long run.”

It’s possible to pickle broccoli stalks and watermelon rinds, which otherwise might be composted or thrown away. The only cost to a batch of watermelon rind pickles is the vinegar, about a dollar.

But the price quickly escalates for a pickled peach recipe that calls for half a bottle of wine and a $6 vanilla bean or one that uses out-of-season produce.

If you do buy fruits and vegetables for pickling, it pays to get them by the bushel at the farmers market, Burnett says. The quality of local produce bought at the peak of freshness will be evident in the final pickle.

Another cost to consider is time. It can be tedious to peel marble-sized pearl onions, cut a head of cauliflower into tiny florets or pare the green rind off a watermelon. But once the produce is prepped, quick pickle recipes go together in a snap.

Now what?

Once your pickles are made, what do you do with them?

Kerri Conan, a cookbook author in southern Leavenworth County, Kan., puts homemade pickles on the table every day at lunch. She estimates she and her husband go through a jar a week.

Besides eating them straight from the jar, Conan likes to arrange different pickles on a platter as a relish tray (perfect for summer bratwurst barbecues) or as antipasto.

QUICK PICKLED PEACHES

6 peaches

2 cups white wine

1 cup cider vinegar

1 cup honey

1‚Ñ2 cup raw sugar (see note)

1 vanilla bean, split and seeded

2 cinnamon sticks

Juice of 1 lemon

Blanch peaches about 10 seconds. Peel and cut in half. Place wine, vinegar, honey, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and lemon juice in a large saucepot. Bring to a simmer and let cook 5 minutes. Add peaches and cook until heated through, about 6 minutes after returning to a boil.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the peaches to a canning jar with vanilla and cinnamon sticks evenly distributed. Pour boiling syrup over the peaches and fill to 1‚Ñ4 inch below the rim and seal. Peaches will last up to a month refrigerated.

Variations: For pickled plums, substitute 1 quart plus 1 cup pitted small plums for the peaches and 2 star anise for the cinnamon. For pickled cherries, replace the peaches with 6 cups pitted cherries and the cinnamon with 3 green cardamom pods. Reduce cooking time to 3 minutes after returning to a boil.

Makes 1 quart

Note: Raw sugar is the residue left after sugarcane has been processed to remove the molasses and refine the sugar crystals. Look for it in the baking aisle. It may be labeled as Demerara sugar, Barbados sugar or Turbinado sugar.

“The Victory Garden,” www.pbs.org.

PURPLE PICKLED EGGS WITH SWEET SPICES

1 dozen large eggs

4 cups cider vinegar

1 beet about the size of a baseball, peeled and thinly sliced

1‚Ñ2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons coriander seed

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Pinch of ground mace

4to 8 dashes of hot pepper sauce (optional)

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Place eggs in a medium saucepan with water to cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from the heat, cover and let stand 10 minutes. Drain eggs, dunk them in cold water, drain again and peel them. Puncture each egg lightly in several places with a fork to help the pickling liquid penetrate; set aside in a nonreactive bowl.

In the same saucepan, combine all the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer vigorously until the beet slices are tender, about 15 minutes.

Pour hot liquid over the eggs, cover and refrigerate. These pickles will keep, covered and refrigerated, about 12 months.

Makes 1 dozen

“Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes With Big Flavor (Chronicle)”

HOMEMADE SPICY DILL PICKLES

4 cups rice wine vinegar

2 tablespoons honey

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon whole white peppercorns

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon fennel seeds

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted

1 tablespoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh dill

2 tablespoons coarsely chopped cilantro

2 unpeeled English cucumbers, washed and cut in half horizontally, then quartered lengthwise

Combine vinegar, honey, pepper flakes, peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, fennel seeds, cumin and salt in a medium nonreactive saucepan over high heat; bring to a boil. Let boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add dill and cilantro. Place cucumbers in a medium bowl and pour cooled vinegar mixture over them. Refrigerate, covered, 24 hours or up to 4 days.

Makes 8 servings

Food Network

SMOKY PICKLED CORN CIRCLES

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

8 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

1‚Ñ2 pound red, orange and yellow bell peppers, seeded and cut into thin rings

2 large onions, peeled and cut into thin rings

6 tomatillos, papery skins removed, halved

4 teaspoons prepared Dijon mustard, mixed with 2 teaspoons water

4 cups white wine vinegar

1 cup pineapple juice

2 cups water

1 1‚Ñ2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt

2 to 3 tablespoons coriander seeds

1 tablespoon whole cloves

4 to 6 dried chipotle peppers (or substitute 3 to 5 fresh chilies of your choice)

6 ears corn, husked, silked and cut into rounds 1‚Ñ2 to 3‚Ñ4 inch thick

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high until hot but not smoking. Add garlic, bell peppers, onions and tomatillos. Reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables sweat and are slightly softened and the peppers have brightened in color, about 5 minutes. Be careful not to overcook or brown; the vegetables should be crisp-tender. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a nonreactive pot, combine all the remaining ingredients except the corn and bring to a boil over high heat. Add corn rounds; there should be just enough liquid to cover them. Return to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer 5 minutes. Add reserved vegetables and return to a simmer. Turn off the heat and allow to cool to room temperature, uncovered.

Cover and refrigerate. Serve chilled. The pickled corn will last 2 weeks, covered and refrigerated.

Makes about 4 quarts

“Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes With Big Flavor” (Chronicle)

WATERMELON RIND PICKLES

1 (4-pound) piece watermelon, quartered

8 cups water

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons coarse salt, divided

2 cups sugar

11‚Ñ4 cups apple cider vinegar

8 whole cloves

8 whole black peppercorns

2 cinnamon sticks

1‚Ñ2 teaspoon pickling spice

1‚Ñ4 teaspoon ground allspice

1‚Ñ4 teaspoon ground ginger

Cut watermelon pulp from rind, leaving thin layer of pink on rind. (Reserve pulp for another use.) Cut green outer skin from rind; discard. Cut enough rind into 1-by-1‚Ñ2-inch pieces to measure 4 cups. Combine 8 cups water and 2 tablespoons salt in large pot; bring to boil. Add rind pieces and boil until tender, about 5 minutes. Strain. Transfer rinds to large metal bowl.

Combine remaining 2 teaspoons salt, sugar and remaining ingredients in large heavy saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Pour over watermelon rinds in bowl. Place plate atop rinds to keep rinds submerged in pickling liquid. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight. Strain liquid from rinds into saucepan; bring to boil. Pour over rinds. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Repeat straining and boiling of liquid and pour over rinds 1 more time. Refrigerate in covered jars up to 2 weeks.

Makes about 31‚Ñ2 cups

Bon Appetit

GIARDINIERA (ITALIAN PICKLED VEGETABLES)

2 cups distilled white vinegar

2 tablespoons coarse salt

2 medium carrots, cut into 1‚Ñ4-by- 1‚Ñ4-by-2-inch julienne strips

16 small pearl onions, peeled

2 cups cauliflower florets, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 medium celery stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 medium red bell pepper, sliced 1‚Ñ3 inch thick

1‚Ñ2 cup pitted meaty green olives

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Pour 3 quarts water into a 5-quart pot, add the vinegar and salt and bring to boil. Add carrots and onions; cook 2 minutes. Add cauliflower and celery; cook 2 minutes longer. Stir in bell pepper andcook until vegetables are softened but still quite firm, about 1 minute. Drain vegetables and transfer to a large bowl . Cool to room temperature.

Season with salt, toss in the olives and drizzle olive oil over everything. Toss well and marinate at least 1 hour at room temperature, or 1 to 2 days in the refrigerator before serving. Pickles will keep refrigerated up to 7 days.

Makes 3 quarts

“Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen” (Knopf)

SESAME-PICKLED CARROTS

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons Asian sesame oil, divided

1 pound carrots, peeled and thinly sliced (about 4 cups)

3 tablespoons peeled, slivered fresh ginger, divided

2 tablespoons orange marmalade or orange juice concentrate

Grated zest of 1 orange

2 tablespoons black and/or white sesame seeds, toasted

1 or more dried redchilies, to taste (optional)

1 teaspoon kosher or other coarse salt

In a medium saute pan or wok, heat the vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon sesame oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking. Add carrots and half the ginger and saute, stirring frequently, until carrots are crisp-tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove to a non-reactive bowl.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons sesame oil, the remaining ginger, marmalade, orange zest, sesame seeds,chilies and salt and toss well. Cool to room temperature, cover and refrigerate.

These pickles will keep for a month refrigerated.

Makes about 4 cups

“Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes With Big Flavor (Chronicle)”