Pickles - Homemade

Middle Eastern homemade pickles are offered as a simple appetizer to a number of Mediterranean restaurants. Using large jars to pickle the vegetables, they look pretty with a combination of cut up turnips, cauliflower, baby eggplants, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, onions, red peppers, garlic and even hard boiled eggs. Below is a typical pickling brine used.

Cut up your own combination of the following:

1 large beet, peeled and quartered (only use if  you want your pickles pink or red!)
onion, white or red
cauliflower, broken into florets
baby eggplants
green cabbage cut into 2-inch chunks
cucumbers, small pickling cukes
turnips
red peppers, sliced
carrots, cut into thick slices
garlic, left whole

Brine

4 cups cold spring water (not chlorinated tap water)
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
4 1/2 tablespoons coarse or kosher salt (no iodine)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes or 1 small dried pepper
10 whole peppercorns
1 tsp mustard seeds


1. Fill a 1-quart jar with the vegetable of your choice, placing the quartered beet on the bottom (if desired), red pepper flakes or dried pepper.


2. Bring the water, vinegar, salt, and garlic to a boil in a medium-size saucepan. Pour the mixture over the vegetables. Close the jar tightly. Set aside in a cool, dark place for 3 days (72 hours). store in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 months.