- very easy way to pickle and preserve a few carrots
I have never pickled anything before but am wild about the concept of preserving. I also really love the idea of eating the same food and experiencing its character in many different ways. A friend sent me the link to this recipe on this great site dedicated to preserving: Food in Jars……definitely worth checking out if you want more info and detail on pickling etc.
I took about 45ogms of carrots (1 x bag), peeled and quartered them. I cut a few into smaller batons as my jar is a strange curvy shape.
Blanch the carrots for about 30 seconds and then drain. The recommendation was 15 seconds — but that just seemed a little bit too short. Pack the carrots tightly into an adequately sized jar.
Make up the pickling brine by putting the liquid and spices into a pan and bringing this to the boil.
Pour the brine over the carrots, scraping around the inside of the jar in order to dislodge any air bubbles .
Recipe for the small batch pickling brine: (how easy is this?)
- 1 cup filtered water (I used water from my kettle
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- a small handful of ready mixed pickling spice or you could use as per her recipe: (I added a few extra pinches of chilli, bay leaves and cloves)
A palmful (each) of at least a few of the following:
- crushed bay leaves,peppercorns, hot pepper flakes, allspice berries, coriander seeds, whole cloves
Seal the jar and allow to cool. Store in the fridge for 2 t0 3 days until ready to eat.
I cant wait to see how these will turn out and if pickling is this easy – I will start playing round with a few other vegetables.
VERDICT: The carrot is very crunchy and the flavours are quite intense. I find that the cloves are a bit overpowering so will leave these out next time and add only: bay, peppercorns, coriander seeds, a pinch of chilli. I served these to a few friends for supper and they loved them.
