Middle-Eastern Sour Pickles
when experimenting w/ pickle making i started down this recipe thinking it was for one jar of pickles, not two. incidentally, i had lots of the boiling vinegar salt water left after filling one jar, so i filled two more. in the end, the pickles turned out delicious, thus the ingredients (minus grape leaves for crispness) are from Claudia Roden’s recipe for pickled cucumbers and the amounts are mine. makes 3 quarts.
2 lbs small pickling cucumbers -whole or quartered
9-12 grape leaves
12 cloves garlic -peel
handful of fresh dill sprigs or 3 tsp dill seed
12 blk peppercorns
12 whole coriander seeds
4 cups water
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
3 tbl salt
3 clean quart jars w/ lids
wash cucumbers and quarter if desired. splitting everything evenly amongst jars, add the cucumbers, garlic, dill, peppercorns and coriander. place water, vinegar and salt in a pan and bring to boil. pour into the jars, filling almost to the very top. tightly cap each jar and leave in a warm place. in claudia roden’s recipe it said the pickles will be ready in 10 days, our pickles were ready in about 5-7 days. you can keep the pickles out (use in 6 weeks) or store in the refrigerator and they will keep longer.