Skip to main content

Home made small batch mixed vegetable pickles!

I was flicking through Jamie Olivers latest cook book (that I got out from the library) and found this wonderful idea to pickle all those left over bits of vegetables that end up lurking in the fridge in that not-enough-for-a-meal-but-too-good-to-be-thrown-to-the-chooks-yet way.

He calls them House Pickles! I think they are just wonderful!

Here's what I did...

 
This is the page from his book, "Save with Jamie".
He talks about having bits and bobs left over from salads that just sit in the fridge until they finally go off and you throw them into the compost or maybe to the chooks... (has this man been looking in my fridge??)

 
Its a pretty simple concept: Put a mixture of 1 part cold water to 2 parts vinegar into a sterilised jar (leaving enough room for the veges) and add 1 heaped tablespoon each of sugar and salt, stir, and add spices and herbs to taste - pop in the veges, seal and leave in the fridge for up to eight weeks.

 
The idea is that you can add random left over veges whenever they become available.
The bit of cucumber and carrot left over from the salad, the 1/4 red onion from the sandwiches, the capsicum from the Mexican meal last night...

 
You can eat them when they are fresh, that is as soon as you start your pickle and they will be crunchy and sharp. Or you can leave them for a week or two and they will mellow and get softer.

 
I made up a batch of these with random leftover bits in the fridge just before Christmas and when we went on holiday for a week, it was perfect with our ploughman's style lunches that we were having.
 
 
The House Pickles are in the bowl front right

I have found that the vinegar loses its potency after six weeks or so. So now I have two jars on the go and as each one runs out, I wash and sterilise the jar, refill it with the vinegar/salt/sugar/water/herb/spice mix and add veges as they come to hand to my "adding to" jar.
The other jar gets used as the "eating from" jar - until it runs out - and then I start again. Its been a wonderful way to pickle without all the hassle and its sooooo good to be able to use up all those pesky bits of vege that just sit around looking sad!
 
I have been experimenting with different vinegars, combinations of herbs and spices. Jamie recommends a hot and spicy and a mellow and sweet jar... Mine are pretty random so far... I call it the "whatever's in the pantry" flavour!
 
The red onion tends to stain the white vinegars pink so if aesthetics are important to you - use red wine or balsamic vinegar or pop them in a jar of their own. I have found pickled carrot to be a new treat for us along with pickled capsicum! Yummm!
 
These would make great house warming gift too I reckon!
 
Thank you Jamie!

Score card:
Green-ness: 5/5 for using up every last scrap of vege
Frugal-ness: 5/5 for not buying something new
Time cost: 10 minutes - and that's stretching it!
Skill level: Basic pour and chop
Fun-ness: Yummy fun!

Comments

Evi said…
Hi Kara, I haven't been visiting here or anywhere much in recent months so completely missed all your interesting posts! But, oh my you have been busy!!!
I wish I'd seen your Christmas tag idea though, as I needed some back then. I think that same idea could be used for other gift tags too and I intend to encourage my youngest to have a go.
Thanks for the tip.
Have an awesome 2014!!!
Practical Frog said…
Hey Evi! Good to "see" you again! I haven't been visiting much either at the moment - so much to do and so little time to do it!
The tags were quick, easy and quite effective (despite the bad photography!) Your kids will have no problems making them!
2014 has been great so far! Best wishes to you and yours too!- K xx
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Popular posts from this blog

What to do when your cat attacks a bird... and doesn't kill it.

We have an eight year old cat who we got as a stray about six years ago. The vet reckoned she was about two when we got her and we did all the right things and got her spayed and vaccinated and all that stuff. She loves people and no matter where you are in the house or garden, she will not be far away. She really good with kids and will put up with the squishiest cuddles and a far bit of toddler tail fascination before bolting out the door to escape. She is well fed (despite the look she is giving me and the empty bowl below...) but not fat - but still the  urge to hunt and subsequently kill still seems to be quite strong. Last weekend, she pounced out of nowhere on a rainbow lorrikeet - thankfully my husband and a band of teenage boys were also there and managed to grab the bird before the cat had done more than pounce. Now we have a slightly mangled still alive but obviously unwell bird on our hands - what do you do? Here's what we did... We found a box - popped an old

Easy to make fabric covers for milk crates!

Like most households, milk crates appear in and about our house as they are the right size to sit on, strong enough to stand on and the right shape to store things in. They are usually free or picked up for a dollar or two at garage sales or at dump/tip shops. They come in red and blue in our area (depending on weather they are originally from Paul's or Dairy Farmers!) and that simply doesn't go with my outdoor decor - neither does the plastic look but that's another issue. Something had to be done. I decided to cover them with material that fitted in with the rest of our current outdoor setting - A quick look on the Internet for inspiration and confidence and... The finished product being modelled by the cat! Here's what I did... I started with the standard Brissy Blue and Red Milk Crates... Then I bought a sheet and a couple of pillow cases from the local Footprints Op Shop This is less a pattern and more a method to follow - Cut the sheet i

Killing cockroaches with boric acid v borax!

We live in Queensland. We have cockroaches. Lots of cockroaches! Why the NSW rugby team is called the Cockroaches is a mystery to me - surely ours are not only bigger but more plentiful??? At any rate, I don't like living with them (and I'm quite sure they  are not so fond of me at the moment!!) and I have been going through the usual gauntlet of sprays, solutions and bombs to get rid of them... But I'm not so keen on the chemical aspect of all this spraying and bombing. I hate the smell and can almost feel disease and cancer growing in me every time I spray. I'm OK with the resident cockies getting a lungful of chemicals and then keeling over but I feel its impolite (and probably illegal) if my guests and family members do the same thing!!! We went through a faze of killing them by hand (and flyswatter and rolled up newspaper and underfoot) but its hard and frustrating work and it probably was only culling the dumb and slow ones - leaving the smart fast ones to bre