We've posted a couple of pickle recipes on here already: Refrigerated Dill Pickles and Refrigerated Rye Pickles. When we were at the farmer's market, we grabbed a bunch of pickling cucumbers and I decided to take our base recipe and twist it into a Bloody Mary pickle recipe. Man... these pickles... awesome! A little spicy, but not super hot. Lots of flavour. We had so many cucumbers that Justin decided to do his own twist on our base recipe and his sour pickles came out delicious. He added nasturtium leaves because he did some research and found that nasturtium leaves can help keep the pickles crispy longer. We have a big plant right off our front porch.
So here are two more refrigerated dill pickle recipes that are quick and easy. I don't know who this band is, but I stumbled on them because I saw their name pop up on some search and I had to check it out. Like... Tom Waits' rockabilly brother. The Hillbilly Moon Explosion doing "My Love Forevermore". -jen
JEN'S BLOODY MARY DILL PICKLES Time: less than 10 minutes Difficulty: Easy Makes: 1 quart
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons dried dill
2 teaspoons dried chives
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon pickling spice
1/2 teaspoon whole brown mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon whole celery seeds
3-6 pickling cucumbers (depending on size) or 1 large English cucumber
In a quart-sized jar, combine garlic and all of the dry ingredients and shake jar to mix well. Arrange cucumbers in jar. (For pickling cucumbers, put in whole, halved or quartered. For English cucumber, cut into long spears.) Add horseradish and remaining liquid ingredients. Fill to the top with water. Refrigerate for 3-5 days.
JUSTIN'S SOUR HERB DILL PICKLES Time: Less than 10 minutes Difficulty: Easy Makes: 1 quart
3-6 pickling cucumbers (depending on size) or 1 large English cucumber
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup white vinegar
In a quart-sized jar, combine basil, garlic and all of the dry ingredients and
shake jar to mix well. Arrange cucumbers in jar. (For pickling
cucumbers, put in whole, halved or quartered. For English cucumber, cut
into long spears.) Add vinegars.
Fill to the top with water. Refrigerate for 3-5 days.
So, I was inspired to try this dish after seeing some pictures of people forming bacon into crazy shapes after it had been cooked but before it had crisped up. I though it would be cool to make them into taco shells and stuff them full of lettuce and tomato to counter all the salty, greasy, bacon goodness, like a BLT minus the bread. Then Jen decided to mix up and awesome green aioli to put on top and all that was left was something to wash it all down. The obvious answer, of course, was a bloody mary. A super baconny BLT should have a super tomatoey drink as a companion.
Note: My first attempt at this bacon taco shell was successful but very time consuming and so I would not repeat it again, ever. It took almost 40 minutes for the bacon to crisp when I had woven it into a lattice and tried to bake it in a taco shell shape (pictured at right). Instead I will present a far simpler and less time consuming process (pictured below) that I saw here.
To accompany the dish, there was no group, or song, better than the Supersuckers covering Willie Nelson's "Bloody Mary Morning". Can't get much better than that! - justin
Place 4-5 strips of bacon on a paper towel on a microwave safe plate. Make sure the edges all overlap so that the bacon "fuses" when it's cooking. Microwave on high for 3-4 minutes, checking on it every minute or so to make sure it isn't burning. When it's done, pull it out and fold the bacon pancake in half with something inside to make it form into a shell. Some tinfoil should work. After a minute or two it should have set up and become crispy. Slice your tomato and lay some in your shell. Stuff the rest of the space with 3 of the large leaves of lettuce. Top with the aioli (recipe below) and you're good to go! Make as many more as you have guests or as you think yourself capable of consuming.
The aioli can actually be made ahead of time. It lasts for a long time in the fridge and goes well on everything; sandwiches, salad, wraps, slaw, etc.
Combine the mayo, sour cream , lemon juice, parsley, cilantro, green onions, and garlic and mix thoroughly. Voilà!
2 oz Demitri's Bloody Mary seasoning (this stuff is awesome but use what you like or can find)
1 qt V8 or tomato juice, whichever you prefer
4 shots vodka
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes Tabasco or hot sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
olives or celery or some other garnish
Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a large pitcher and place in the fridge for an hour. Serve in a large glass over ice. Garnish with olives, celery or whatever you stick in your Bloody Mary. I prefer whole green olives!
First thing first - I feel it's important to note with this recipe that 3.5 pounds of heirloom tomatoes cost us $12 at our Farmers' Market. If you're on a budget, you can always use plum tomatoes in this recipe instead. But the heirloom are so very, very awesome. It makes a ton of soup, so I'd say it's well worth the cost! And most likely, you're going to have some delicious leftovers.
We make a pretty solid Roasted Tomato & Basil soup, and that was my game plan when I started. But like most things I cook, I decided to try a few different ingredients. It really just depends on what we have on hand and what kind of mood I'm in! As I added the carrots and celery, which don't go in my normal recipe, I started thinking about Bloody Marys and thought, "Why not?!" We really liked how this soup came out! I was so bummed we didn't have any vodka on hand! And we were broke, so we couldn't even run to the corner store for a little bit. The sherry was quite delicious with it, just the same.
As you may or may not have noticed... we've pretty much always posted
punk rock music with our recipes. But let's be real - our music
preferences are way more diverse than just punk. I suppose I could just
choose a random punk song that I like to go with the recipe, but
really, I was listening to Glasvegas the entire time I was making this
soup, trying to sing along in my best Scottish accent (at least the words I understood, which is only about half of them), so it seems like the thing to post. Here's "Geraldine", off their
first album. -jen
BLOODY MARY SOUP Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 2 hours Difficulty: Medium Serves: 10-12
1 large bunch basil, chopped (2-3 cups packed leaves)
3 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh minced garlic
2 teaspoons dried thyme
juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon green Tabasco (or your favourite hot sauce)
1/2 teaspoon horseradish
1 teaspoon Accent/MSG (optional)
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup sherry (optional)*
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Chop the top off of the garlic head to expose the cloves. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap in aluminum foil. On a baking sheet, toss the quartered tomatoes with the remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the garlic foil packet in the oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, add the baking sheet of tomatoes to the oven and roast for 45 minutes. (The garlic will roast for 1 hour total.) When cool enough to handle, squeeze the roasted garlic out of its paper right onto the roasted tomatoes and set aside until ready to use.
In a large stock pot, heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil plus butter over a medium-high heat. Add red onion, carrot, celery and red pepper flake. Saute for about 10 minutes, until onion is translucent. Stir in flour and cook an additional 5 minutes.
Stir in the chicken stock and milk, using a whisk to break up any flour lumps. Add the roasted tomatoes and roasted garlic, the canned tomatoes, basil, green onions, minced garlic, dried thyme, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, Tabasco, horseradish and Accent. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for about 40 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir in sherry right before serving.
*Note: I think this would probably be delicious and more true to a Bloody Mary is you used vodka instead of sherry... but we were out of vodka!
