Brooklyn Forager

This month, the canning gurus in the Tigress Can Jam chose carrots as our mystery ingredient.  Having just thought about jam, I wasn't so sure where I was going to take this one, and then I read further.  Carrots are prime candidates for pickles! I love pickles.  For a very long time it was just your standard kosher dills.  Then all manner of cucumber pickles.  And slowly, as I explore more foods and flavors, I will pretty much at least try anything pickled (well, vegetables anyway).

Luckily, our Tigress also pickles and was very clear (thank goodness!) about the requirements needed to can carrots.  Carrots are lovely and sweet, but this means that in order to be processed in a hot water bath, they need very specific amounts of acid.  I'm interested in completing the full year of the can jam, so, as you can imagine, I took this very seriously.

Seriously means more books! This is never a problem in my house (except for the lack of space for more books), so I would like to mention two books that are now essentials in my canning library.  The first that I checked out was The Joy of Pickling which has loads of recipes spanning the globe.   These recipes are not just for hot water bath canning and I will definitely be turning to this one a lot. 

The book that won out for this time around - Ball Complete of Home Preserving - may have edged its way into primary reference status.  The directions are clear, concise and yet detailed.  More detailed than the other books that I've looked at, and so I felt even more comfortable with the process this time around.  It was here that I found the recipe for Vietnamese Carrot and Daikon Pickle.  Yum!

This also gave me a chance to break out the mandoline that I purchased months ago, but had avoided.  The carrots and daikon radish were to be julienned before they were pickled, and I was determined.  And I was largely successful at first (beginners luck?) and then found that the slicer blade was working better than the julienne blade and so I was getting some wide carrot slices that didn't quite break out into julienne form.  A work in progress, I'm sure.

Once my vegetables were (sort of) julienned, I added vinegar (a fresh bottle of 5% white vinegar to be sure the acidity was spot on), water, sugar and grated ginger to a large sauce pan and brought the pickling liquid to a boil.  Vegetables went into the mix for one minute, and then the good stuff began!

The recipe called for an optional star anise in the bottom of each jar.  I went with it and added about 5-6 peppercorns as well.  This was my only modification since I didn't want to mess with acidity ratios.  I packed the vegetables into the jar, topped with hot pickling liquid and sealed the jars.  They were processed for 10 minutes. 

As I write this, the jars are still resting (oh sweet procrastination!) and so, like last month, I haven't yet tried my pickle out of the jar.  I will be opening a jar on Sunday, so expect a full report (and a marmalade report coming very soon also!) shortly.

Vietnamese Carrot and Daikon Pickle (adapted from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving)

• 3 cups white vinegar, 5% acidity at a minimum
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 2 lbs carrots, julienned
• 2 lbs daikon radish, julienned
• 6 whole star anise
• about 36 black peppercorns

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids according to instructions. 
2. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine vinegar, water, sugar and ginger.  Heat over a medium-high flame until boiling, stirring to dissolve sugar. 
3. Add julienned vegetables and stir for 1 minute.  Remove from heat.
4. Place 1 star anise and about 6 peppercorns in each hot jar.  Pack vegetables into hot jars, leaving a good 1/2 inch head room.  Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover vegetables. Remove air bubbles with nonmetallic instrument.  Add more pickling liquid if needed to keep 1/2 inch head room.
5. Wipe rim.  Center lid on jar.  Screw band until resistance is met and continue tightening until finger-tip tight.
6. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are covered by at least 1 inch of water.  Bring to a high rolling boil and process for 10 minutes.  Remove canner lid and remove from heat.  Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars to cool.

Note: The book says this recipe will make 6 pint jars.  Mine worked out to be 4 pint jars with a bit leftover, but not enough for a whole jar.