"Pickled fruits go far beyond the role of accompaniment. They can be part and parcel of a recipe, too." Nigel Slater
If you remember I mentioned the dish above - Pickled cherries with prosciutto and burrata - from the Coles Magazine, when I was talking about Christmas foods. I was rather taken by the idea of the pickled cherries, and almost made some to go with our first course cold seafood and charcuterie. In the end I decided that cherries were just too wonderful (and too expensive) to risk a pickled version being not as wonderful as it looks. Besides I would have had to depip the cherries.
However, I am now in post-Christmas overload of fruit in the fridge - partly due to David's delight at seeing all that luscious fruit in the shops again. Me too I suppose. Fundamentally there is too much fruit there to just eat when it's at its best without getting an upset tummy, so I have been pondering on what to do with it. Crumbles and compotes are my first thought, but it seems a bit indulgent. When it's just the two of us we don't eat desserts very often. Not even at the weekend, although we do eat fresh fruit. Just not enough to finish up the current supply.
Of course there is always jam. But jam is really a thing for a glut or at least a couple of kilos. Not the few fruits that we have in our fridge at the moment. It also requires diligent watching at certain points to see that it doesn't burn and also patience - to wait for the proper setting point. Otherwise it will be runny.
And of course, there is always chutney which I actually rather love making, because it is so quick and simple, and once you have the proportion of sugar and vinegar right you can have fun with whatever else you put in it.
The problem with chutney is that we never eat it. I have jars of the stuff in my pantry, and occasionally I give it as gifts, but I suspect that ends up in the same place.
Why is this? Because it's really rather delicious - some of it that is. Tangy but slightly sweet. When we have guests I do put some out with the cheese - sometimes in the jar, sometimes in a tempting dish, but again, people rarely eat it.
I have been making an effort to add it to various braises and stir fries, but I often just forget. And we don't really eat sandwiches in this house, so it doesn't get added to them. So I really don't want to make any more chutney. Well I would like to because it's supremely satisfying, but I really, really shouldn't.
So pickles it is. In small quantities. Small quantities for the above reason, and also, like Nigel because:
"Preserving, at least for me, is not just the idea of using up a glut or keeping something seasonal in fine condition for longer. It is more about a change of character."
The first thing to know about pickling fruit is that there are two kinds of pickles.
The first kind are what they call refrigerator pickles that may last a couple of weeks or so in the fridge and theoretically that's it. Although I'm betting they would last much longer than that. Anyway they are very quick and easy to make - the Coles pickled cherries are a fine example. It's the same process basically as the pickled red onions that you all probably make these days. The other kind are cooked a bit like jam and chutney - not quite as long - and will keep for longer in your pantry.
Where they will probably be completely forgotten. I recently found some pickled sour cherries which were so old - years, not months, that I really felt I had to throw them away. I also remember some pickled pears that stayed in there for a very long time. Theoretically if they are in the fridge they will get used more quickly but things can hide in the fridge too. The less they get used, the further back they go behind everything else.
The lady on the website Waves in the Kitchen whose chutneys are shown above - and here - a blueberry one - has heaps of advice on the general process, including the proportions of water, vinegar, sugar; plus suggestions for spicing. I notice that her above selection also features mixed fruits and the blueberries seem to have the addition of onions. So it's obviously a mix and match kind of process. Which I don't think Nigel would approve of as he says:
"I prefer my pickles simple rather than a jumble of flavours. A few aromatics help, but they should never intrude. ... I like to let the fruit and the vinegar work their magic together, almost unheeded."
Jane Grigson has some general advice too:
"I have the feeling that apricots, peaches and nectarines keep a better appearance and shape if they are pickled whole. The problem is that you need far more bottling jars than if you halved and stone them first. The snag of the halved fruit is that the pieces rapidly become ragged; one minute they are not quite ready so you leave them, the next minute they have flopped. ...
Another decision to be made, or rather born in mind as you finish the process, is whether to leave the spices in the syrup. They look attractive, but they continue to add their flavour whch can become too strong - cloves are the tricky spice, and they are best removed. Small cinamon sticks or a slice or two of fresh ginger can be left, or a small red chilli. In any event, taste the spicing mixture occasionally."
Her remarks about the sliced fruit flopping is interesting, because Nigel Slater seems to think that if your fruit is unripe and hard, no amount of cooking in vinegar will make it soft, whilst, almost everyone else seems to say the opposite. With one of them (I can't remember who now) saying: "If the fruit overcooks, just purée it and turn it into a sauce." Which seems like rather good advice to me.
To conclude here are a few that I found - and I am not including anything Asian here as I think, that although the Asians, particularly the Indians, do indeed pickle fruit, they are a slightly different thing, in which the spices are as much a part of the pickle - maybe even the major part - as the fruit.
Pickled peaches - delicious. uk and the same fruit Pickled peaches from Nigel Slater
Nigel also has Pickled figs and his Guardian rival Ottolenghi has Peppered chicken and pickled watermelon salad which demonstrates another use for those pickles.
Then we have Pickled blackberries from Jamie Oliver; Pickled nectarines from Serious Eats and Spiced pickled pears from Delia. Pears seem to be a popular choice for almost everybody, as do the nectarines.
And then there is an outlier from River Cottage - really a ferment rather than a pickle but it was a bit intriguing so here is Honey fermented rhubarb which the website Practical Self Reliance took a step further and turned it into Rhubarb mead (Honey wine). Not the same thing at all, but like the ferment just a bit intriguing.
Not sure what the Honey fermented rhubarb would look like when finished. This is before the ferment. Maybe it looks so awful when finished that they didn't dare publish a picture.
I reckon pickled fruit, however, is a pretty good thing to try. And I may do some. But then again I may not. Maybe I'll just chicken out and make a crumble. Or even just eat it.
I didn't go for a walk today. It's too hot, so was reduced to looking for the letter D at home. So here is our front door. Truth to tell this little project is turning into a bit of a chore - well certainly when I'm just at home. Maybe I'll confine it to a walking project. My only other d's for today were diary, date (on my desk calendar) and desk. So you see I didn't move very far. When I was in the shops I completely forgot about it.
YEARS GONE BY
December 30
2023 - Nothing - that's it for the year of 2023
2022 - I have six egg-yolks
2020 - A table
2019 - Nothing
2018 - Zucchini pickles - now there's a kind of coincidence.
2017 - Best - what is that?
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