Cucumber Pickles
By Hanna Ashton-Lawson
It’s a classic summer gardening experience… you check your cucumber vine and find nothing, and the very next day, there’s a cucumber the size of a minibus. This is the first year I have had great success with my cucumbers, but I accidentally allowed these two monsters to slip by unnoticed.
While still edible, the skins were a little tough, so I had a go at pickling them. This was my first time pickling and it was a great success!
I’m sure there are many more experienced picklers in our garden, but if you would like to give it a go too, here is the method I used:
Pickled Cucumbers
Ingredients
Cucumbers, sliced into rounds
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
2 teaspoons peppercorns
Small onion, halved and thinly sliced
Fresh dill
2 cups water
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons of salt
Method
Sterilise your jar/s. Here are some different sterilising options.
Layer your cucumber rounds into your jar, alternating with sprigs of dill, onions slices, and a sprinkle of mustard seeds and peppercorns.
Heat the vinegar, water, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
Let it cool slightly and then pour over your cucumber slices.
Let the jar cool to room temperature and then store in the fridge.
The pickles will be flavourful after one day, but will improve in flavour over several days.
Note that the spoon for scale is a dessert spoon, not a teaspoon!
Yum!