Refreshing Pickle/Relish

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Chief Longwind Of The North

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Made a one-pot meal tonight out of half rice, half pearl barley, shaved roast beef that I roasted, and chipotle in adobo sauce. It came out very good, if a little spicy. I was thinking about what veggie would go good with this and thought to myself that the cold cucumber I had in the fridge would be refreshing. Then I remembered that cuckes, and watermelon were in the same family of plants, and that watermelon rind, and cuckes could both be pickled. And then I remembered how good lime was with carne asada. I looked int the fridge and found only key-lime juice. So I said to myself, Self, why not? So I diced up the cucumber into 3/4 the size of playing dice, and mixed together 1/4 cup key lime juice with 2 heaping tbs. sugar. I stirred it to dissolve the sugar, and added the cucumber. Into the fridge it went while the meal was cooking.

I want to tell you that the cucumber, which had been on the virge of being over-soft, crisped up wonderfully. The liquid tasted like key-lime pie, and the whole thing was super refreshing, and tasted great. I just hoped it would pair well with my spicy rice-barley-beef-chipotle meal. It did. So now, you can make your own key-lime pickles. just cut into little cubes instead of slices. The crunch factor will amaze you. other pickling spices, and even salt would actually detract the clean and bright flavors of these sweet/tangy pickles. Give it a try.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
I'm not one for sweet pickles, mostly. However, I do use a water bath to crisp up cucumbers that have gone limp. Put them into a bowl of water in the fridge overnight, or into a bowl of iced water for a few hours, and they're sturdy once more.

I do that with pickling cukes no matter how fresh or firm they are. They always get an overnight soak before I put them up in brine and banish to the basement to cure. It's how Dad did it, and his always turned out great. Don't want to mess with success.
 
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