Pickle, Gherkin or just Pickled Cucumber- depending upon where you are in the world; are sandwich staples and side accompaniments mostly. Unless you obviously want to gobble that entire thing down on its own. But as far as I can remember, my first interaction with gherkins was in the first year of college, in Delhi, when Subway became a popular eating choice. Many times I would pick up bottles of gherkins at the supermarket and put it back, thinking if I really need that? For however much the temptation, one masters the art of resistance while living on a student/new earner budget.
Now, those days seem distant but my love for pickles is as fresh as ever - so I thought of making myself a jar as I started settling into the quarantine way of life. Browsing through recipes and blogs after the other, I decided to use ingredients I had available on hand. Deviating from the traditional star anise and dill infused brine - I tweaked it with the fragrant fennel seeds and cinnamon plus hot dry red chillies to suit my taste.
So here's what I did:
Ingredients (For two jam jars full)
Cucumbers (go for smaller and firm ones- we do not want a lot of seed pulp)
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 cup of water
2 tbsp sugar (I used brown- hence the brown brine)
1 tbsp salt
1 dry red chilli (optional)
2 tsp fennel seeds (Saunf)
1 big cinnamon stick (Daalchini)
Step 1: Sterilise old jam jars by boiling them in water and leaving them in the sun to dry (very important to have clean and dry jars before pickling anything).
Step 2: Take the tips off of both sides of the cucumber and put them in the jar. Put in as many as you can, leaving enough space for the brine to fill in.
Step 3: In a saucepan, mix the vinegar and water. Heat it up to a boil.
Step 4: Mix all the remaining dry spices and seasonings. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Step 5: Take off the heat and cool for a bit before pouring into the jar.
That's it! It’s done.
It typically takes 4-6 weeks for the pickles to be ready to eat. Store in a warm place, I placed mine on the kitchen counter, after that it can be stored in the fridge.
Happy Pickling!