Friday, September 2, 2011

Not wanting to come home to a fridge drawer full of rotting vegetables, I made pickled cucumbers or salatalık turşusu before we left for the bayram.

In Turkey, Turks seem to love pickled vegetables. They serve them on the side as a condiment with  gözleme at my favorite pazar. There are even stores that sell nothing but pickled - well, everything! I like pickles, but I'm much more of a sweets kind-of person.

The pickle recipe I made is based more off a Thai cucumber salad, which often accompanies spring rolls or barbecued foods. We sometimes eat these cucumbers with noodle or stir-fry dishes at home.

I used a leftover large tomato paste jar and placed the finished salatalık turşusu in the fridge for later. The pickles easily keep for several weeks.

While the recipe isn’t Turkish, I did use mainly Turkish ingredients. Hope you enjoy!

Afiyet Olsun!

Sweet, Tangy Salatalık Turşusu

Ingredients:
500 grams (about 1 lb.) cucumbers (Be sure to use a pickling variety.)
240 ml. (1 c.) water
240 ml. (1 c.) sugar
240 ml. (1 c.) rice wine vinegar or elma sirkesi (I’ve bought my rice vinegar from Real and Şütte, but the elma sirkesi works just as well.)
pinch salt
Optional:
1 ½ tsp. pul biber or crushed red pepper flakes
1-2 stalks lemongrass, smashed and chopped into ½-inch pieces

1. First, wash and slice the cucumbers into thin slices. Set aside.
2. In a medium-sized pot, add the water, sugar, vinegar, salt and, if using, the red pepper flakes and lemongrass.
3. Bring this mixture to a boil, making sure the sugar is dissolved.
4. Let the mixture steep until room temperature and then strain. Place the cucumbers in a jar. Pour the liquid over the cucumbers, chill and serve.
Note: you will probably end up with more liquid than you need. If so, you can always save it to pickle something else.

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4 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

oh yum....i am going to make these!

Mary Bergfeld said...

The sound wonderful. This is my first visit to your blog, so I decided to take some extra time to browse through your earlier posts. I'm so glad I did that. I really like the food and recipes you share with your readers. I enjoyed the time I spent here and I'll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

Joy said...

@JAZ - we just enjoyed some of them last night. =) I made spicy sesame noodles with some veggies and we had the pickles on the side.

Joy said...

@ Mary - thanks for stopping by! You have a nice cooking blog as well! Your recent lentil soup looks like it would be an easy one I could replicate here - if I can find the celery. Sometimes the market has it, sometimes it doesn't. =)

Hope to see you again! Joy