I cam across a recipe for Hawaiian-style pork burgers with kimchi mayonnaise and spicy ginger pickles in the Sunday paper.
The recipe, from chef Chris Stone looked wicked tasty, but I decided to put the burger idea aside for nicer weather.
The pickles, tho’, I HAD to try, and right away! A good friend makes some pretty darned fantastic pickles, and I thought she might enjoy sampling this kinda unusual version.
Unusual; mostly due to the rice vinegar called for, and mebbe the chopped fresh ginger. I used a blend of seasoned and sodium free vinegar, because that’s what I had on my pantry shelves.
INGREDIENTS
•1-1/2 cup rice vinegar
•1-1/2 cup water
•1/4 cup sugar
•4 tsp coarse sea salt
•1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced
•1 small white onion, thinly sliced
•1 jalapeño pepper, thinly sliced
•2 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
Note: I doubled the batch, yielding me the quart and pint jars shown above.
Place the cucumber, onion, jalapeño, and ginger in a large stainless steel, ceramic, or glass bowl and set aside.
Whisk the vinegar, water, sugar and salt together in a medium saucepan over medium high heat, then bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar and salt dissolve.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the veggies in the bowl, pushing down slices that float to the surface, and set aside to cool for an hour or so.
Transfer the pickles to jars or some other lidded container and stash in the fridge until needed.
Mine were really good right away, and even better after resting in the fridge over night.
I served some as a spicy side dish at a small dinner we were having, and set more out just for munchies.
Yum.
Now, I believe I’m gonna have to make those pork burgers and that kimchi mayonnaise.