Cucumbers! Boy, did we get cucumbers! We planted a six pack of cucumber pickles and those babies produced, so we canned at least 20 jars of pickles this season, and we may do a few more with the garden remnants. We used the original Garlic Dill Pickle recipe I posted last year, did some variations on that, and we also pulled out the Bread & Butter Pickle recipes as well. So, 2014 was a pretty good canning year.
One of the big issues when we were starting to look through recipes is that many recipes called for turmeric.... well, we don't have turmeric, I forgot to look for it, and later when I did, I didn't find it. It also did not help that we kept forgetting the name 'turmeric' and ended up buying (and borrowing) tarragon, which we did not use. Seriously, we went to the super market the other day and hubby picked up tarragon and tried to buy it again...I told him to stop looking for the elusive turmeric, we'll find it when we need it least! Anywhooo... I looked online and found some supposed 'substitutes' and right at the very top of the list was Mr. Lazy Diva's favorite seasoning, CURRY. That was all he needed to hear, and so instead of turmeric, we used curry and a pinch of ginger. I honestly didn't notice that big of a difference, they tasted great! I was told they taste just like store bought, so I guess that's a compliment...lol! So in the future I'll probably stick with the substitution, I've lived this long without straight turmeric, I can probably go at least another 35 years, right?
NOTE: I wrote this post a couple of weeks after we canned because I didn't want to share an untested recipe. I have a horrible memory, and after I posted the blog, a friend pointed something out that I forgot to explain. WHY is Curry a good substitute for Turmeric? BECAUSE TURMERIC IS IN CURRY! SMH! That's why I used it!! lol!! So when I say a recipe without turmeric, I don't mean I didn't use any, I just mean I didn't go to the store and buy a bottle. I used a Mild British Curry from my husbands collection that contained the spice. Thank you, Emma for reminding me about that!!
Well, without further ado, here's one of our newer recipes:
The Lazy Diva's Bread and Butter Pickles with Curry
INGREDIENTS:
5-10 (or so) Cucumbers
1 Bell Pepper
1 White Onion
3 Garlic Cloves
2 1/2 cups of White Vinegar
2 1/2 cups of Apple Cider Vinegar
4 1/2 cups of Sugar
3 tbsp canning salt
2 tbsp Mustard Seed
1 tsp Celery seed
1 tsp Curry powder
pinch of Ginger
PHASE ONE: SLICING AND ICE BATH
Slice Cucumbers about a 1/4" thick
Slice Bell Pepper into thin sticks
Slice Onions into thin sticks
Slice Garlic into Thin little sticks
PHASE TWO: PREPARING THE BRINE
When Phase One is complete (or nearly complete) you can star the brine. In a pot add the vinegars, sugar and all the other ingredients and bring to a boil.
PHASE THREE: ADDING IT ALL TO THE JARS
Put the rinsed pickles, peppers, onions, and garlic into clean sterilized jars. This batch we filled 5 wide mouth pint jars, if I used a bigger bowl and sliced more veggies, we may have been able to do about 7.
PHASE FOUR: CANNING
Using the Water Canning method, boil for 10 minutes, and voila! you're done.
Let them sit, and cool,and make sure the jars sealed. (If any didn't, just put them in the fridge and use them up within a couple of months.) For the best taste wait at least a week before opening and enjoying.
Well, it's taken me a while to post this, but obviously I finally got around to it, hopefully it will help those as turmeric challenged as us, make some yummy bread and butter pickles. I erred on the side of caution with the use of the curry, but if you're a fan like my husband, feel free to add a pinch or two more. I'm not a huge fan of the seasoning myself, so I was a bit glad it didn't overpower or really stand out.
For my next blog I'm going to try and not use the word TURMERIC 20 times....
Thank you as always for reading, and happy canning!
