Triple Dill Pickles

Ingredients:
4 lb pickling cucumbers, quartered length-wise
3 cups water
2 3/4 cups white vinegar
1/4 cup pickling salt
6 teaspoons yellow mustard seed
6 tablespoons dill seed
3 teaspoons dillweed
6 bay leaves
6 cloves garlic
1/2 cup minced dill

Directions:
Bring the water, vinegar and salt to a boil. Prep wide-mouth pint lids/jars. Place 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon mustard seed, 1 tablespoon dill seed, and 1/2 teaspoon dillweed in each jar.



Add the cucumber spears and one clove garlic to each jar. Evenly divide the dill among the jars. Pour in the vinegar mixture. Close the jars and process for 10 minutes in a hot water bath. Allow to sit 2 weeks before eating.

Yield: about 6 pints

Note: A great source for canning information is the Blue Book guide to preserving. I highly recommend it for learning how to can. Or check out this online guide.

My thoughts:

Pickles! I sent my husband to buy pickling cucumbers the other day and he came back with 15 lbs. He helped cut up the cucumbers (thank goodness!) and I ended up canning 22 jars of pickles in three varieties. These are the first ones I've opened. To my delight they stayed pretty crisp and have wonderful but not overpowering dill flavor. I was a little worried that using dillweed, dill and dill seeds would end up being too much but it really wasn't. There was just a depth of flavor that one normally doesn't find in a pickle. I hope the other ones I canned turned out just as well! After a while, I felt like I was living in a pickle factory and I think I developed "pickle wrist" from trying to really pack the cucumbers in there. But it really wasn't difficult at all, just a little time consuming.

Zydeco Beans

Ingredients:
3 lb French green beans, ends trimmed (also called haricots verts)
3 cups water
3 cups white vinegar
1/3 cup pickling salt
1/2 cup minced fresh dill
1 head garlic, peeled
1 1/2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons dill seed
1 tablespoon red chile flakes
1/2 teaspoon celery seed

Directions:
Prep 6 pint jars and lids. Whisk together the spices in a small bowl. Set aside. Bring the salt, vinegar and water to a boil. Meanwhile, stuff the warm jars with the green beans. The easiest way to do this is to lay them on their sides and fill them horizontally. Drop in one or two cloves of garlic. Evenly distribute the spices among each jar. Sprinkle with dill. Lightly shake the jars to help distribute the spices. Pour the boiling liquid into the jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process in a boiling water bath for 8 minutes. Allow to pickle for one week (at least!) before opening.


Note: A great source for canning information is the Blue Book guide to preserving. I highly recommend it for learning how to can. Or check out this online guide.

My thoughts:

I honestly had never had zydeco beans until I made these. I had first heard about them in a novel and they sounded great (Spicy pickled green beans? Yes, please!) but there aren't exactly a staple here in Baltimore. So of course I had to make my own. I am not 100% sure these are 100% authentic but they are so delicious. Seriously, the best pickle I have ever had. I may or might not have eaten 2 whole jars in less than a week. I'm working on my third and honestly, I was sort of hoping that my mom wouldn't like the jar I gave her so she'd give it back to me and I could eat them. Isn't that horrible? Next time I am doing two batches. Or three. Maybe more.

So, what are you waiting for? Go make these pickles! They will keep for a year on the shelf but I hardly think they will last that long. They are great as a snack or as a drink or salad garnish. You can even use the prepped French green beans that some supermarkets sell and save yourself the hassle of cutting off the ends.

Summer Vegetable Green Salad with a Dill Vinagrette, Feta and Grilled Tuna

Ingredients:

for the vinaigrette:
1/4 cup minced dill
3 oz white wine vinegar
2 1/2 oz olive oil
1 teaspoon pepper sherry
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt
pepper

for the fish:
2 tuna steaks
zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons minced oregano
2 tablespoons fresh or freeze dried chives
salt
pepper
olive oil

for the corn:
1 or 2 ears of corn
olive oil
salt
pepper
celery seed

for the salad:
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
4 radishes, sliced
4 button or crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1/2 English cucumber, sliced
3 oz crumbled feta
1/2 red onion, sliced very thin

Directions:
Place the vinaigrette ingredients in a jar or salad dressing shaker. Shake until emulsified. Set aside.

Prep the grill according to manufactures' instructions. Prep the cedar plank according the package instructions. Meanwhile, rub the tuna with oil then pat on the zest and spices onto both sides. Place the tuna on the grill. Follow the instructions for grilling corn. Grill until the tuna is medium rare and the corn is done, covering briefly if needed, about 10 minutes. Strip the corn from the cob.

Meanwhile, toss the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Divide among two dishes. Top with tuna and the corn. Drizzle with dressing.

My thoughts:

I know this salad looks complicated with the long list of ingredients but it really isn't, I promise! The salad dressing is super easy, there is nothing fancy about the salad itself and the tuna and corn require pretty much the same prep and cooking time. I have been eating a tons of salads lately because of my feta challenge and I have found that my favorite salads with feta are the ones that have a lot of different ingredients and flavors. Feta is so robust tasting it can stand up to pretty much anything, even very herbal dressings and heartier ingredients like fish or meat so I've been experimenting. I wanted to make this salad my complete meal so I added tuna and a hard boiled egg to make it more substantial without feeling heavy.

I had room on the grill (even though I was making extra tuna for another recipe) so I tossed some corn on. It added a smoky-sweet flavor that was a wonderful contrast with the feta and all of the crisp vegetables I used. All in all, a very tasty, vegetable packed salad. Perfect for a hot July day!