Once the peas began coming in, I picked them daily. We had them in salads, sliced in our lettuce wraps, and for snacking. I know lots of people freeze their peas, but last year, after I read this blog post, I started thinking about pickles in a big way. I've always made pickled okra (my favorite bloody mary or cheese plate garnish, Southern style), but pickling other vegetables is relatively new to me. I may have gone a little overboard in the past week, as I pickled a batch of local cherries and some rhubarb that a friend's mom sent me (because it will only grow as an annual here, and that gets expensive!).
If I were processing these pickles, I would use a tested recipe (and an actual canning jar) for food safety, but as these are just refrigerator pickles, I made a seat-of-my pants batch from a mishmash of recipes I found online (Food in Jars and Smitten Kitchen both have good recipes).
I had just enough peas- topped, tailed, stringed- to pack this old jam jar full. The brine is half and half white and rice vinegar, with 1 tsp pickling salt and a generous tablespoon of honey (this honey was a gift from my friend and neighbor, Nobuko, for helping to install two packages of bees in her backyard apiary this weekend. It is so light and floral!). I'm on a coriander kick lately, so I added the last of my little bag to the brine, plus about a half tsp each of pink and black peppercorns. Once the brine was boiling, I added my spices and poured it over the peas. I topped the jar off with ice water, then capped it and tucked the jar in the back of my fridge. Now I just have to wait. . . .
These sound delicious!
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