In the winter I liked to eat pickles from a jar – slightly crunchy and with a pleasant sour taste. My mother used to make jars of long cucumbers from the garden every summer – with apple cider vinegar, salt and sugar. But with the deepening of my knowledge of balanced healthy eating and Ayurvedic eating, I consciously decided to eliminate canned pickles and sugar from our diet.

So I was faced with the dilemma of excluding some foods from our menu or finding a healthy substitute for them. I started making pickles in small quantities by wild fermentation with seasonal vegetables. I only missed the pickles in the winter because the gherkins run out in late fall. And I wondered what exactly I was missing – taste, acidity or just habit? And the answer is the aroma of cucumber with a slight acidity and crunchiness. One day when we went to the vegetable market, I saw wonderful cucumbers from a producer and decided to make wild fermentation with them. So we went home with a few pounds of long cucumbers and I started soaking in water, washing and cutting them. I filled a 3 liter glass jar for fermentation and waited. On the second day, the kitchen smelled of pickles, the fermentation was in full swing, and I had to wait. On the fifth day, the fermentation in the jar had subsided, the cucumbers had changed color, and I decided to give them a try. I took a circle out of the jar, took a bite and was flooded with memories – a wonderful aroma of cucumber with a slight crunchiness and pleasant acidity. I already had my pickles with useful live enzymes instead of canned pickles with added sugar.

Pickles “Greenhouse cucumbers”

Course: Food in jars, Recipes
Количество

2000

грама
Подготовка

30

minutes
Готвене

40

minutes
Калории

325.80

ккал

Fermented long cucumbers with rose hips

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 kg. greenhouse cucumbers

  • 7 g quince leaves – 5 pcs.
    You can put fresh or dried quince leaves

  • 30 g rose hips dried fruit

  • 30 g mustard white seeds

  • 85 g rock gray salt
    It can be replaced with any other salt

  • 900 ml. filtered water

  • 1 piece. glass jar of 3 liters

  • 1 piece. pickle pressing disc

  • – a piece of cotton cloth or fine netting

  • – new hair elastic

COOKING INSTRUCTIONS

  • I wash the glass jar carefully and very well with hot water and detergent. I bought the cucumbers from a producer, but I am always careful to over-trust the fruits and vegetables I buy. So I soak the cucumbers in a bowl of cold water and a teaspoon of baking soda for 10 minutes, then discard the water and repeat the soaking – so 3 times in 30 minutes.
  • I cut the cucumbers into slices one centimeter thick. I weigh the mustard seeds, rose hips and rock salt on the kitchen scale. In a bowl put the rock salt and filtered water, stir with a stirrer until the salt dissolves in the water – about five minutes.
  • At the bottom of the glass jar I put two quince leaves, seven or eight rose hips and mustard seeds as much as a teaspoon. I put slices of cucumbers, arranging them tightly without squeezing them, so as not to crush them. When the jar is half full, I add two more quince leaves, rose hips and mustard seeds. I continue to arrange cucumber slices tightly until the jar is full, add the remaining mustard seeds and rose hips, put a quince leaf on top.
  • I carefully bend the pickle disc and put it in the jar, lightly pressing the cucumbers down. I pour salt water to the neck of the jar, put a piece of cloth on top and tighten with a hair band. I put the jar in a bowl, because when it starts to ferment, foam forms and it can overflow. I leave it on the kitchen counter to ferment at 20°С.
  • After 24 hours, I remove the cloth and rubber band from the neck of the jar, close with a lid and turn several times. Thus, the liquid in the jar moves and the fermentation proceeds evenly. Then I remove the cap and put the piece of fabric back and tighten with an elastic band.
  • Important! Long cucumbers have a softer texture than gherkins and therefore ferment much faster. On the fifth day they already have a pleasant sour taste and a slight hoarseness. I remove the cloth from the jar, wrap it with a lid and put it in the fridge. After ten days in the refrigerator, the cucumbers become soft and begin to disintegrate, so it is good to eat before that!

NOTES

  • Nutritional value per 100 g of product:
  • Energy value – 16.21 kcal.
  • Protein – 1.01 g.
  • Carbohydrates – 2.54 g.
  • Fat – 0 g.
  • Fiber – 1.34 g.