Pickled Cucumbers or "Pickles"

Pickled vegetables! 

Did you know that you can pickle any veggies? Basically it is the art of preserving food with vinegar, a brine made of vinegar, water and other spices. 

I had been after this recipe for a long time, I had to conquer it to be a true homemaker. And here it is, a great blog post of Kitchn that is just beautiful to look at. I love this food blog.

INGREDIENTS:

-2 medium very fresh cucumbers.

-1/2 cup of vinegar.
-1/2 cup of water.

-1 tablespoon mustard seeds.
-pinch of salt.

-3 or 4 tablespoons of  white sugar 

-1 star anise.

-3 bay leaves.

-some blackpepper corns.

STEPS:

1. Put in a pot all the ingredients that I write in the list except for the cucumbers and heat up slowly for 15 minutes until it comes to a simmer, this way all the flavours come out and mix. 

2. In the meantime, slice up the cucumbers and place in jar. (Some blogs out there say you need to get water out by adding salt to the cucumbers for a while in a bowl and bla,bla, but seriously I don't see the need for that, they taste awesome freshly cut).

3. Now bring the liquid to a boil raising the heat and when it is bubbling, quickly pour over cucumbers in the jar and close them right away tightly.

That's it. Now let it cool and then place in fridge.  If you want them to be very sweet, add 1/2 cup of sugar, but more sour 1/4 cup is good. This is totally a country town recipe, isn't it? 

Pic: Australia, Victoria.

Homemade Minced Garlic

                                                             

We just got back from Australia where I have been using minced garlic to cook all the time. Basically all recipes begin with this if you want some kind of flavour in your food. I get to Spain and no minced garlic in supermarkets, not a chance to find that here. People in Spain would think it is absolutely ridiculous to buy or make minced garlic but it saves so much time!  

So I have googled how to make it yourself and oh! so easy. All you need is:

INGREDIENTS 
-3 garlic knobs.
-olive oil.

-a pretty small jar.

-a food proccessor.

STEPS:

1. Peel all the garlic cloves and put them food processor for 10 seconds.

2. Place in jar and fill it up with oil slowly, stirring the garlic so it is all coated with oil, which is the preservative.

I am so happy to have garlic ready to go for any recipe in the fridge. It lasts in the fridge for 6 months!  This recipe is for everyone.