A simple, quick recipe you can follow to make crunchy, tangy gherkins. They are a delicious served with a variety of hard cheeses or eaten on their own. They also work well chopped finely and tossed into a potato salad or coleslaw.
Ingredients:
12 – 20 Cucumbers (the little pickling ones)
Water (1 litre)
Salt (60g per 1 litre of water).
If you have a 1 litre glass jar you can pickle all the cucumbers together or you can divide the solution between two 500 gram glass bottles.
All you need to do is mix the salt into the water to create your own brine solution.
Wash the cucumbers and put them into the brine. You must make sure the cucumber is completely covered by the salt water otherwise the tip left exposed will not pickle.
Put the jar(s) into a cool cupboard for a week.
After a week the water will go whitish and the cucumbers will ferment. Don’t panic- this is a good thing, it means they are preparing themselves to be gherkins.
Empty half the water and add your choice of vinegar. White grape vinegar works well but you could experiment and try a flavoured vinegar.
Your pickles will be ready in two weeks and once you have eaten them all you can keep the vinegar to re-use for the next batch you choose to make.
