In summer 2014/2015, I grew prickly cucumbers for the first time. It always fascinates me, when growing plants for the first time, how they grow and develop. The cucumber plant spreads out its tendrils, then beautiful, small yellow flowers started appearing. The female flowers then have a small cucumber-shaped swelling at the base, that eventually become the cucumber.

Cucumber flowers and fruit

From three plants that kept giving, obviously salads were big during summer. Eventually, it got to the stage where there was too many, so my solution was to pickle. Recently, I finished the last jar which had  three months on the shelf. The chilli and ginger had infused to give a nice heat to the pickled cukes, which gave them another dimension compared to shop bought ones.

Prickly cucumbers

On the weekend, I made some more, this time with continental cucumbers from the shops. I use 250 ml glass jars, but any jars will do that can be sealed.

First step is to sterilise the jars. I placed the jars and lids in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes then let them air dry.

Next, I prepared the pickling liquid. I had a dozen jars to use, so the mix I made was 1 litre of white wine vinegar, 1 litre of water and 6 tablespoons of sea salt. This ratio can be altered of course to suit your needs. Place all ingredients in a pot, stir to dissolve the salt and bring to the boil.

Pickling ingredients

Next prepare the cucumbers. Wash these, then pat dry. You can either slice these into disk/coin shapes or longer stick/spear shapes. Place 1/4 teaspoon of mustard seeds into each jar. Next start packing the jars with the cucumbers. In between the cucumbers, place 1/2 a birds-eye chilli, two small disks of peeled ginger and a couple of sprigs of dill. Once this is done for all the jars, carefully fill each jar with the pickling liquid until ingredients are submerged. Screw the lids on tightly. To allow these for shelf storage, the jars were then sterilised again for 5 minutes. The cukes can lose a little bit of its crunch, due to the heat applied but this is necessary to allow them time on the shelf to develop the flavour. And believe me its worth it!

These will pack a punch for your ham & cheese sandwich, be a great addition to a cheese board when guests are over or even spice up a salsa as a condiment to fish, chicken or meat. Dare I say it, they would be a great snack with a crispy, cold beer!

Pickled carrots

As I had some left-over pickling liquid, I decided to pickle some carrots as well. I used coriander instead of dill with these. I can imagine these going well through a grain salad with some dates, fresh herbs and a pomegranate vinaigrette. I will let you know in 3 months. Can’t wait!