[by Kate — guest gluten-free blog author]
I love pickles. The common myth is that pickles are a pregnant-lady thing, but I have always thought they were glorious salty little snacks and munch them regularly.
Because I absolutely love not only pickles, but spicy food, my eyes have been caught multiple times recently by "spicy" pickles at the store. But, all of the ones I happened across were either alarmingly over-priced (like $10 for a jar at Whole Foods) or were reasonably priced but contained high fructose corn syrup.
So, I decided I'd make my own spicy dill pickles!
KATE'S HOMEMADE
SPICY DILL & GARLIC PICKLES
The pickles are super easy to make, especially if you have a mandolin on which you can slice the cucumbers. I pretty much followed Bobby Flay's recipe for Dill Pickles (link) , but, I did make some changes that I will explain immediately after the ingredient-list.The original dill-pickle recipe ingredients:
1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
3/4 teaspoon dill seeds
2 cups hot water
2 pounds kirby cucumbers, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3/4 cup coarsely chopped dill
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
Changes I made for my Spicy Dill Pickles:
- I couldn't find Coriander Seeds (only ground) or Mustard Seeds (only ground) at my grocery store so I used a Pickling Spices mix instead. It has the Coriander and Mustard seeds plus peppercorns, cinnamon, and some other spices. The only unwanted ingredient was sulfites for preserving the pickles. If you're sensitive to sulfites go track down the actual spices in their raw state rather than use the Pickling Spices mix.
- I added a pinch of red pepper flakes to the water, pickling spice, and vinegar mixture for heat.
- I added one random hot pepper I picked up from Fiesta (local supermarket)... I chose a pepper with a bright color to contrast nicely with the green of the cucumber/pickles. The pepper I chose was incredibly spicy, so if you like hot but not HOT then you might do some research on a good pepper variety to suit your tastes before heading to the grocery store.
- My mandolin slices things thin, thinner, and thiner-er so my pickles are much thinner (as you can see in the picture I posted) than the ones in Bobby Flay's recipe which are quite thick. The plus side to my thinner pickles is that they'll pickle much, much faster!
Just follow the original instructions (at the link provided above) and make these substitutions for a wonderfully spicy gluten-free garlic and dill pickles. The recipe is simple and the total creation time is quite low. Enjoy!