Recipe - Zingy Refrigerator Pickles

And I mean zingy!

So I had a huge fail on growing cukes again this year. Maybe it was the unreasonable heat we had this year my lack of attention whatever. But thankfully there have been amazing sales on cucumbers recently.
I have to admit I do not like them plain. Not a fan but in pickle state- they are pretty awesome.

I whipped up a batch of my version of refrigerator pickles.

Ingredients:
3-4 firm cucumbers (washed & scrubbed)
3 tablespoons of finely chopped white onion
2-3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 cup of white vinegar
1 cup of water
4 tablespoon of Filipino vinegar (suka) I used Sukang Maasim Its available at most Asian food stores. White vinegar is a great substitute if you can't get your hands on the Filipino vinegar.

2 tablespoons of pickling salt (if you like them more salty add more salt)

1 tablespoon of turmeric

1 teaspoon celery salt ***(I did NOT have celery salt and was too lazy to go to the store so I chopped up some celery/celery tops for the flavor)

2 full sprigs of dill (I had some fresh from the garden!)
pinch of sugar
pinches of red pepper flakes
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First you prepare your cukes.

I just cut mine into slivers and remove some of the seeds. *If you like your pickles softer in the end you should boil the cukes whole for 3 minutes or less to soften them up.* I like mine super crunchy!
I didn't have any jars with a wide mouth on them so I used two recycled deli containers that are about 30oz each. I just stuffed them in like so.

You'll then need to boil your liquids together. Bring to full boil and allow to cool slightly.

I added everything on top of my pickles thinking that gravity would pull a lot stuff down & it has.

Toss in your onions, garlic, dill, celery (or celery salt, turmeric, pickling salt and sugar. (I had two containers that I evenly divided each ingredient into. If you are smarter than me you should mix everything in a mixing bowl and then dump them into your containers accordingly.)

Add your warm vinegar and water to the containers accordingly then top off with the red pepper flakes.

Secure the containers lid and over the sink give it a good shake.
Then pop them into the fridge so they can cure.

We waited about 24hrs hours before breaking into them. Each day in there they just get even better. They are zingy, sour, tart and wonderful if you like that type of thing. I need to go buy some pastrami to make a sandwich and have one of these bad boys on the side.

You can change up this recipe to match your likes of course. Enjoy!

xo-Thea

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This recipe was originally posted on September 18, 2009  
This recipe is one of the most popular recipes I've posted on my blog. I've also since learned how to grow cucumbers but I still will probably grab a few cucumbers from the store when the sales are good.