Saturday, September 18, 2010

These are NOT Your Grandma's Pickles

I was watching a new morning show on Hallmark.  "What Ever"   Martha Stewart has apparently taken over the channel with all her new shows.  I think it was the first show with her daughter Alexis and friend Jennifer, when Alexis started complaining about all the vegetables her mother had delivered to her apartment.  She was a little cranky while explaining how she had spent her whole evening roasting the vegetables to process them all.  Okay follow me now...;)  early last week I had watched a cooking show on pickling veggies with Jamie Oliver... I think.  Then I read a recipe for pickling on the internet...just to get the basic vinegar, water, salt, sugar ratio's.  That recipe suggested a marinade for veggies after they were pickled.  I thought the idea was brilliant, instead of leaving the veggies sitting in all that brine and getting soggy.


Sooo my creative right sided brain goes into action and some how I come up with all these amazing veggies combos.   I roasted two pans.  One pan with peppers, tomatos and onions.



Then the other pan with brocoli, carrots and cauliflower. I tossed them both with olive oil, salt, pepper, and freshly minced garlic.  On the one with peppers I sprinkled dried oregano and basil.   When the veggies came out of the oven I squirted them all with fresh lemon juice.


The peppers and onions I am using for a pasta salad tomorrow night.  The cauliflower, carrots and brocoli we ate tossed over some brown rice with some shredded pork I had simmering in the crock pot. YUM

 I still had some more cauliflower and lots of cucumbers to do something with.   So I did two separate batches of pickling water.  I just didn't go heavy on the vinegar or sugar.  I did throw in a few mustard seeds, and a pinch of salt.  When they were both gently cooked, I drained them and cooled them off in a marinade of olive oil and garlic.  I tossed fresh basil and cherry tomatoes in with the cucumbers.  Then with the cauliflower I used fresh oregano!!!  That was key.  I usually don't use my fresh oregano...I don't know why. I think I will quickly find more uses for this fresh herb.

For lunch that day I tried all my veggies over some low fat cottage cheese.  It was sooo delicious.  I am  never going to do the canning thing, but I must say both of these methods are a great snappy way to use up all those excess veggies coming our way this harvest season.

9 comments:

Vee said...

Ohhh, you are clever! I am going to be sharing your method with my mom who is going to be showing me a few things in the kitchen that hitherto I have not been interested in. This looks like something that she would truly enjoy. The veggies sure look beautiful!

My word verification today? plate

melissa said...

My mouth is actually watering. :) The photos and descriptions got me to going!!!

Yum!

Judy said...

Wow...when you do something you really do it in a big way! That's a lot of veggie-processing happening over there. Great ideas...all of them!

a woman who is said...

Oh Judy after this weekend, you have no idea how true your words are, and I am not talking about pickles :)

I have way too much going on right now...

Anonymous said...

I am not fond of pickled vegetables, but yours do REALLY look delicious and appetizing!!
Ronelle

Just a little something from Judy said...

Is there anything you can't do? I find it so much fun to see what you will post next. I do not really enjoy pickled vegtables, but I would like having jars of them to sit on my kitchen shelves. Good job!

Maree said...

Very inspirational! Gorgeous photo's...yummy. Thanks for the link too, that show looks like fun.

Knitting Mania said...

Wish I was there to sample! Yum

Barbara said...

You have been busy and how tasty it all looks.

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