Pickled Vegetable Salad with Zinfandel Poached Pears

One of my favorite processes to do is pickling. I love it for the endless possibilities that you can transform not only the taste, but the appearance of it as well. Today, I am going to expose you to a very light pickling solution. I will be doing some other variations, but I do like the light flavor and keeps veggies super crisp for a while (at least a month). Also keep in mind; you don’t necessarily have to use the exact proportions of vegetables that I use in this recipe, or even those ingredients. The goal of this post is to give you a simple and light pickling recipe that you can utilize across the board.  Feel free to also apply this application to small spring vegetables if you can find them where you purchase produce. They are a really easy solution to dressing up a dish and increasing the flavor.

You can utilize different ingredients to create other variations on it. For example: if you want to make your pickling liquid dye your product red, simply add beet juice to the mixture. If the color yellow is the one you seek, utilize some turmeric. Keep in mind as well that when you are pickling things such as radishes, or any lightly colored produce, that it tends to run in color, or absorb the color of the liquid. Given this information, you can deduce that if you pickle red cabbage, no matter what color the pickling liquid, it will run red and turn the entire liquid that color and therefore everything else in it. For this reason I have chosen to utilize white/light green cabbage. Looking back, I would use a savoy cabbage to provide a different texture and for some more contrast in color. Like I said – do whatever tickles your fancy.  

One thing must be made clear; in order to pickle something properly, it must be submerged in the liquid. To accomplish this, I have tried many variations on how to keep the product submerged. The best method is putting some beans (or some other small heavy objects) in a plastic bag and placing it on top of the product. This will keep the product below the liquid. Make sure that you do use a container with a lid and keep refrigerated. This is not a product that should be kept in dry storage, or out on the counter.

I also chose to include wine poached pears in this picture. I simply peeled the pears, submerged them in wine in a pot and allowed to simmer for 20 minutes. Once that is done, take the pears out and reduce the leftover wine liquid until there are bubbles on top of bubbles. This creates a reduction from it. I will explore wine poaching fruit in another post. But, if you want to duplicate this dish - it is pretty easy.

Pickling veggies

Ingredients:

• 7 Radishes (julienne)
• 2 Carrots (julienne)  
• 1 Fennel head (julienne)
• 1 Onion (julienne) use red onion to die liquid pink
• ½ Cabbage head (julienne)

Pickling liquid (if you have pickling spice, simply substitute all spices for 3 Tablespoons pickling spice):

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 Tablespoon pepper corns
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon coriander seed
• 3 cups vinegar (white to absorb color, red to add color)
• 4 cups water

Procedure:

• Combine all veggie ingredients in a container(s) that has a lid. You want the container(s) to be filled almost to the top to leave room for the liquid to cover the product.
• In a hot pot, put in spices and toast briefly (about 30 seconds max) to help bring out some essential flavors.
• Add vinegar and water. Bring to a boil
• Carefully pour hot liquid into container(s) with veggies.
• Allow to cool. Cover and store in refrigeration. 

Springtime Bean Stew with Shaved Asparagus and Fennel Salad

So, earlier this week I found myself in the middle of Mother Nature’s “doom and gloom.” You know, one of those days where it’s cold and rainy outside and you simply crave the warm spring sunshine. These days usually consist of me cleaning out the fridge and making some kind of soup or stew concoction; and this day wasn’t any different!

After gathering up random odds and ends, I decided that the only answer on that frigid spring day was to make a stew. There’s simply nothing like being warmed from the inside out with this plant based protein. But, if you know me, that is nearly not enough – it’s got to be extra special nice. So what better to top the stew with than a shaved vegetable salad? Nothing.  So, without further to do, I present the following recipe.

Aduki Bean Stew garnished with a shaved fennel and asparagus salad... ENJOY!

Stew:

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups carrot (diced)
2. 2 cups onion (diced)
3. 2 cups celery (diced)
4. 2 cloves garlic (minced)
5. 2 Tablespoons olive oil
6. 1 cup white or blush wine
7. 16 cups stock (vegetable)
8. 2 bay leaves
9. 6 dashes Tobasco
10. 1lb 12oz canned tomato (whole or diced)
11. 500g Aduki bean (rehydrated)
12. 1 bunch cut asparagus stems (save heads for salad) cut on bias
13. 4 cups (packed) fresh spinach
14. 1.5 Tablespoon sea salt
15. 2 Tablespoons pepper

Directions:

1. Use large pot over medium heat. Once hot, add oil.
2. Combine ingredients 1-4 in a pot. Cook until onions are translucent. Stir occasionally.
3. Deglaze with wine (add to pot and allow to reduce slightly).
4. Add ingredients 7-11 and bring to a simmer for 1 hour (or until beans are tender).
5. Add asparagus and spinach. Stir in to stew.
6. Use salt/pepper measurements, or season to taste.
7. Stew is ready when asparagus becomes tender and spinach is wilted.

Salad:

Ingredients:

1. 1 Head fennel (shaved)
2. ¼ Red onion (shaved)
3. 1 Bunch of remaining asparagus heads (from previous stew)
4. Zest 1 lemon
5. 1 Lemon skinned and cut thin (cut in half from top to bottom, lay flat part down, slice thin)
6. ¼ Cup fennel greens (green part of fennel that looks like dill)
7. ¼ Cup parsley (chiffonade)
8. 1 teaspoon grated ginger
9. ½ teaspoon salt
10. 10 Grinds fresh pepper
11. 1 Tablespoon Olive oil

Directions:

1. Shave ingredients on a mandolin (or slice thin if you have the knife skills to do so).
2. Combine all ingredients in bowl and toss to incorporate.
3. Let marinate for about an hour before serving.