Just Pickle It – Part II

Our second pickling adventure of the day was to make some Pickled Carrot Chips w/Dill. I’ve been buying cheater/lazy bags of ready-to-eat carrot chips at the grocery store for years. I’ve tried both Bolthouse Farms and  Grimmway Farms… no favorite to speak of, both are excellent.  Carolyn felt that the chips would work well for our pickling project and she was right.

Potato chips are a weakness of mine, especially crunched into sandwiches… so a healthy substitute is definitely a good thing and these pickled carrot chips fit very nicely into my sandwich layers.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz. Carrot Chips – pre-packaged bag, or you could slice your own
• 1 Tablespoon (one big squeeze) of Gourmet Garden Dill Paste to each jar/container
• 8 Garlic Cloves – chopped
• 1 Red Fresno Chili Pepper – seeded and diced (you could substitute any pepper you like)
• 1/2 Teaspoon Whole Black Peppercorns – crushed
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons Pickling Salt
• 1 Cup White Wine Vinegar
• 1 Cup Water
• 1/4 Cup Sugar

 Directions:

1. Blanch carrot chips in boiling water, or steam them… we opted to blanch until barely tender. This was a very quick process 2-3 minutes. Once barely tender, immerse them in cold water to stop the cooking process.
2. Squirt dill paste into jars/containers and fill with carrot chips.
3. In a pot, bring the remaining ingredients to a boil (chopped garlic cloves, diced chili pepper, crushed peppercorns, pickling salt, vinegar, water, sugar)
4. Cover the carrots with your freshly boiled liquid mixture, cap jars/containers and let cool to room temperature.
5. Refrigerate jars/containers for 2 days or longer before eating – they need to soak up the delicious flavors. They will keep for at least 2 months in the fridge.

Ice bath after a quick blanch…

Gourmet Garden Dill Paste squeezed into the bottom of each jar… not the most attractive thing to photograph… this paste allows me to keep herbs in my fridge without worrying about them going to waste. Fresh dill would definitely work too. I continue to purchase the dill paste because my two local markets NEVER have fresh dill. I’ve used it as a wet rub on meat (mostly flank steak, salmon and chicken) with other spices… it has been a handy thing to have on hand.

We used a ladle to fill each jar with the liquid mixture. We then scooped the remaining good stuff (the garlic and chili peppers) evenly into each jar. Carolyn was our lovely hand model of the day. She came cheap. :).

So here’s a side story… sort of Seinfeld – George Costanza hand model like. BTW, “The Puffy Shirt” Seinfeld episode is indeed one of my favorites. Anyway…  I was working for an ad agency and we hired a hand model for several photo shoots. He arrived wearing 2 layers of gloves with an entire suitcase of hand care products. We had food and drinks available to all of the models we worked with that day and he wore gloves to eat, drink, sign paperwork, etc. His money makers never saw daylight and he never touched any non-job related surfaces. It was fascinating and creepy at the same time. Back to the recipe…

A chopstick came in handy for mixing – we wanted to make sure the garlic and pickling spices made their way throughout the carrots.

The liquid clouded over a bit due to the dill mixture and it being piping hot. Once it reached room temperature, it became less muddled.

These were absolutely delicious! If you are not a garlic lover, you could definitely cut down on the clove count… but I feel like it really elevated these chips. I might even add a second chili pepper next time for some added bite. I blew through my supply quickly and can’t wait to make them again.

What should I make next? I love sauerkraut and have been wanting to make some. I’ve been buying Sonoma Brinery Raw Sauerkraut since adopting the 17-Day Diet way of eating (which includes 2 daily probiotics) several years ago. Cabbages are a plenty with St. Patrick’s Day fast approaching. Who knows, I might try my hand at a little fermentation project.  Has anyone made their own sauerkraut? Any tips or tricks to share?