Richard Stein is an avid gardener and great cook with a terrific voice for radio. He lives in Tacoma, Washington, and I’ve had the good fortune of being on his KPLU food show, which he hosts with award-winning food journalist Nancy Leson. Their sarcasm and banter is infectious and entertaining. The three of us recorded in studio once and had to contain our laughs and giggles.
When the banh mi book came out, Stein (as we call him) commented on VWK that he was putting a cucumber pickle into his homemade Viet sandwiches. I was intrigued but shelved the idea because of a lack of time. But my curiosity reemerged when I started seeing pickling cucumbers appear at the farmer’s market. One of the most important parts of pickling whole is freshness. Start with firm, fresh ones and you’ll be rewarded with crisp crunch and refreshing flavor.
So while Stein, Nancy and I were trying to schedule a lunch date for when I was in Seattle, he brought up the pickles again. Not a dummy, I asked for the recipe and picked up a bunch of pickling cucumbers on a Saturday morning, threw together the pickles in about 30 minutes and then left for a week for my Pacific Northwest events. When I returned home, the pickles were done. Well, sort of done.
The flavor was weak. I didn’t use pickling salt as Stein suggested but instead used Kosher (I was too cheap to buy pickling salt, a salt with no additives). So I added extra Kosher salt and waited a couple of days. Then I added a little more and waited again. The flavor suddenly popped with the spices that I put in the jar.
The point here is that you can alter the flavor of your pickles. In The Banh Mi Handbook, there’s a note about tweaking the tart and sweet levels of your pickles. You can intensify the flavors of pickles but it’s hard to go in reverse. (It’s like cooking rice: you can add water but you can’t remove it!) The same goes for the amount of garlic. I started with 2 cloves and ended up with 4 in the jar.
For the pickling spices, I blended my own based on Asian spices. Pickling spices can be as simple as black peppercorns and dried red pepper. I used a combination of favorite aromatics: 1 small piece of cassia, 1 bay leaf, 4 star anise points, and ¼ generous teaspoon of each of these: brown mustard seed, coriander seed, fennel seed, red pepper, and black peppercorns.
Stein gave me a few other old fashioned hints, which you may or may not have heard of:
- Add a fresh grape leaf to the bottom of the jar for extra crispness. The tannins in leaf affect the texture. (I nabbed several leaves from a neighbor’s grapevine. Can’t imagine they missed them.)
- To reduce bitterness, trim the blossom ends of the cucumbers. If you like, trim the stem end too.
- Get some small cukes along with the mediums to wedge in between to keep them from floating. (I also weight them down with a bag of water.)
You can go in many directions with these pickles with regard to the flavor, and they’re made in the refrigerator. There’s no fermentation. When Stein emailed his recipe, he boldly stated “After years of experimentation I’ve finally perfected NY half-sours.” I agree as these remind me of great pickles that I’ve had at Jewish delis alongside a pastrami sandwich. Not a tart dill, but a slightly salty, crunchy pickle with a little garlic and spice note. Some half-sours are slightly fermented from a few days of sitting at room temperature but these are simply aged in the refrigerator. I suppose you could call these a “new” pickle. They stay green and happily young looking.
I put the cucumber into a pastrami banh mi for fun too. It was pretty good, as Stein promised. The pickle is great as a nibble with dumplings as well. Well, for as long as they last around the house. Given what I did with pickles you could sort of say that it’s a Jewasian combination. Virtual high-five Richard Stein!
RECIPE
Stein’s NY Half-Sour Pickles
Yields: 2 pounds
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons pickling salt, unrefined sea salt, or 3 to 4 tablespoons Kosher salt
- 1 quart (1 l) lukewarm water
- 2 pounds (scant 1 kg) firm pickling cucumbers, such as Kirby (6 to 8)
- 1 large or 2 small fresh grape leaves, optional
- 1 tablespoon pickling spices or a blend of your own (see mine above)
- 3 to 4 cloves garlic, lightly smashed
Method:
- Combine the salt with the water. Stir to dissolve. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Wash and pat the cucumbers dry. Trim each of its blossom end and if you like, cut off a bit of the stem end too. Put into a 2-quart jar. Add the spices and garlic. Pour in the cooled brine. Partially fill a small zip-top bag (snack size is nice) with water and use that as a weight to keep the cucumbers submerged in the brine.
- Refrigerate for 1 week before tasting, tweaking and eating. If you tweak, wait 24 to 48 hours to gauge the result.
Related information:
- Science of pickling (Finecooking.com)
- Stein and Leson’s Banh Mi conversation on KPLU
- Homemade Japanese pickled ginger recipe
AND, voting on the Banh Mi Selfie Contest winners ends on 10/5! Weigh in and help select the five winners.
