celery seed – Ali Does It Herself

Happy belated birthdays to Thidz and Stef!

I have never made coleslaw before in my life. In fact, I don’t even really like coleslaw. For this, though, I will make an exception. And I made all this without even consulting a recipe! I guess a lifetime of watching my mother cobble together a slaw left a lasting impression. This particular combination offers a bit of a snappy uptake on the traditional Southern slaw, and I hope you like it. If I do say so myself, I make a mean slaw. Remember that a slaw is always best the next day, after the flavours have had a chance to intermix. Also, if you say slaw a lot it starts to sound weird in your head. Slaw. Slaw. Slaw, slaw slaw. Slaw. What a weird-looking word.

Before we begin, I would like to introduce you to my cabbage. This was the smallest one I could find in the produce section, and, to give you a size comparison, that is a two-litre kettle sitting next to it.

Cabbage is the basis of every slaw. I am not too fond of the bitterness of red cabbage, though I know it adds a bit of colour to the salad. Nevertheless, I’m sticking with the green one. If you have a food processor, then this salad is a snap to prepare. I like to do certain things by hand, however, and me and my stupid sharp knife get along real well. You’ll want to hack off a hunk of your cabbage and then start slicing off bits real nice and thin.

If they are too long and dangly for your liking, feel free to cut the little cabbage strips in half before tossing them in a large bowl.

I also have some fennel here, which makes for a nice aniseed-y aftertaste in the salad.

Don’t worry too much about the green bits — focus on cutting up the white parts really thin and chuck those in with the cabbage. Don’t add too much, or your slaw will just taste like liquorice.

Next, I’m going to grate a large carrot and add that in for sweetness and colour.

Some sweet red peppers.

Feel free to add ones that are a little spicy, but not too spicy.

And some red onion. Give that a toss.

Now you make up your dressing. I think coleslaw dressings are kind of like curries — they need a lot of ingredients in order to encapsulate all the important flavours a slaw needs. In this one I have olive oil, rice vinegar, dijon mustard, minced garlic, brown sugar, celery seed, and mustard seed. You can replace the rice vinegar with white vinegar if you want something a little stronger. The Pie is not a huge fan of heavy vinegar usage which is why I take the milder rice vinegar more often than not.

I poured all that into a plastic container with a lid and gave it a good shake.

Now your salad is all ready to be dressed. Pour on the dressing in stages and toss to coat. You want enough dressing so you get some pooling at the bottom. It will be absorbed into the salad while it sits.

Seal your tossed and dressed salad in a container and refrigerate overnight.

Serve with burgers and fries, or any other summery food you can think of.

One summer when I was young, our kitchen was filled with cucumbers. We made them into dill pickles and bread and butter pickles and there wasn’t a single counter that wasn’t packed with shiny, hot jars of the stuff. The whole house smelled of vinegar. It was great.

We made two batches of bread and butter pickles on this particular day and it took a long time, what with the sterilization and the soaking and the canning, so make sure you have a free day and plenty of space when you’re going to do this.

One batch of bread and butter pickles yields about six 1-pint jars and uses 3L (about 4lb) of pickling cucumbers.

Wash your cucumbers. Scrub them and all their knobby bits well.

Cut the tops and bottoms of the cucumbers off (the bloom and stem ends).Using a mandolin or a food processor, slice the cucumbers into 1/4″ thick rounds.

Please do not cut off any of your fingers. Mandolins are vicious.

This will take a while, especially if you are doing two batches.

Now you have a helluva lotta cucumber slices. Put some on your eyes and take a rest for a while.

Just kidding. There’s work to be done.

Now you have to slice some onions. Use about three medium onions per batch of pickles. Peel the onion and slice it in half lengthwise, then use a mandolin or food processor to slice them the same thickness as your cucumbers.

I like to use the Onion Goggles here to avoid bloodshed. Or tearshed. Or both. If I’m weeping uncontrollably I may slice off an appendage on the mandolin.

Put all your cucumber and onion slices in an enormous bowl and sprinkle them with kosher or coarse pickling salt. Cover with ice water (or water with ice cubes in it) and leave to soak for three hours.

Now you can take a break. Or make something else while you wait.

You know what, why don’t you cut up two sweet red peppers, sliced thin on the mandolin again, and add them to the pile? They make for a nice colour contrast in the jar.

Drain the vegetables after their three-hour soak, rinse them thoroughly in cold water, and then drain them again really well.

At this point you should probably start preparing your jars and lids.

Put your lids and rings in a pot of water and set that to boil.

Plop your jars in your canner and set that to boil as well. This will take a while.Now you can prepare your pickling brine.

The key spices here are celery seed, turmeric, and yellow mustard seeds.

In a small bowl, put 2 tablespoons mustard seed, 2 1/2 teaspoons celery seed, and 1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric (the turmeric is what turns everything yellow). Set it aside for now.

In an enormous pot (we used the large maslin pan from Lee Valley), put 5 cups granulated sugar (I know, it seems like an awful lot).

Add to this 4 cups pickling vinegar. My grandmother insists that all pickling (unless otherwise stated) must use pickling vinegar. It’s about twice as strong as regular distilled white vinegar.

Add in your pickling spices and give it a stir.

Bring it to a boil and dissolve the sugar.

Now plop in your vegetables and cook, stirring frequently, until they are tender and yellow and the liquid is once more boiling, about fifteen minutes.

Once your jars have been boiling for ten minutes, you can haul them out of the canner. Turn off the heat for now to allow the water to cool slightly.

Drain the jars carefully using a jar gripper and put them near your pickle pot.

Using a canning funnel, carefully ladle pickle mixture into your six jars to within a half or quarter inch of the top of the jar. It’s pretty much a guarantee that you, your counter tops, and everything around you will become extremely sticky at this point.Make sure there is plenty of liquid in the jar as well, but be careful to leave some space at the top.

Use a wooden skewer (don’t use metal) to poke around and remove the air bubbles from amongst the pickles.

Remove your lids and rings from the heat and carefully place the lids on the jars.

Twist the rings on to fingertip tightness and return the jars to your canner.

Dunk them under and bring the water to a boil for fifteen minutes.

Remove the jars from the canner and allow to cool. As they cool they will seal with a lovely POP sound.

You can eat these pickles right away, but store opened jars in the refrigerator. Serve as a side to your dishes, put in sandwiches, or just eat straight from the jar. Your choice.Our two batches left us with some extra pickles, which we put in a jar in the fridge.