As a Canadian who grew up just a 45-minute drive from the American border, I ve always been fascinated by and a little bit jealous of the vast amount of choice in American grocery stores. As a kid, my longing was for watermelon Hubba Bubba bubble gum and other exotic candy we couldn t get in Canada. All the cool kids would walk around at recess blowing big watermelon-scented bubbles the size of a Saint Bernard s head, while the rest of us plebs feebly tried to eke out a bubble the size of a Chihuahua s paw with our rock-hard squares of Dubble Bubble. As an adult, I m blown away by the laundry detergent section and the 42 billion different potato chip flavors. Granted, Americans have a harder time finding uniquely Canadian flavors such as dill pickle or ketchup chips, but they re more than compensated by having access to Green Apple Jolly Rancher Pop Tarts. Honestly, it s a thing. So a couple of years ago when an American friend sent me a jar of pickles specific to his little area in Mississippi, I worried it was going to be watermelon Hubba Bubba all over again. I d love them but wouldn t have access to them. And then I d be sad. And that s exactly what happened. These pickles were as sweet as bread-and-butter pickles, crunchy as can be and they had a surprise a KICK in the form of hot peppers. Sweet and spicy all in one crunchy pickle. I was addicted. About a year or so after I came to grips with the fact that I couldn t find them locally or even at one of the American grocery store chains close to the border, I figured out how to make these sweet-and-spicy pickles for myself. 1/6 www.leevalley.com
It s a very, very difficult process so I need you to turn off the television, put down the newspaper and pay attention. Cut a dried hot pepper in half and shove it in a jar of sweet pickles. Did you get all that? 2/6 www.leevalley.com
Cut a dried pepper in half (the kind of hot pepper that s about the size of your pinkie finger) and drop it into a jar of store-bought sweet pickles. And you re done. I know. So easy. I make my own bread-and-butter pickles because I love the recipe with all of my heart. I think you will, too. I keep half of the jars plain old bread-and-butter pickles, then to the other half I add my hot peppers so I have a mixture of both sweet and sweet-and-spicy pickles in my fridge. I like to have a plethora of pickle possibilities in my pantry. I also use whatever extra vegetables I have in my garden for making the pickles. Too many zucchini? Use those in this pickle recipe. Too many green beans? Use those too. 3/6 www.leevalley.com
It s a great recipe for using up summer produce that you might just be getting sick of eating. Classic Bread and Butter Pickle Recipe (For 16 or so pint jars; halve the recipe for 8 pint jars.) 10 lb of stuff (cucumbers, zucchini, green beans whatever) 4 onions (sliced) 1/2 cup salt (pickling, kosher or otherwise) 3 cups cider vinegar 5 cups sugar 2 tablespoons mustard seed 2 teaspoons celery seed 1/2 teaspoon whole cloves 1 tablespoon turmeric 16-32 small, dried hot chili peppers cut in half (optional) 4/6 www.leevalley.com
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Slice your cucumbers. I like mine fairly thick almost 1/4. Combine your sliced cucumbers and onions in a bowl. Sprinkle with the 1/4 cup of salt and toss. Mix in a tray of ice cubes and let sit for three hours. (This draws out the moisture from the cucumbers so they turn out crisper.) Rinse, rinse, rinse your cucumbers! Soak them in water and then rinse them again. You want to get rid of as much salt as possible; otherwise your pickles will taste too salty. Combine the vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, celery seed, cloves and turmeric in a pot and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add your cucumber/onion mixture to the pot and return to the boil. Stuff your pickles into sterilized jars and pour the liquid over them until covered. If you want spicy pickles, this is the time to add your hot peppers. Per 500ml jar, add one for mildly hot pickles, two for hot pickles and three for dare-you-to-try-them pickles. 7. Store in the fridge until you want to eat them. Try to wait a day or two; otherwise, they won t have that great bread-and-butter pickle flavor. 5/6 www.leevalley.com
Not to leave you with the impression that Canada doesn t have a lot of choice or variety, I must insist we do. In fact, we have sweet and spicy pickles, but they just aren t as good as the ones I sampled from the States. This recipe is the closest I ve been able to come to replicating them. Which has been a bit more successful than the time I tried to replicate watermelon Hubba Bubba, and infinitely more successful than I suspect my homemade Jolly Rancher Pop Tarts are going to be. Now if you ll excuse me, there s a bag of ketchup-flavored potato chips with my name on it. Text and photos by Karen Bertelsen Karen Bertelsen is a Gemini Award nominated television host who has appeared on some of Canada s major networks including HGTV, W Network, Slice and MuchMoreMusic. Seven years ago she started the blog The Art of Doing Stuff (www.theartofdoingstuff.com) as a creative outlet for her writing and endless home projects. The Art of Doing Stuff now receives over half a million views per month and has been featured in Better Homes & Gardens, Style at Home and Canadian Gardening magazines. 6/6 www.leevalley.com