Pickled Sage
Makes about 2 cups of pickled herbs and 2-1/2 cups of brine
Up-front note: this also works with parsley, just sub in the same amount of that (maybe 2 small bunches) for the sage
Ingredients
2 cups prosecco vinegar (any white wine vinegar will do)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tsp coarse kosher salt
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 TB whole mustard seeds
1 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1-1/2 tsp caraway seeds (coriander is more traditional, but I was out)
2 packed cups fresh sage leaves, washed and patted dry
Directions
Add the vinegar, sugar, water salt, garlic slices, mustard seeds, pepper flakes, and caraway seeds to small saucepan. Stir, cover, and bring it right up to the boil, then immediately shut off the heat. Let this steep until cool (I let mine sit for about 2 hours while I did something else).
Pour the cooled pickling brine into a 1-quart or so container with a good lid (Ball jar works well). Give it another stir just to mix everything up, then pour it straight into the jar, no straining required.
At this point, you can fridge this for up to two weeks before continuing, or go right into it, like I did.
Add the sage leaves to the jar, making sure to push them well down into the liquid. You want every leaf as submerged as possible. Screw the lid on and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour (herbs pickle quickly), and use them within two weeks (the leaves will darken a bit, but they're perfectly fine and flavorful).
A note about the caraway seeds: I would normally have used coriander, like most pickling recipes I'm familiar with call for (as well as this one), but I was out of whole coriander seeds. I thought of using ground coriander, naturally, which I have plenty of, but I checked a couple of pickling websites and found that ground coriander isn't really recommend as a substitute; it can be difficult to get the dosage just right, as ground coriander won't measure out 1:1, it can adversely color the brine, can affect the texture of the finished pickled item, and it misses the aesthetic - not as many seeds bouncing around in there to ohhhh and ahhhh over.
Instead, it suggested caraway seed as the next-best substitute, and I was wary at first, but they're apparently from the same family, and they did give a certain earthiness and bitterness that I quite enjoyed once I sampled them.
Recipe based on one from The Nimble Cook, by Ronna Welsh.
Post-note: I used this as an ingredient in a couscous recipe challenge. Use your pickled sage in this recipe: Recipe - Sausage & Pickled Sage Couscous
Makes about 2 cups of pickled herbs and 2-1/2 cups of brine
Up-front note: this also works with parsley, just sub in the same amount of that (maybe 2 small bunches) for the sage
Ingredients
2 cups prosecco vinegar (any white wine vinegar will do)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tsp coarse kosher salt
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1 TB whole mustard seeds
1 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1-1/2 tsp caraway seeds (coriander is more traditional, but I was out)
2 packed cups fresh sage leaves, washed and patted dry
Directions
Add the vinegar, sugar, water salt, garlic slices, mustard seeds, pepper flakes, and caraway seeds to small saucepan. Stir, cover, and bring it right up to the boil, then immediately shut off the heat. Let this steep until cool (I let mine sit for about 2 hours while I did something else).
Pour the cooled pickling brine into a 1-quart or so container with a good lid (Ball jar works well). Give it another stir just to mix everything up, then pour it straight into the jar, no straining required.
At this point, you can fridge this for up to two weeks before continuing, or go right into it, like I did.
Add the sage leaves to the jar, making sure to push them well down into the liquid. You want every leaf as submerged as possible. Screw the lid on and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour (herbs pickle quickly), and use them within two weeks (the leaves will darken a bit, but they're perfectly fine and flavorful).
A note about the caraway seeds: I would normally have used coriander, like most pickling recipes I'm familiar with call for (as well as this one), but I was out of whole coriander seeds. I thought of using ground coriander, naturally, which I have plenty of, but I checked a couple of pickling websites and found that ground coriander isn't really recommend as a substitute; it can be difficult to get the dosage just right, as ground coriander won't measure out 1:1, it can adversely color the brine, can affect the texture of the finished pickled item, and it misses the aesthetic - not as many seeds bouncing around in there to ohhhh and ahhhh over.
Instead, it suggested caraway seed as the next-best substitute, and I was wary at first, but they're apparently from the same family, and they did give a certain earthiness and bitterness that I quite enjoyed once I sampled them.
Recipe based on one from The Nimble Cook, by Ronna Welsh.
Post-note: I used this as an ingredient in a couscous recipe challenge. Use your pickled sage in this recipe: Recipe - Sausage & Pickled Sage Couscous
