Quick Cucumber Pickle Recipe
Ingredients :
1 sliced cucumber
5g Dries Thyme
5g Whole black peppercorns
3 cups vinegar
1 to 2 teaspoons pickled salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
2 bay leaf
10-12 whole cardamom
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon red chilli
Method:
1.Make sure to clean jar nicely with warm water. Dry them well and put aside.
2. Slice cucumber as per your convenience. I sliced them circular to let , you can either do the same or slice them vertically. Apply salt to them and keep them aside for 3 hours. Cucumber will water. Rinse the extra salt from them.
3. Fill up the jar with sliced cucumbers with black peppercorns.
4. To make Brine, take a pan, put vinegar , sugar , pickled salt, bay leaves , cardamom , dried thyme , turmeric powder , chilli powder and brown mustard seeds. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
5. Pour the brine into the jar. Close the jar and refrigerate until cool, for about 2 hours.
Sensory evaluation
5 Basic tastes :
Salty : It was salty in taste because of the presence of salt and vinegar.
Sweet : Sugar created sweetness in cucumber pickle. It was little sweet in taste.
Sour : The acetic acid in vinegar creates sour taste. Also mustard seeds presence created a sweet sour taste.
Bitter: There wasn’t any bitterness detected.
Umami : Pickle was full of flavor and tasty. There was a savoury taste in pickle because of red chillis, turmeric and black peppercorns.
Observation:
Taste: Pickle was very tasty and had an amazing touch of sweet and sour. Juicy cucumbers soak in vinegar are soft inside and tastes good.
Smell: Pickles have an unique aroma. Its a smell of vinegar with cucumbers and little bit addition of peppercorns.
Sight: Pickled cucumber looks just like an ordinary cucumber i.e green in color soaked in brine solution with black peppercorns.
Touch : It was soft with vinegar soaking all over it and soggy at the same time.
Findings!!!
I found that pickled cucumber is one of the easiest and quickest method to make a pickle. It took 15 minutes to prepare it. I made it for the first time and it was a nice experience. It tasted good . It was sweet- sour and soggy in taste . Difficulties i faced was to make sure that correct flavor is extracted and taste remains as anticipated. Moreover, proper measurement is needed to avoid more or less sweet-sour. Also some of the ingredients were missing which i would include next time like Dill which brings a huge flavor and garlic too. However, it was a small success for me because i learned a new recipe and will modify it next time as per my knowledge.
Culinary World of Bhavya Vinayak 