Asian Pickles

I have never been a pickle person.  I think it all stems from when I was around ten years old and I had the mumps. Helen Keller could see I had the mumps, but my old Czechoslovakian grandmother told my mother “if it hurts when she swallows a dill pickle – she has the mumps”.  Linda Lovelace would have a problem swallowing a dill pickle.

I have shunned pickles from that day forward.  That being said, I loved pickled foods – onions, ginger, garlic.
When you add pickled red onions to a burger, it’s gourmet.  Pickled daikon and carrots on a Vietnamese fish sandwich – so good — recently had that sandwich in a restaurant in San Francisco.

This book is so much more than a cookbook.  It’s a wealth of information on pickling covering Japan, Korea, China, India and “beyond” — I always wondered what exactly was in the “beyond” department. In Asian Pickles I think the author means Southeast Asia.

Sweet, sour, salty, cured and fermented preserves – right on the front page!  All my favorites.

I’ve started my five-spice pickled carrots…in three days – I’ll let you know how they are – they smell great already!  Today I’m going to pickle some garlic – that will be ready in 6 to 7 months.  If you want some instant gratification you can make Hot Pickled Pineapple and Peanuts – ready in 1 and 1/2 hours and looks and sounds great – doesn’t it?

There are loads of unique recipes in this book (as least to me – thousand slices turnips) and a plethora of information about pickling but also included are recipes for chile-black bean oil, XO sauce, chutneys and “beyond”!

I’m very pleased with this book and look forward to exploring more in the world of pickling and international flavors.

My review on Amazon is here.  If you would feel so inclined to like it – I would appreciate it.  I want you to like it–really, really like it.

This book was provided by Blogging for Books.