Kandinsky and Cucumbers

The Milwaukee Art Museum had the most amazing exhibition of Wassily Kandinsky's work (and some important contemporaries), this past summer. It was an enlightening show - I was totally unaware of his early figural work, and completely charmed by his pieces done in tempera on black paper. 

Of course, there was a gift shop to check out after the exhibit. I try not to buy anything (or at least not spend too much); I could not pass up the cookbook by Elena Makhonko on Russian food. I thought I knew something of their cuisine, but paging through the book I realized I really didn't. 

The first recipe I tried was for Salted Cucumbers, a.k.a. Smedoni, mostly because I had all the ingredients, including an overabundance of cukes. Also, since these are basically refrigerator pickles, it gave me a chance to use one of the really cool antique canning jars from my mom's collection. 

We even had the obscure blackcurrant leaves! A friend gave us a blackcurrent shrub earlier this summer, so I clipped some off for use. The leaves don't match what was in the book, but I double checked that our leaves at least, for sure, come from a blackcurrant. 

I crammed the two quart Atlas jar pretty full. With a new gasket, it was ready to head into the fridge for a couple weeks before trying. 

TICK-TOCK TWO WEEKS ON THE CLOCK
We tried out the Salted Cucumbers and... very tasty. Obviously a pickle, but lightly vinegary. The dill and garlic are evident, and so is this herby-green-slightly unfamiliar flavor, which must be the blackcurrant. Fine by themselves, there are several recipes in the cookbook that require these as ingredient. So: step 1 done! 

Dilly Garlic Beans

Pickles were never a favorite when I was younger. Too bitter, too tart. My maternal grandmother made outrageously good pickled beets though, and I still love sweet/sour over just sweet or just sour.

These days I enjoy eating pickles almost as much as I love making them. They are by far the easiest, most tweakable thing to put up. While you can't really change the acid and/or sugar balance too far and still keep them safe, you can add all sorts of vegetables and spices. 

Dilly Beans "before"

These Dilly Beans were totally inspired by the recipe by Marisa McClellan at Food in Jars. Even so, I looked for every green bean dill pickle recipe I could find, and made a big spreadsheet comparing all the ingredients to find the common themes. What can be changed, what is mandatory. It's my first try at Dilly Beans, and the scientist in me can't help herself (hey, it's a new kitchen protocol! You geeks out there, and you know who you are, know exactly what I'm sayin' - am I right?!). 

Deciding on the common-theme green bean dill pickle recipe (1 cup water, 1 cup white vinegar, 1 tablespoon kosher salt; process pints for 10 minutes), I added a garlic clove, couple tiny dried red chillies, and a few black peppercorns to each jar. The hard part now is waiting a couple weeks before trying them. The Bloody Marys will have to wait.

Dilly Beans "after"

There were no cucumbers

Well, no bushels of cucumbers at pickle-making prices. So we came home with this lot instead:

We spoke with the farmers, and our Wisconsin summer has been too cold. Tomatoes and cucumbers will be another couple weeks. Beans and beets, however, look grand.

Looking at that haul, I can't help but see pickles. Maybe I should have that looked at.