By: John Strand

HPR 

(Photo By :Ben Myhre)

A different way to make fried Pickles !

 

If you haven’t had the fried pickles from Toasted Frog, you are really missing out on something special. They are like no other fried pickle I have eaten before. If pickles can be magical, I am pretty sure that Peter Pan made a special stop to sprinkle some pixie dust on the Toasted Frog fryers. They even were recently featured on The Cooking Channel’s show “The Best Thing I Ever Ate.” Today, I am going to give you a copycat version of the Toasted Frog fried pickles that you can make at home.

Are These Pickles Better Than The Toasted Frog?
No, these pickles are not better. Make sure to get down to the Toasted Frog to eat some pickles, have a pizza, or checkout whatever marvelous thing they have on special. The recipe in this article, however, is a great way to make fried pickles for your family or for when you don’t want to go out to eat.
I made several attempts to get these pickles as close as possible to the original and I think we come close. While we cook the pickles ourselves, I did decide to pick up some Chipotle Ranch from the grocery store to dip these guys in. This is a great dipping sauce for these pickles that stays somewhat true to what they offer on site.

Fried Pickles Are Easy

You think it might be hard to make something that tastes so good, but it isn’t. You just need a way to deep fat fry things, an oven, and a few ingredients. How many ingredients? Four. The recipe only calls for pickle spears, egg roll wrappers, havarti cheese, and a little bit of water. The fried pickles do get cooked twice. I cook them once in a fryer to give them that crunchy egg roll texture, but then I add them to the oven for a few minutes to help melt all that beautiful cheese and warm the pickle inside.
Be Careful When You Deep Fat Fry Things
Whether you have a Fry Daddy or you fry in a deep pot like I do, make sure to use the utmost precaution when cooking with that much hot oil. Peter Pan might bring some magic to the Toasted Frog, but he isn’t going to help at home if you start a grease fire. So, once again, cook with caution and care.
Recipe

Ingredients
4 Eggroll Wrappers
4 Pickle Spears
4 Ounces Havarti Cheese, cut into pieces the length of the pickles
Water, for the edges of the egg roll wrappers
Oil, for frying

Instructions
Dry Pickles. Dry with paper towels and allow to sit out for a few minutes.
Preheat oven to 425F.
Heat oil on stovetop.
Place one eggroll wrapper on a flat surface so it is a diamond shape from your position
Place pickle on wrapper.
Place cheese in front of pickle.
Lightly wet all edges of eggroll.
Fold the corner closest to you over pickle.
Fold two outer corners in and tightly roll.
Set aside and repeat for other 3 pickles.
Once oil is heated, gently place 2 pickles in fryer for one minute or until eggroll is golden brown.
Place on paper towel covered plate to remove excess oil.
Repeat steps 11 and 12 for other two pickles.
Place all four pickles on baking sheet and put in oven for 5 minutes.
Remove, cut in half, and serve with sauce of choice.

 

By :Erik Fideor

College Avenue Magazine 

 

Photo credit: Erik Fideor

Try this sweet,tangy and spicy pickle hummus !

Hummus balances health, taste and ease-of-preparation in a way that makes it perfect for party platters and packed lunches alike. This recipe is versatile because you may adjust the proportion of ingredients to result in a final product perfect for your taste, whether that be more spicy, sweet, tangy or mild. Experimenting is at least half of the fun, but rest assured that these base ingredients will result in a delicious dish nearly every time.

Salted garbanzo beans tend to have a better flavor, and one batch can serve enough for four to five to enjoy in one sitting or two to three servings for one person. Start by straining the garbanzo beans in the sink with a strainer or sieve and rinsing them with cool water. Pour them into a food processor and then lightly and evenly coat them with onion and garlic powder. You may use fresh chopped onion and garlic, but mince them as finely as possible and give more time blending to ensure that the ingredients become thoroughly mixed in the hummus. Powder tends to be a bit easier in that regard.

The next three ingredients compose the main flavor of the hummus, so they can be tailored to your preferred flavor. Look for sweet and/or spicy pickles that are brined with peppers for the best results. If you love heat, go for the more spicy varieties. The garbanzo beans will absorb some of the heat, so air on the side of more intense flavors for noticeable results. Add in around four or five pickle chips (or one to 1 ½ spears) along with some of the brine (which is typically vinegar, water and salt). This will make the hummus smoother and add to the flavor.
To heat up the hummus, add in canned cherry peppers. They are hot, slightly sweet and tangy. Perfect to compliment the pickle taste and will not detract as much as jalapeños or banana peppers. Whole cherry peppers are fine to use as well, add about three or four slices to the mix, along with about one teaspoon of their brine as well. Do not worry if the hummus does not taste hot enough yet, as you can serve the dish with pepper slices on top or from the jar at the end.

If at this point you want a tangier flavor, add white wine vinegar to taste. But be careful that you do not overdo it. There is already vinegar in the pickle and cherry pepper brine, but they will also have hot or sweet flavors like the taste of the other ingredients. Start with one teaspoon and add ¼ teaspoon after each mix until you are happy with the flavor.
While mixing, the garbanzo beans will start out dry and may not be smooth. The liquid from the pickles and peppers along with their brine will help make the hummus smoother and creamier. The end result should hold its shape and not drip. Liquid should not pool at the edges or bottom of the hummus. The consistency will be wetter than mashed potatoes but drier than tomato paste. Think re-fried beans only smoother and lighter.

Chill the hummus for an hour in a bowl with a damp cloth or plastic wrap over the top and smooth the top with a spatula for a clean presentation. The flavor will intensify the longer the hummus sits in the refrigerator, so eating it immediately may give a more mild taste. Try folding in the edges and run the spatula across the top in a wide circle to make a bun shape, and then use the edge to make curved marks going from the outside edge toward the center. Optionally, garnish the top by sprinkling sesame seeds or cherry pepper slices if you like extra heat.
Serve your hummus with sliced baby carrots and celery sticks to provide a healthy alternative to snack foods, or crackers or toasted bread for indulgent flavors. Other good vegetables to scoop or dip with include broccoli, cauliflower, roma or cherry tomatoes or even a raw bell pepper.

What you will need:

· Blender or food processor
· Spatula
· Bowl
· Strainer/Sieve
· Sliced cherry peppers
· Sweet (and spicy/tangy) pickles
· White wine vinegar
· Garlic powder
· Onion powder
· 1 Can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
· Optional, sesame seeds
· Baby carrots, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, crackers, tortilla chips or toasted pita/naan style bread for dipping.
Directions:
1. Open one can of garbanzo beans and rinse with cool water. Pour into blender or food processor.
2. Lightly coat the garbanzo beans with onion and garlic powder.
3. Add one teaspoon of white wine vinegar.
4. Add four to five sweet pickle chips (approximately 1 – 1 ½ spears), and one to two teaspoons of the juice from the jar.
5. Add three or four cherry pepper slices and one to two teaspoons of the juice from the jar.
6. Blend until smooth, scraping the sides to ensure even mixing. The consistency should be moist but not soupy and hold its shape when stirred.
7. Chill for one hour or serve immediately with carrot, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, crackers, tortilla chips or toasted pita/naan style bread. Optional, garnish with sesame seeds or additional cherry pepper slices.

 

 

By: Shira Feder

Forward

(submitted photo)

The Pickles a Jewish food staple.

 

The pickle! That fermented flavor, that solidly sour mouthfeel, that palate-cleansing post hotdog taste. The bright green, with its violent crunch! How we Jews love our pickles! But how did this love affair begin?
Immediately I think of a time when Jewish pickle vendors hawked their wares on the streets of the Lower East Side. Only true history buffs will remember the pickle wars, where vendors competed for a monopoly on the pickle. These bold Jewish immigrants made the pickle synonymous with Jewish food, but to find out who loved the pickle first, we have to go back further than that. (This pickle history timeline reveals that pickles have been around for literally hundreds of years, buy we’re aren’t going back quite that far.)

It’s an Ashkenormative love story that begins in Eastern Europe. The Jewish ghettos were unsanitary. The winters were long. Fresh food was scarce. Eating well was expensive. There was only one solution.
It all started with pickling, that most Eastern European of habits. To get through the long and grueling winter months, food had to be pickled. Everything could be pickled, from lemons to carrots, with varying degrees of culinary success.

 

today.com

By: Bryanna Cappadona

( Sonic/Getty Images stock)

When it comes to pickles, we thought we’d seen it all.
But it turns out, when it comes to the tangy, sour, salty, briny treat, we’ve barely scratched the surface. Now, Sonic Drive-In is getting in on America’s pickle obsession

On Friday, the fast food chain revealed that it’s releasing a pickle juice slush this summer and it will likely be available in restaurants by early June.
“Quite simply, pickle juice is fun,” Scott Uehlein, Sonic’s vice president of product innovation and development, told TODAY Food via email. “Nothing says summer like a Sonic slush.”
The new flavor will be served at 3,500 Sonic locations nationwide. According to Food & Wine, which got a sneak preview taste test of the new slush at Sonic’s Oklahoma City headquarters, the drink’s syrup has a “sweet and tangy” punch to it.

Sonic’s new roll out is just the latest in a line of increasingly unusual pickle-flavored refreshers