Well, so many of you asked for more info about my pickled cucamelons, I really think you all ought to come around eat them.
Fist of all, what is a cucamelon? Well, I've seen them online described as being like a tiny watermelon that tastes like a cucumber. They grow on a vine, and are about the size and shape of a large green grape. Mark grew some for the first time this year and despite negative reviews we'd read (and heard from my brother, who grew them last year) we were looking forward to trying them.
Well, we were very disappointed. The skins are quite tough, and the insides don't have very much flavour but what there is is like a rather bitter cucumber. However I was told that they were pleasant when pickled like gherkins, and as I love gherkins I decided to give them a try.
I had enough to fill a 450g peanut butter jar, and I wet brined them by soaking them overnight in a solution of 75g salt in 500ml of water, thin drained and rinsed them and packed them into the jar. Because I was only making one jar, I used some bought ready-spiced pickling vinegar to fill the jar and then left them in a cool dark cupboard for a couple of weeks.
I've just had the official tasting. They taste of....... vinegar. Nothing else.
However they look quite pretty. If I had the sort of kitchen that displayed pretty jars of sparkling, never-to-be-used ingredients instead of having cupboards crammed with grubby plastic bags with hastily scrawled labels, I might make more of them just for the look of them!
1 comment:
Oh Jane, I love reading all of your cookery posts but especially the ones where it doesn't all go to plan - they look so pretty, it's such a shame that they don't live up to the taste test !
Post a Comment