Quick and Easy Refrigerator Pickled Asparagus
>> Friday, March 26, 2010
One of my new-found passions is pickling -- specifically quick, easy, overnight (or 3-day-long at the most), refrigerator, no-canning-involved kind of pickling. Ease of preparation is, of course, a big factor. But the key thing for me lies in the fact that quick pickling produces pickled fruits and vegetables that retain a great deal of their freshness, color, and texture while characteristically tasting of delicious pickling liquid and spices.
See how these asparagus spears are roughly the length of a hot dog bun? See the possibilities? Can you visualize them getting cozy with a grilled hot dog in natural casing or a charred spicy merguez, perhaps? And that's just one of the many, many ways to use pickled asparagus. 
Printable Version
I wash and dry 1 1/2 pounds of fresh asparagus, trim off the tough, fibrous parts, and arrange them vertically in a large glass jar. In a pot, I mix together 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 1/2 cup of white wine vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of salt, 6 large cloves of garlic, sliced thinly lengthwise, 2 tablespoons of yellow mustard seeds, and 2 tablespoons of fennel seeds, and bring the mixture to a boil. The hot liquid is poured over the fresh asparagus in the jar.
The entire jar is then left to cool to room temperature, then refrigerated, with the lid on, for 48 hours. (Thicker asparagus would take longer, possibly up to 3 days.) The result is delicious pickled asparagus that's still quite vibrant green, crunchy, and goes with, oh, everything.
6 comments:
interesting. I've never seen or tried pickled asparagus. i didn't even know you can do that. hehehe... Cool!! I need to trying pickling one of these days.
Sounds great often wondered what pickled asparagus would taste like...have left over must pickle.
Thanks
I love asparagus, and find that the more I have them the more I enjoy pickled veggies. Growing up the only pickles I can think of were the dill pickle variety and I have to say I loved my moms, but expanding my horizons and seeing the diversity and versatility has been a wonderful culinary breakthrough. Cannot wait to try the asparagus version.
I bought pickled asparagus at a local farm store and my daughter (and me) LOVE it. Problem is a jar costs about $9! Happy to get this recipe and maybe cut down on the cost!!!
Anonymous - Yikes. $9. With DIY pickled asparagus you can even use organic asparagus and pay less. A caveat though: quick pickled asparagus has crunchy texture, so if you're used to the one that comes in a jar (which doesn't snap), you may not like this. But do give it a try, because I really like it. :)
My husband loves pickled asparagus on his lunch salads. We used to buy them at the store but the jars went up in price by $3. I tried a different recipe I found and hubby said they were to strong. I'm going to give yours a whirl. Wish me luck.
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