Pickles with attitude

We had chips for tea and OH requested pickles, so pickled shallots were duly provided.  His comment was that they had attitude and were fiery enough to give you a bite back 

OK, so there were chillies in the jar as well as plenty of pickling spice, but what's the point of making homemade pickles out of your home grown produce if the results don't have any personality.  I thought they were fine 

 

He's usually OK with pickled onions, but the day I fed him elephant garlic will never be forgotten (or repeated)     

I don't like pickled onions and have to say the ones I made last year are a bit strong too, but OH seems to like them. Made some cucumber pickle too which was lovely, but now....wow....too hot for me to handle. They say it's better with age, I disagree. Some of the beetroot was a bit sharp but as we didn't persevere with it it has had time to mellow and is good now.But.................

All the huge jars of pickled veg the neighbour gave us are sweet and crunchy, lovely.

I find a good handful of peppercorns also very effective!

Yes, we have chillies, peppercorns, whole coriander seeds and bayleaves in ours, and jolly tasty they are too

Even the cucamelons in the jar were all the better for the extra flavouring 

I like strong pickles, but the boss doesn't and although sdhe doesn't normally like pickled beetroot she liked this recipe. Fortunately so did I.


Spiced sweet & sour pickled beetroot 
Cooking time
Prep: 10 mins Cook: 1 hr, 20 mins
Servings
Fills 1 large kilner jar
Ingredients
•   1kg small-medium sized raw beetroot
•   200g caster sugar
•   300ml white wine vinegar
•   2 star anise
•   3 cloves
•   2 allspice berries
•   2 bay leaves
•   2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
•   1 tbsp olive oil
Method
1.   Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Trim the leaves and most of stalks off the beetroot, leaving a stump of stalk on each. Wrap the beetroots individually in pieces of foil and place on a baking tray. Roast for 1 hr 15 ins or until the point of a sharp knife can be easily inserted then leave to cool.
2.   Unwrap, peel and trim the stalks away from the beetroot. Leave the small ones whole and cut larger ones in half and pack them into a large sterilised kilner jar.
3.   Tip the sugar, white wine vinegar, the spices and bay leaves into a sauce pan and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and bubble gently, stirring, for 2 mins until all the sugar has dissolved. Turn off the heat and add the balsamic if using.
4.   Carefully pour the hot vinegar, spices and bay over the beetroot (you might not need it all) and leave to cool uncovered. Once cool pour the olive oil over.

The original recipe had 200 ml water as well which I removed to keep the acidity. I also skipped the olive oil as I was worried about the safe length of storage out of the fridge.

Paddy