Sonia's Refrigerator Pickles

One of the advantages of being friends and living close by to a tomato farmer is being the recipient of little care boxes every once in while....  I want to share with you what I have done so far with some of the wonderful things I got from Richard a few days ago.

Cucumbers and Green Zebra tomatoes from the Hamakua Springs Country Farm

I have written about Richard Ha and his wonderful tomatoes before, but I can't stress enough how ono they are....They look and taste like real tomatoes.  The kind you can just munch on as if they were apples.

Richard and his farm are sponsoring a Tomato Recipe Contest in conjunction with Foodland & Sack & Save Supermarkets state-wide.  There are three categories, Entrees, Salads and Condiments & Preserves. 

I was playing around with ideas for quick refrigerator pickles to use up some of the contents of my 'care box' from Richard and combining several recipes, I came up with this one......The sad part is that as good as they turned out...I can't enter the contest because I'm helping with the planning and will be a judge...but the good part is that I will get a front seat for the tasting of all the ono recipes we expect to receive!

I wanted to combine the cucumbers and the Green Zebra tomatoes from the farm with onions and garlic I already had.  I added a few of the little red Hawaiian chile peppers from our garden.

I was always told that before you preserve garlic in oil or use them when making pickles you needed to first blanch them in vinegar so that the natural sulphur will not cause them to turn green and harvest botulism.  Some experts say that you only need to do it when preserving them in oil.  I do it anyway, just to be on the safe side.

For an easy way to peel the garlic without damaging the cloves, I first take apart the whole head and drop the cloves in rapidly boiling water to blanch for about 3 to 5 seconds, stirring them constantly to make sure they just don't float to the top and lay there.  Take them out of the boiling water with a skimmer and plunge them in cold water.  After cutting the root end off, the skins will slip right off, leaving you with clean smelling hands!

Sonia's Refrigerator Pickles

6 cups white vinegar

4-1/2 cups sugar

2 Tablespoons Hawaiian sea salt

White peppercorns

3 large cucumbers, thinly sliced

3 medium onions, thinly sliced

3 medium Green Zebra or other green tomatoes

1 head of garlic, separated and peeled

Hawaiian red chile peppers

Wash your glass containers and lids thoroughly and place them in a large pot of boiling water.  Keep them on boil for a few minutes and turn the heat off but leave them in the hot water until ready to use.  I like to use the canning jars with the glass lids that clamp on.

Process the garlic cloves by blanching them in the boiling water and peeling them.  Set aside.

In a large stainless steel or non-reactive saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar and salt.  Bring to a boil and boil gently for about 1 minute, or until sugar and salt are dissolved.  Remove from heat and add the peeled garlic cloves and stir in the hot vinegar mixture for about 1 minute, then remove them with a skimmer and set aside.

While your jars are still hot, drain and wipe briefly with a clean cloth.  Put a few peppercorns in the bottom and start layering your sliced cucumbers, onions and green tomatoes.  Remember to stick a few of the processed garlic cloves and a few chile peppers here and there as you fill your jars.  Add a few more peppercorns.

Wipe the rims thoroughly and seal them tightly.

When cool, store in refrigerator.  They will keep for several weeks.

The finished pickles!

I'm trying to come up with other ideas for all the other glorious tomatoes and the beautiful Manoa lettuce!

Thank you Richard!