Pickled Green Tomatoes

We finally succesfully pickled something!  Hurray us!  This is our third attempt at pickling since Alex bought us a bunch of mason jars.  First we made pickled rhubarb - which might have been totally delicious, except that it got shoved to the very back of the refrigerator and forgotten.  By the time work slowed down and I found it I was too skeeved out by the fact that it had been in there for a few months to eat it.  Pickling attempt #1 went in the trash.  Then we tried pickling green beans.  Our Szechuan Beans weren't a total failure, but we weren't happy with them.  But these pickled green tomatoes were full of wonderful complex flavors.  They were much better than the green beans, which were harshly vinegar-flavored and left you with an oily aftertaste.  These green tomatoes were spicy, with a very distinct floral flavor from the coriander and the sweetness of the cider vinegar and honey.  Delicious.  I have to give a shout out to Jacob's Pickles for giving me the idea to pickle green tomatoes in the first place.  Their green tomato pickles are delicious, but I would pit ours, which I think were more aromatic and spicier, against theirs.  You are going to want to serve these pickles with something meaty or fatty to offset the bite of the pickles.  In my opinion, eating a bowl full of just these pickles would be inadvisable.  You would totally blow out your palate after the first few and wouldn't be able to enjoy them as fully.  We served them with our Roast Turkey Breasts with Asian Spice Rub, but I think fried chicken, juicy bone-in pork chops or egg and cheese biscuits would work too.

Recipe after the jump!





Pickled Green Tomatoes

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cup water
1 cup cider vinegar
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp coriander
1 tsp dried chili flakes
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cinnamon stick
roughly 1 lb green tomatoes, washed, stems removed and cut into wedges (we cut ours into sixths, but depending on the size of your tomatoes you could cut into quarters or eighths)

Combine all ingredients, except cinnamon sticks and tomatoes, bring to a light boil/strong simmer in a small saucepan, stirring until salt is dissolved.  Meanwhile, place tomatoes and cinnamon in mason jars.  We had just over a pound of tomatoes and used enough of them to fill 2 mason jars.  Add hot brine to mason jars, until tomatoes are completely covered.

Allow brine to cool, then cap the mason jars and transfer the jars to a refrigerator.  Wait a few days to allow the flavors to develop.

Serve.