Kovászos Uborka / Sun Pickles
Credit: Marika’s Kitchen
Ingredients
- 2.25 lbs. pickling cucumbers
- 4 cups (1000ml. filtered water)
- 2 Tbsp kosher coarse salt (slightly heaping tblsp)
- 4 stalks fresh dill (with heads if possible)
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 1 or 2 tbsp peppercorns
- high quality sour dough bread
Directions
- Add 2 slightly heaping tablespoon of salt to 4 cups of water and bring to a boil.
- Let it cool for 5 minutes.
- Wash the cucumbers, scrub them if necessary, remove any blemish. The fresher they are the better they will be.
- Trim both ends off of each cucumber (supposed to reduce bitterness of cucumbers)
- Slice into them lengthwise to about 1/4 inch from one end. Then on the opposite end turn and cut opposite. This will create a crisscross type cut. See pictures/video for reference.
- Place half the dill, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic and a tbsp peppercorns in the bottom of a clean jar. (If using an oversized jar for a large batch of cucumbers, I split the ingredients into three portions, creating a middle layer of dill and garlic and pepper between cucumbers.)
- Layer the cucumbers standing upright.
- Add the remaining dill, garlic and peppercorns.
- Pour the salt water over the cucumbers and top with the bread.
- Make sure the bread is soaked.
- Retain the leftover brine for topping up later.
- Cover the jar with either a porous cotton cloth held in place with elastic/string, or with a saucer to keep the bugs out. I always use a plate turned upside down on top of jar)
- Place in a warm place. Many say direct sun but Southern California direct sun created mushy centers. I keep them in indirect sun. (even on an inside counter works. Fermentation does not need direct sun to occur)
- The water will turn cloudy during fermentation.
- Make sure the cucumbers are always submerged in brine. If brine spills over, or evaporates, top it up with the saved brine or make additional brine if needed.)
- Keep a close eye on water levels each day and test the pickles on the third day. 3 days is usually perfect for us.
- The pickles should be pleasantly sour and not too soft, giving a little resistance when bitten into.
- Discard the bread. Remove the pickles, rinse if necessary. Using a sieve, strain everything out of brine. Toss garlic, peppercorns and dill.
- Pack pickles into smaller jars and cover with the strained brine.
- Pickles will keep for quite a while in the fridge.
Note: Recipe above was 9 lbs. of cucumbers. All ingredients were increased four times the recipe.
