Pickle

The rice dish pongal is very dear to Tamil people. This combination isn’t traditional, but the thing is, pongal is just fantastic with bright Sri Lankan pickles and a soft-boiled egg.

These dill seed–scented pickles would be a great snack at any point in the year, but the recipe stands the test of time as a Thanksgiving appetizer.

Add these pickled tomatoes to eggs, soup, sauce, or salsa.

Quick pickled vegetables are welcomed any time of the year. Use fresh produce like cauliflower, carrots, radish, radish pods, or raw turmeric for this preparation.

Canning and preserving have long been an essential tactic of survival, and chowchow is a condiment born of both ingenuity and necessity. Here, green tomatoes not yet ripe enough to eat are transformed into a bright pickled expression of the first days of summer. It has been said that chowchow began as a collection of remnant produce that couldn’t be used in other dishes, so it became its own reclaimed relish. As you chop each vegetable, consider that origin: making the most from the least, creating abundance from scarcity. You can use four heatproof glass pint jars for this, though I prefer eight 8-ounce jars instead so I can share it around. Using pickling salt, such as Morton Canning & Pickling Salt, helps the liquid stay clear and keeps the cabbage from turning brown.

I serve these pickles like a salad as a side with ramen noodles, gyoza (fried dumplings), or shumai (steamed dumplings), or with a sandwich. 

Crisp pickled vegetables go brilliantly with cocktails (or with sandwiches, a hunk of cheese, a juicy steak...the possibilities are endless). Fresh ginger and dried chiles give them a bracing boost and orange juice plays up their natural sweetness.

This technique is nothing short of amazing—even if you're finicky about your pickles.

Mustard seeds that have been plumped in a pickle brine can really make a dish. They provide texture and crunch, heat and sweetness.

Pickling berries is a great way to make the most of seasonal produce. Try them over ice cream and salad.

These pickles are extra salty and crunchy. They’re best paired with fatty cuts of meat but also good to munch on by themselves. This recipe is from Gunpowder, an Indian restaurant in London.

Pickling the eggs in their cracked but intact shells creates a unique tie-dye effect on each one.