Zucchini Pickles

It's been a busy couple of weeks at Chez Zen.  We went on a camping vacation and had a fantastic time.  Mr. Zen and I also celebrated another wedding anniversary (that rascal spoiled me again).  After that, it was time for another Independence Day fireworks extravaganza, in which all the assorted Zenlets enjoyed blowing up stuff.  No fingers or toes were lost in the excitement.

During all that, the garden kept right on growing.  I guess time and vines stop for no one.  We're now being rewarded by some monster zucchini and tomatoes.  This one is bigger than my hand.   We haven't applied any extra fertilizer or Miracle-Gro or anything like that - we just planted the 'mater plants in their raised beds, weeded, mulched and watered.  Nothing else.  Wow!

The zucchini are growing like crazy, too.  I don't have any pictures of the biggest ones, but they were as big as my forearm.  I usually try not to let them get that big and prefer to pick them when they're around 5 inches long, right after the bloom has fallen off, but while we were away on our trip, the zukes just went out of control.

So, after using up some of our first harvest in fried zucchini, zucchini bread, in salads, grilled, and in pasta sauces, I sliced and grated a lot of it for freezing.

With the rest of it, I made pickles.  You can substitute zucchini spears for cucumber spears in any quick dill pickle recipe.  I wouldn't substitute them for cucumbers in a fermented recipe where you have to let the cucumbers sit in a crock for several days or weeks in a brine solution.  I don't know how well that would work.  But in a quick pickle recipe where you raw pack the spears in the jar, pour the hot pickling liquid over them and immediately process in a boiling water canner, you can substitute zucchini for cucumbers.  They may not stay as crisp as cukes would, but the flavor is just as good.  I haven't tried adding anything like Pickle Crisp to my zucchini pickles.  If I make another batch later on, I may try it.

Here is a good dill zucchini pickle recipe:

ZUCCHINI DILL SPEARS
7 lbs zucchini (about 30 medium zucchini, each about 5 inches long)
1/3 cup canning salt
Ice water
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp dill seed
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp mustard seed
4 cups white vinegar
1 cup water

Wash and rinse zucchini.  Cut off stem and blossom ends.  Cut lengthwise into spears - yield about 12 cups of spears.  Place spears in a large container and sprinkle with canning salt.  Add ice water to completely cover the zucchini.  Place a large plate upside down on top of the zucchini, then stand a quart jar filled with water on top of the plate to weigh it down and keep the zucchini completely submerged in the ice water.  Let stand 2 hours.

Clean and sterilize 6 pint canning jars.  Keep jars hot.  Clean canning lids and rings.  In a small pot of water, simmer the lids but DO NOT BOIL.  Fill boiling water canner with water (enough to cover pint jars plus at least another inch of water), cover and bring to a boil.

In a small bowl, combine garlic and 1 tbsp dill seed. Set aside.

Combine sugar, mustard seed, 1 tbsp dill seed, vinegar and water in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

Drain and rinse zucchini.  Place spears in the hot pickling liquid and return to a boil.  As soon as the liquid beings to boil, remove from heat.

Spoon 1 tsp of garlic/dill mixture into a canning jar.  Pack zucchini into jar, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Add pickling liquid to cover zucchini spears, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Remove any air bubbles by running a rubber spatula or bubble freer wand in the sides of the jar and gently pressing against the zucchini.

Wipe the rim of each jar with a clean, damp rag.  Place the canning lid on the jar and screw on the canning ring to finger-tight.  Place jars into the boiling water canner.

Place the lid on the canner and bring to a boil.  As soon as the water starts boiling, set your timer to process the jars for 10 minutes (or as adjusted for your altitude).

After the processing time is complete, remove the lid and turn off the heat.  Let the jars set in the canner for 5 minutes, then remove the jars from the canner without tilting them.  Let jars set undisturbed on a towel for 24 hours.

I also made some sweet sliced zucchini pickles, which turned out tasty!