A RECIPE FOR PICKLED CARROTS + STICKING IT TO THE FLU

A few years ago I started taking daily raw apple cider vinegar shots during the flu seasons. Two tablespoons in the morning, diluted with a splash of water, then down the hatch it goes. And then your shoulders wiggle all over for a minute, cause it's gross.

I'm sure by now we all know about the raw apple cider vinegar. It improves your skin, relieves allergy + asthma symptoms, speeds up your metabolism, reduces your risk of heart disease and diabetes, it's good for your hair when used as a rinse, it's good for your digestion, you can clean your windows with it... all these things. I'll be referring to it as ACV from here on out, I hear that's the street name for it out here. "Yeah, I take my ACV shots with a bit of raw, local honey, and some chia seeds." Like that.

(I used to use ACV at night on my face, but then my husband asked me to kindly stop, as I was coming to bed smelling like salad. Fair enough.) 

(Oil pulling squicks me out, I am ashamed to admit.)

I take ACV primarily to boost my immune system. The acids in the vinegar are supposed to help create an alkaline environment in your gut, which in turn make it harder for viral and bacterial infections to spread. I started taking ACV one winter during a particularly intense flu season. It was baaad. Huck's friends were dropping like flies. It seemed like we were constantly exposed, everywhere we went--and I mean, like, actually exposed, literally, in the grossest ways. (Barf in the sand box during a playdate once, holla.) I'd read once that a shot of ACV a day will keep you from catching the stomach bug, especially when taken immediately after exposure and continuing for the 3 days following. Seems too good to be true, I hear you, but people in these raw foods forums were swearing up and down that it worked every time, and as we all know, you can always trust the things things you read on online forums. So I was like, SOLD. I think we may have been the only ones to stay healthy that year, and I'm not kidding, we couldn't go anywhere that winter without somebody getting sick immediately after, it was like the zombie apocalypse. So, color me converted.

**For kids and other vinegar-averse humans you can substitute a daily cup of 100% grape juice, no sugar added. Who knows really, but it's seemed to work for Huck. Isn't this stuff exciting though?!

So I was looking around the other day for a decent recipe for pickled carrots, when I stumbled on all sorts of articles about pickled + fermented foods preventing and even halting already-in-progress stomach bugs. This has been good news for me, because what can I say? Barf is terrifying, pickles are tasty, old-fashioned canning is a turn on, and holistic healing has always got me going. As does composting, which is very sexy. My grandmother used to make the most delicious dilly beans before she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and learning to make them has been on my to-do list for quite some time. Anyway, I'd definitely rather eat one of Shirley's famous dilly beans than do one more danged ACV shot, so. Three birds, one pickle, here we are. 

Speaking of the Costco. The other day I mistakenly ordered about 50 million pounds of carrots. It's a long story. (Funny thing about New York--you can order Costco delivery from your phone, and then some nice person with a car brings it to your door. Not kidding around. Also not kidding around... are Costco-sized bags of carrots.)

I mean, Huck likes carrots and we like carrots, but nobody likes carrots that much.

The whole thing took me twenty-five minutes from start to finish. Here I was expecting a good afternoon of blissful canning, so that was a bummer, but, you know. That's life. This was the most labor intensive part: soaking the mason jars in soapy water while I peeled the carrots. Silly story but I actually worried for a minute I'd have a hard time finding mason jars. In Brooklyn.

It felt weird for a minute to actually be using mason jars to can something. 

Anyway, to keep things super old-fashioned and authentic, I used pre-peeled garlic cloves. 

And took many selfies to document the process.

PICKLED CARROTS!
(Recipe adapted from the kitchn)

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

// Carrots

// Garlic

// Fresh Dill

// Red Pepper Flakes

// Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

// Water

// Kosher Salt

// Whole Black Peppercorn

// Whole Coriander Seeds

// Sugar*

METHOD
(Makes roughly 2 pints)

1. Peel about two pounds of carrots. Slice in half length-wise, then slice the halves again, for quartered spears

2. Add herbs + spices to the jar

--Handful of fresh dill (you can also use 2 teaspoons dill seed)
--3-5 garlic cloves, crushed open with the flat side of your knife blade

--1 1/2  tablespoons kosher salt

--1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

--1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns

--1 tablespoon whole coriander seed

(You can tweak this as the spirit moves you. :)

**I sprinkled a teaspoonful or so of raw sugar into the jar with the dilly beans, because I remembered my grandmother always using sugar. I'm not sure what difference it makes, but of all the vegetables I pickled, those beans came out the best.

3. Pack the carrots into the jars as tightly as possible.

4. Combine 1 cup water and 1 cup vinegar in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Pour the brine over your carrots, filling the jar to within 1/2 inch of the top.

5. Remove air bubbles by gently tapping the jars against the counter. Bubbles will rise to the top. Cover with more pickling brine if needed.

6. Tighten lids.

(If you'd like, you can boil the jars at this point in a large pot of boiling water for five minutes to make them shelf-stable for a year or so. You'll know the process worked when the lids have popped down. If they don't pop down, store them in the fridge, where they'll keep for a few weeks.)

7. Cool and refrigerate your pickles. Leave overnight for the magic to happen. Pickles that haven't been processed for shelf storage will need to be refrigerated immediately, and will keep in the fridge for just under a month.

Next you ask yourself, What else can I pickle? When really, the better question is, What can't I pickle?

I tried pickling a bit of everything we had in the fridge. Broccoli + cauliflower, carrots, cucumbers, and green beans. The beans and carrots won the day. The cucumbers didn't come out well, I'm sure because I used the wrong kind of cucumber (I only had Persian on hand). The broccoli/cauliflower turned out oddly, cloyingly sweet, and I hadn't even used sugar in that one. Head scratcher.

I followed the same ratios for the larger jars, but topped the jar off once all the vegetables were in with a lot more of the brine mixture to fill to the top, as well as a few extra sprinkling of spices, I'd guess about a quarter teaspoon's worth or so. I suspect you couldn't really screw this one up too much, so long as you don't over-salt it or go completely nuts with the red pepper flakes. 

How does it go? A pickled carrot a day keeps the flu bug away? I'm going for it.

PS--Other things the Internet has told me are good for gut health: 

Kefir 

Kimchi

Sauerkraut (yesss!)

Jamie Lee Curtis

and Artichokes!  Who knew?

(More on that HERE.)

I've never been a huge yogurt lover, but I've always been a sucker for some sauerkraut. (And not for nothing but I'm fairly certain kimchi might be the new cupcake.)

Now go forth and pickle!