Another recipe for the Quickles file. Romanesco lends itself beautifully to quickling-it maintains it crisp texture yet no longer tastes raw. This iteration was made for a Sicilian influenced salad, but it is easy enough to change your destination by changing your herbs and spices. Use these in the salad recipe or serve with plates of salami and charcuterie, burgers, or braises. Good with grilled salmon as well. If you just want these as a snack, see notes about adding lemon.
INGREDIENTS:
1 head of romanesco, cut into 1 inch bits
½ white or brown onion cut through the root, then cut almost through again, then sliced across into 1/8th inch quarter-moons
2-3 tablespoons salt, Diamond Crystal Kosher preferred*
¾ cup white wine vinegar
¾ cup white balsamic vinegar
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
6 sprigs fresh oregano
3 sprigs fresh thyme
10 each whole coriander seeds and black peppercorns
METHOD:
Put the cauliflower and onion into a non-reactive bowl, and scatter the salt over, tossing as you work to get all the cauliflower with the salt. Rub it around to cover all the surfaces and work it in a little. Use your fingers to separate the onion bits and be sure they get salted as well. Allow to rest at room temperature 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, rinse the onions and the cauliflower in several changes of water, being sure to remove all the salt. Taste a little cauliflower-it can have a touch of salt flavor, but should not be “salty”. Rinse more if needed, then drain in a spinner, then transfer to a colander and dry really well. You want to get rid of as much water as possible.
Once the cauliflower is drying, put the sugar, vinegar, and water into a pot and bring to a boil. Boil until the sugar goes into suspension, and reduce the heat to a bare simmer. When simmering, add the oregano, thyme, coriander and pepper. Simmer 10 minutes, remove from the heat and allow to cool down 5 minutes. While the quickling solution cools, fill a wide-mouthed 1 quart canning jar with boiling water, then empty after 30 seconds. Load in the drained vegetables.
Strain the quickling solution of the herbs and fill the jar. Before you get to the top with the solution, rap the jar smartly on a cutting board to settle the contents and drive out air bubbles. If you wish, pour boiling water on a metal spoon and use it push down the vegetables. Top the container up with the solution.
Put a plastic lid on loosely** and allow to cool a bit more to where you can put it in the refrigerator. When cool enough, tighten the lid and chill. They are ready as soon as they are cold. Keeps several weeks.
Chef’s Notes: If you wish, use a peeler to take a couple inches of lemon peel off a washed lemon, the remove any pith. Add the lemon peel to cauliflower just before adding the hot solution.*Diamond Crystal Kosher salt is the perfect sized flake for this job. Not small enough that it dissolves into the vegetables, nor so large that it does nothing. The size and timing work for the best here, tenderizing/curing the vegetables without flavoring them too much. If you use smaller crystal salt, you will need to adjust volume and time to keep from wilting the vegetables and making them taste salty. Also, the flavor of this salt is clean and pure. Some white wine vinegars are very harsh, so use a nice one with good flavor. **You can get sturdy white plastic lids for wide mouth canning jars, and that would be ideal for quickles. The quickle solution will break down the metal rings and tops fairly quickly, and the plastic tops are quite sturdy and re-usable.
Yield: Around 1 quart
Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen
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