Rhubarb quick pickle with cinnamon myrtle, ginger, pink pepper & orange is a crisp and crunchy pickle with a lovely sweet warmth from ginger and pink pepper, citrus notes from orange zest and sweet cinnamon spice from Australian indigenous cinnamon myrtle. This rhubarb pickle is delicious in cocktails or served with cheeses or in salads.
I had always associated rhubarb with warm cooked dishes such as crumbles, tarts, compotes and heat treated pickles. I had never eaten rhubarb raw or thought to make it into a quick pickle until I read Autumn Giles’ (2016) book Beyond canning: New techniques, ingredients, and flavours to preserve, pickle, and ferment like never before. In this book Giles (2016: 102) has a recipe for rhubarb that is quick pickled and so retains its’ crunch, colour and consistency. Whereas the heat treated rhubarb pickles I was used to tended to turn a more burgundy colour and to become very soft especially as they aged.
My own recipe for rhubarb quick pickle with cinnamon myrtle, ginger, pink pepper & orange uses coconut sugar for a lower GI pickle and adds a little raw organic honey and a spice and citrus mix for flavour as I’m going to use these pickles and their brine in pickled cocktails such as my rhubarb pickle corpse reviver no. 2 cocktail. I have used Australian indigenous spice cinnamon myrtle, pink pepper, orange zest and ginger to add depth of flavour and complexity to the pickles. I have also omitted the salt as I want a tart, sweet and flavourful spiced rhubarb pickle to use as a souring agent in cocktails in place of lemon juice. Rhubarb quick pickles are simple and fast to prepare and are well complemented by my rhubarb cacao bitters with wattleseed in the rhubarb pickle corpse reviver no. 2 cocktail.
Quick pickles can incidentally be used to preserve and make amazingly tasty condiments from parts of vegetables and fruits that are usually thrown away such as cauliflower and romanesco hearts and stems, beetroot stems and watermelon rinds.
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Rhubarb quick pickle with cinnamon myrtle, ginger, pink pepper & orange
Print RecipeIngredients
- 1 500ml jar
- ¾ cup rhubarb stem, chopped into 2cm pieces
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup water
- 3 tablespoons coconut sugar
- 1 teaspoon raw organic honey
- 3 strips orange zest
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon myrtle
- 1 teaspoon pink pepper
- 3 slices of unpeeled ginger
Instructions
Wash the rhubarb well and remove the leaves (these are poisonous so feed them to your worms or add them to your compost which will thank you for them)
Cut into 2cm pieces
Meanwhile make your brine by combining water, vinegar, honey and sugar in a saucepan, heat and stir to dissolve sugar
Pack your jar with the cinnamon myrtle, pink pepper, orange zest and ginger and then the rhubarb pieces
Pour over the hot brine
Run a butter knife around the edge of the jar and gently tap the jar on the work surface to remove any air bubbles
Wipe the jar rim with a clean tea towel and add the clean lid
Allow the jar to cool
Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, flavour will develop further as the vinegar and spices infuse with the rhubarb and sugar
Delicious in pickle cocktails and with cheeses or salads
Notes
~Inspiration~
Autumn Giles (2016). Beyond Canning
~For more information on quick pickling~ see Quick kitchen-scrap pickle. In Alex Elliot-Howery & Sabine Spindler (2017: 162). Cornersmith Salads & Pickles: Vegetables with more taste and less waste. Murdoch Books: Crows Nest Sydney & London.
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