I've recently been playing around with various fermented/pickled veggies in an effort to help my digestion and add some extra naturally occurring probiotics into my life ;) So far I've made (some with greater success than others) Ginger Carrots, Fermented Sweet Potatoes, Sauerkraut, and Fermented Ketchup. There's a lot of great info about such topics, and I'm no expert, so I won't even begin to talk about it, but two books that I've found really helpful are Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods
Anyways, it was fitting that for this month's "Go Ahead Honey it's Gluten Free" roundup, Naomi chose the theme of "Winter Pickles" for January. I decided to go ahead and give it a shot making up my own recipe, so hope it comes out well!! Check out the entire year's themes and hosts- it's going to be a great one! This year Naomi has decided to do just Primal recipes which fits my current dietary restrictions, so I'm quite excited! I will be hosting August, so look out for that as well...
Anyways, on to the recipe!
Pickled Spiced Garlic
2 heads organic Garlic
1 Tbsp Himalayan Pink Sea Salt
1 Tbsp Cumin Seeds
1 Tbsp Coriander Seeds
12 Green Cardamom pods (about 1/2 Tbsp)
1 dried Chili Pepper
1 tsp Fennel Seeds
1 cup White Vinegar
Bring seeds and vinegar to boil in small pot. Boil 1 minute. Add garlic (I chopped the really big cloves in half). Boil 1 minute with the garlic.
Pour into a pint size canning jar. Add approximately 1/2 cup filtered water or as much as is needed to bring it to just under the lid.
Let sit on your counter for about a week before transferring to refrigerator. The longer it sits in the refrigerator the stronger the flavor will be, but it should be ready to eat after a day or two in the fridge. I'm going to let mine sit longer though.
Enjoy with your favorite dishes as a side or mixed in with your meal.