Homemade refrigerator pickles pack a lot of punch for the small effort it takes to make them. Kirby cucumbers are perfect for pickling right now. When I spotted some at the farmers market last week, I bought 2 quarts and got to work. You will need some clean (either run through the dishwasher or washed with soap, well rinsed and briefly boiled) glass jars with lids, white vinegar, salt, garlic and pickling spices.

Pickles and sauerkraut are having a moment, along with yogurt, kefir, kimchi and other fermented foods since they are high in pre and probiotics. Vinegar pickles are not but they taste good and have all the good qualities of the vegetables you use. Some pickles can be extremely salty but I have limited the salt in this recipe. The amount of salt you use is up to you. If you don’t like or can’t eat vinegar, make a salt brine using a ratio of 1 to 3 kosher salt to water and proceed with the rest of the recipe.

I often see beautiful photos of homemade pickles in matching Ball jars but I just wash out and save glass jars from food or condiments we have eaten. They are good enough because I am not boiling and processing my pickles (too much heat in the kitchen), just refrigerating them. The spices will depend on your preferences. Start with mustard seeds, peppercorns and fresh dill and then see if you want to vary the flavor. Almost any spice seeds can work-coriander, fennel, celery, dill and cumin-plus bay leaves, fresh horseradish, ginger, turmeric, allspice and cloves are all good flavorings. If you don’t like garlic, just leave it out or substitute shallots. If you hate dill, use fresh thyme or another herb. Most pickle recipes call for sugar but I didn’t use any. For a touch of sweet, add a tablespoon to the brining liquid before boiling or, for really sweet (bread & butter style) pickles, add up to a cup of sugar. And you don’t have to stop at cucumbers. If you blanch them, carrots, daikon, sweet and hot peppers, beets and green beans all make delicious pickles. Make certain to pour the brine to the top of the jar to make sure the vegetables are completely covered. Then refrigerate 2-7 days, depending on how cured you want your pickles, and munch away.

REFRIGERATOR PICKLES

• 8-12 Kirby cucumbers, enough to fill 2 wide mouth 12 oz or quart glass jars with lids
• 3-4 garlic cloves, peeled and quartered
• 1 tsp mustard seeds (I used black)
• 1 tsp peppercorns (I used black)
• 6-8 sprigs fresh dill
• 3 cups white vinegar (cider vinegar will work but may discolor cukes)
• 3 cups water
• 1 tsp kosher salt

Combine vinegar, water and salt in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until salt is dissolved and set aside to cool while preparing vegetables.

Cut washed cucumbers into spears (or slices, if you prefer) and pack pretty tightly upright into clean glass jars.

Push garlic pieces and dill sprigs in between cucumbers.

Sprinkle in 1/2 tsp mustard seeds and 1/2 tsp peppercorns into each jar. I added a few allspice berries to each, as well.

Pour in somewhat cooled pickling liquid to fill jars, making sure cukes are immersed. Close with lids and refrigerate at least 2 and up to 7 days before eating, depending on how pickled you want them. Pickles, when under liquid, should keep in the fridge up to 2 months.

This recipe makes 2 jars of pickles but it could easily be doubled or halved, and you can use any size jars you like.

With Thanksgiving just over a week away, we really need to finalize what to serve or bring for the feast. One of my favorites, and one of the easiest holiday side dishes (aside from a simple baked sweet potato or steamed green beans) is Brussels sprouts with roasted chestnuts. It is so easy it really isn’t even a recipe. You won’t need instructions after you’ve made it one time. The most labor-intensive part of the process is roasting the chestnuts and that job can be done a day or two ahead.

Fresh chestnuts are widely available from now through the end of the year. To prepare your washed chestnuts for roasting, score an x through the dark outer shell on the rounded side of the nut. There are special knives just for this task but a short, sharp paring knife works fine. Place the scored nuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes in a 350, until your cut x has curled back to expose some inner flesh. After removing from the oven (I actually did ours in the toaster oven since we still have no gas), wrap the hot chestnuts in a dish towel and crunch them with your hands a bit to loosen the skins. Let them steam like that for about 5 minutes and then peel – a somewhat time-consuming job but one that can be done while watching TV or talking on the phone. You can use the chestnuts immediately or store them in a glass jar in the fridge a few days until ready to use. And if all of this seems like too much work, jarred and bagged roasted and peeled chestnuts are easily purchased.

Similarly, it isn’t hard to clean, steam or roast Brussels sprouts (but frozen are delicious, too). Just trim off the tough bottoms, halve if large, place in a steamer insert in a pot with a lid and add an inch or so of water. Steam 5-6 minutes or until just pierce-able with a fork or knife. Please, please, please be careful not to overcook! Drain and add a generous knob of butter (or earth balance or whatever you use instead of butter), the semi- chopped chestnuts and a generous sprinkle of plain salt, an herb salt like Herbamare or a flavored salt – perhaps truffle?

I hated Brussels sprouts as a kid, perhaps because they were always served over cooked or because the smell of overcooked cruciferous vegetables is so disgusting. But when I started cooking them for myself and adding butter and salt, I learned to enjoy eating them. The sweet, creamy flavor of the chestnuts is a perfect balance to the vegetal Brussels sprout flavor. This bright green dish, along with a salad and cranberries, will enliven a Thanksgiving table full of predominantly brown, white or pumpkin colored foods. And if it is too much effort to make or get chestnuts, (although I think you’ll find it is worth the time), just cheat and toss in a handful of toasted pumpkin seeds and currants and you’ll have made an otherwise plain vegetable seem quite festive.

I didn’t grow up eating Kimchi. I had never even heard of it before I was in grad school and tried some at the new Korean restaurant that had just replaced a local coffee shop. From the smell, I was afraid it would be too strong for my taste and was surprised at how much I liked it. But it wasn’t until the last few years that I began eating kimchi with any regularity after it started appearing in our neighborhood markets. Kimchi, spicy pickled Napa cabbage, is eaten daily in many Korean homes and is becoming more popular in contemporary American cooking. Kimchi in fried rice, added to tacos or quesadillas, blended into deviled eggs or layered on a sandwich are just a few of the ways it is used. Kimchi, like yogurt, has gut-friendly probiotics as well as vitamins, minerals and fiber, the kind of food we need more of in our diets. One day last year, when I had run out of our preferred brand and wanted to top a salmon burger with some (our favorite use), it occurred to me that I should try making it myself.

The biggest task in making kimchi at home is gathering the ingredients. The gochugaru, the coarse Korean red pepper flakes, not that obscure anymore, is found in Asian markets or places where globally sourced spices are sold. (In New York, I found it at Kalustyan, Sahadi’s and H Mart and all have online ordering). Napa cabbage, daikon and fresh ginger are widely available these days. Garlic, scallions and carrots round out the ingredient list. Some traditional recipes call for fish sauce, rice flour, fermented baby shrimp, plum paste and sugar, all of which would probably add complexity to the finished product but I wanted a gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan version so I left out all the extras.

When it comes to pickling of any sort, I refer to Sandor Katz, the guru of all things fermented. My recipe is based on the sugar free kimchi recipe in his book Wild Fermentation. In another book, Basic Fermentation, he offers a version of the same recipe using chili paste instead of flakes (so you have an option if you can’t find gochugaru). Another good source is Marta Vongerichten’s The Kimchi Chronicles  which is a little more traditional but explains and illustrates every aspect of the process in detail. The steps to making kimchi are pretty simple and straightforward, perhaps the most important being keeping everything submerged to ferment, like making sauerkraut, so as not to grow mold. Just remember to wear disposable gloves if you want to avoid staining your hands from the pepper paste and use, of course, clean glass jars.

EASY KIMCHI

• 1 large head Napa cabbage (+/-2lbs), cored and cut into 1-1 1/2“ wide strips
• 1 medium daikon- peeled and cut into coins or small sticks (julienne)
• 3 carrots; scrubbed or peeled and cut in strips(julienne)(some people prefer thin slices or grated)
• 1 bunch scallions, washed and cut in1-2” pieces
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-1 1/2” knob of fresh ginger, peeled and minced or sliced thinly
• 3 TBs gochugaru
• 4 TBs salt dissolved in
• 4-8 cups water- as needed to cover vegetables

Combine the cabbage, daikon and carrots in a large non-reactive bowl (like glass or stainless steel)

Pour the salted water over vegetables and soak for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally

Drain vegetables and reserve the brine.

Wearing disposable gloves to protect your hands, mix together the garlic, ginger and gochugaru

Add the scallions to the drained vegetables, add the seasoned gochugaru paste and rub it into the vegetables.

Pack the coated mixture into clean glass jars and pack down well to release some brine to cover vegetables. If there isn’t enough liquid, add just enough of the reserved brine to cover them. You can keep the vegetables submerged with a plate and jar filled with water, a freezer bag filled with the leftover brine or some other pickling weights.

Cover with a dish towel and let the jars sit for a day or two to start the fermentation. Like sauerkraut, you can decide when you think it is “cooked”. Remove the weights and store covered in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.

Current work by Julia Galloway is on view at Clay Art Center in Portchester, NY