Spicy Pickled Vegetables

This a super simple recipe that makes a ton of veggies, but it can easily be reduced. I pickle radishes and small carrots. Try to use the small carrots (not the baby carrots in bags). But if you are having trouble finding this size, use regular carrots cut into batons.

3 pounds raw carrots and radishes, cleaned
3 cups apple cider vinegar
3 cups water
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
3 cloves peeled garlic

Bring the vinegar, water, and brown sugar to a boil. Add all of the spices and the vegetables and simmer together for approximately 10 minutes, or until the vegetables are crisp tender. When the vegetables are cooked until crisp tender, pour them into containers, liquid as well, and store in refrigerator until use. The pickling liquid is potent, you may want to pour out liquid by half, and add more water, after a day of cooling in the refrigerator. Vegetables last a week and a half, stored properly.

Fresh Blackberry Ice Cream

Here is the recipe for Fresh Blackberry Ice Cream from The Greenmarket Cookbook, as mentioned in Nosheteria. This is not one of those chunky, full-of-fruit ice creams, but rather the blackberries are simply muddled, left to infuse the cream, and then strained out. The result is an outrageously colored, and sublimely tasting ice cream.

2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/4 cups sugar (or for very sweet berries reduce the sugar to 1 cups)
1 vanilla pod, split and scraped
4 large egg yolks
2 pints fresh blackberries, washed and picked through

In a heavy saucepan, over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla pod. Stir often until sugar melts and the mixture is steaming hot.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Gradually stir in some of the cream mixture to temper, then scrape the eggs back into the cream mixture. Continue cooking over medium heat, whisking constantly until mixture reaches 140 degrees, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the berries, muddle to release juices, and let stand until cool. Strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds. Cover and refrigerate until cold, 2 hours at minimum.

Process the cooled custard according to ice cream maker's instruction. Enjoy!