You have my dearest lady to either thank or blame for this one. Reminiscing about Xmas at her parents as a child, she has often waxed lyrical about these things called pickled clementines – which I had never heard of (but no doubt some here will remember their invention!) and sound horrendous. Anyway I thought as an additional present I would make her some.
I looked online and it is a simple salt pickle so I bought the necessary ingredients and a new Mason jar and voila.
The ingredients for this version are few and easy. Kosher salt, star anise, ginger, peppercorns. And five clementines.
The Irish cream was purely to keep me warm.
Anyway, start by cutting a cross into the clementines almost all the way through but leaving them together – why I don’t know, quartering them would have been easier in my opinion. Season well with salt and close up.
Next, in the mason jar put a tablespoon of salt, don’t worry about oversalting it isn’t a problem, whereas undersalting could be. Then add some ginger, star anise & peppercorns.
Squash a clementine into the jar and add a little more salt & spices. Repeat with three more, the nest photo has three in the jar.
When the fourth is rammed in, squeeze juice out of the fifth to help bring the juices up to the top of the jar, sprinkle a bit more salt on top and then close the lid of the Mason jar.
Keep in a cool place/refrigerator for at least four weeks, alas too late for xmas for my dearest, but will improve if given the chance for many months. Keep up to a year. Apparently it is brilliant with cheese or in a drink.
© text & images Jerry Mandarin 2022
