Cucamelons: The Pickling Option.
So far we've eaten them fresh from the vine (when I'm wandering around the garden), sliced on salad (unexpected sour crunch - skin does get stuck in the teeth), halved and smuggled into a stir fry or a curry, or onto a pizza. And even, shame on me, added to ratatouille, again giving an unexpected sour crunch, but not necessarily in a good way.
I've had another desperate hunt through the internet and am beginning to think it might be significant that there are so few recipes for this prolific little confused cousin of a melon. Or cucumber. And then I found it referred to as the Mexican sour gherkin and decided to focus on the gherkin bit of the name. We like gherkins. We eat a lot of gherkins - with aperos, in sandwiches, taking away the taste of pork rillet, or enhancing the flavour of pork rillet, as my other half would have it, and just on their own when nobody else is about. That's my guilty secret!
Having finally perfected gherkin pickling after a few years of too salty, too astringent or too soft I decided to adopt the same technique with the cucamelon. The proof of the pudding will be a few weeks off, so for now here are just a few photos of the process. If we like the results I'll post a proper recipe, although I suspect it is going to take a few goes to get it just right. As long as it isn't a few years!
Fill a jar to get the right sized jar.
Wash and dry the mouse melons (a cute and cuddly name); wash, dry and sterilise the jar.
Bring the pickling mix to a boil, return the cucamelons to the jar and pour on the liquor.
Seal with a vinegar proof-lid.
And wait ...
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