This was a total shot in the dark, but it tasted good in my head (does that make sense? That’s part of how I test new recipes) so I took a crack at it. Blew my fucking mind. This stuff is outstanding and dirt simple. And as opposed to most pickles, it really only needs to sit for a day before its good to eat. The lemon zest comes through really hard initially.
A caveat, however. The flavor seems to dissipate after a week or two, so if you want to serve this and they have been sitting a while, it would be worth the time to zest another lemon or two in to the brine the day before.
As for serving suggestions, like all pickles, they are great by themselves, but if you want to be REALLY fancy, roll them in grated parmesan and cracked black pepper, and then wrap them in prosciutto. Outstanding
Note: The basics of a pickling brine are 1 part salt, 3 parts vinegar, 6 parts water. As with my dill pickles, for this I use 1/2 a cup of salt, 1 1/2 cups white vinegar, 3 cups water. I actually use double that for this because it’s hard to submerge the asparagus and takes a lot of brine.
Ingredients
3 bunches asparagus (I genuinely have no idea what this is in terms of weight, sorry)
1 cup salt
3 cups white vinegar
6 cups water
10-15 whole cloves garlic
2 ounces basil, minced
3 lemons zested and juiced
Directions
Wash the asparagus. Chop off the bottom inch or two off of the asparagus. Why? The further away asparagus gets from the tip, the harder and more woody it gets. Much less flavorful. You might as well get rid of it.
Place the asparagus in your pickling container and add in the garlic, basil, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix together the water, salt and vinegar in a pitcher or bowl, and pour it over the asparagus until they are fully covered. You can add the rest of the brine or discard it, it doesn’t really matter.
Let sit for at least a day, and then eat and enjoy!
eatbensmeat 